Tobacco and nicotine: more ideas ...

On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare laboratory revealed through the results of an Ipsos study, ideas of smokers on nicotine.

Always a dangerous product?

Nicotine is, in fact, still very little known to the public. Thus, 86% of smokers surveyed sure it is dangerous to health. Whether in cigarettes or nicotine replacement, nicotine is regularly wrongly accused of being the cause of serious diseases.

According to the results of the Ipsos / GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare study:

- 87% of smokers surveyed make the nicotine in cigarettes responsible for cardiovascular disease, 81% of lung cancers and 56% of asthma;

- 24% believe that the nicotine contained in the substitute products is as dangerous as nicotine cigarettes;

- On nicotine substitutes, they are 26% think it can lead to cardiovascular disorders, 13% of lung cancer and 9% asthma.

For Dr. Véronique Peim, tobaccologist the Ambroise Paré Hospital in Boulogne-Billancourt, this ignorance is due to the fact that "the messages of information and awareness campaigns are not always clear. This is partly why people are an amalgam. No campaign, for example, still clearly separated addiction and products of combustion. "

It is thus wrong to think, she says, that the consumption of nicotine replacement therapy is as dangerous as cigarettes. Indeed, in both cases, the presence of nicotine causes a feeling of satisfaction, but the cigarette, meanwhile, contains more carcinogens.

"It is also wrong to believe that nicotine is the cause of serious diseases because they are above all other substances contained in cigarette smoke, including carbon monoxide, tar and mercury, which are responsible "warned the expert.

However, the lack of nicotine is the primary obstacle to stop. Addiction to nicotine prevents some smokers to wean because they do not manage this gap. The use of nicotine replacement therapy then is the best way for them to "hold on".

Nicotine: multiple actions

The weight of smokers is lower than that of non-smokers (3 to 5 pounds). When a smoker stops consumption, they tend to take these few pounds. The increase in "food bowl" is not sufficient to explain this phenomenon. Nicotine probably has an effect on the metabolism of fats (lipids).

In addition, nicotine is the cause of the phenomenon of addiction to cigarettes. It affects virtually all physiological systems of the body. In addition to its action on the brain, it acts on the cardiovascular system including heart resulting acceleration associated with increased blood pressure and cardiac output

In muscle, nicotine appears to have a relaxing effect on skeletal muscle. It also allows the release of muscle and slows gastric emptying.

When tobacco is smoked, inhaled nicotine reaches the alveoli. From there it is transported by the blood to the brain in 7-10 seconds. This is the "nicotinic shoot." Stimulated by nicotine binds to certain receptors in the brain called the reward area then causes the smoker a feeling of satisfaction by releasing neurotransmitters, especially dopamine, a substance capable of transmitting a message from one neuron to the other and involved in the phenomenon of pleasure, but that results in the long run addictive.

The nicotine in substitutes will act on the same neurotransmitters to fill the cravings and help the smoker in his way to stop.