Last updated on June 17, 2020

“But e-cigarettes are so harmless” that’s what I hear all the time “it’s so much better than smoking, it’s a great alternative”. I got numerous emails telling me that my outlook on e-cigarettes might be wrong, or just too harsh.

Really?

I think when we give up smoking we do it for one reason only, we want to be healthier. But the Tobacco industry tells us we can’t give up smoking. They tell us it’s hard, almost impossible and they offer us alternatives. “Here…use a patch or the gum! You are too weak to just quit smoking, we want you to cut down slowly and suffer more” that’s the real message behind it. They don’t want to lose our money, that’s why the big Tobacco companies invested in e-cigarettes. This way we will still be controlled by our addiction and they will continue to get rich and that’s the truth.

Nicotine in the Body

Just 10 seconds after a cigarette smoker inhales, nicotine is absorbed through the skin and the mucosal linings in the nose, mouth and lungs, and travels through the bloodstream to the brain. It stimulates the adrenal glands to produce epinephrine, a hormone and neurotransmitter you also know as adrenaline. This increases heart rate and blood pressure while constricting blood vessels; it also stimulates the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that controls the brain’s pleasure center. Inhaling nicotine gives the most immediate effects, and that’s not a coincidence; it’s because your lungs are lined with millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli. Alveoli provide an enormous surface area — more than 40 times the surface area of your skin — making it the most efficient way to get nicotine into the bloodstream (Source: Richardson)

Nicotine only stays in the human body for a few hours; it has a half-life of about an hour or two, meaning that six hours after smoking a cigarette, only about 0.031 milligram of the 1 milligram of nicotine you inhaled remains (Source: Benowitz)

Nicotine can also be absorbed through your gastrointestinal tract and your skin — this is how smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco, skin patches and gum deliver their nicotine fix.

Once absorbed by the body, enzymes in the liver break down most of the nicotine — about 80 percent; here it becomes the metabolite cotinine. Nicotine is also metabolized into cotinine and nicotine oxide by the lungs. Cotinine and other metabolites are excreted in urine, and they’re also found in saliva and hair. Cotinine has about a 16-hour half-life, which means if you’ve smoked in the past day, using this metabolite as a biomarker will give your secret away in a urine screening test (Source: CDC)

Effects of Nicotine

Ever wonder why smokers crave a cigarette when they’re in a bad mood or in a stressful situation? It’s because nicotine may help people feel calmer, causing temporary feelings of relaxation as well as reducing stress, anxiety and even pain (Source: Word Health Organisation) 

In spite of that relaxation, though, nicotine actually increases physical stress; its effects are considered a bit of a paradox. It perks up the central nervous system, but depending on the dosage some smokers find nicotine also acts as a sedative. Some studies, though, suggest it may just be the ritual of smoking that induces a calming effect, because nicotine is actually considered a stimulant, not a depressant.

When you first inhale, nicotine causes your body to release the hormone epinephrine, which is the “fight or flight” hormone. Epinephrine activates the sympathetic nervous system, making your breathing become rapid and shallow, your heart rate increase, and your blood pressure rise. You’re alert.

Nicotine can also lead to insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance, as well as an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It affects thyroid hormones, pituitary hormones, sex hormones and adrenal hormones. Insulin resistance in cigarette smokers, for example, may be in part because nicotine stimulates the body to produce high levels of adrenal androgens — in other words, nicotine impacts the body’s glucose metabolism, leading to hyperglycemia and hyperglycemia associated with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance not only increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes but also heart disease (Source: Kapoor)