Negative effects of nicotine on the body

[loveyoutothemoon]

I've read that nicotine on it's own can be harmful to the body, including the cardiovascular system but I'm finding the internet contradictory.

Anyone have any views on this? What do you believe nicotine alone can do to the body negatively?

It's addictive for a start which isn't a nice quality.

Nicotine is a stimulant. It raises your heart rate and blood pressure and makes your blood 'sticky'. It increases your risk of strokes and heart attacks.

Apart from that?!

thatsn0tmyname I've read that.

I've been vaping for nearly 3 years stupidly believing that I'm OK because it's just nicotine. So I've made a massive effort to cut down as I'm worried about this.

Thanks.

One good thing is I have my blood pressure done regularly and it's low!

It's about as harmful as caffeine, from everything I've read - i.e. not very

It can increase heart rate and BP but these are short term effects - it doesn't lead to chronic hypertension.

Evidence suggests that, when consumed in low concentrations, nicotine is not deleterious to health; it does not appear to be a direct carcinogen and, whilst its use can increase heart rate, is not associated with an increase in acute cardiovascular events (i.e. strokes and heart attacks) (from RSPH)

The evidence statements on the NICE website are also reassuring.

NRT is licenced for long term use for smokers who cannot quit or cut down without it. It is also routinely prescribed in pregnancy. ASH say: Smoking during pregnancy is associated with a number of disorders and nicotine is believed to be a factor in adversely affecting fetal brain and lung development. The extent of harm from use of nicotine from other sources, notably nicotine replacement therapy, is less clear but the evidence to date suggests that medicinal nicotine does not reduce birth weight and is not a cause of serious developmental abnormalities. In fact, the only study that compared fetal and maternal outcomes in pregnant women who used nicotine and placebo patches reported better outcomes with nicotine patches.

If you have too much it can make you feel a bit sick but as a long term vaper and ex smoker you probably already know this!

Thanks plenty (what a strange user name!!)

That's good to read.

So when they say in low concentrations, I wonder if they mean, let's say, 18 and 24 mg nicotine vapour oil are high concentrations and maybe the lower ones are low concentrations.

I'm a bit stuck as to which are safer. I've cut down to 12 mg but want to cut down more but instead of weaning off altogether I'd like to carry on with a low amount.

Does that make sense?!

I leave my vapour in one room now and don't smoke it as much, and don't take it to work and places.

No, nothing you could possibly vape counts as high concentration. Nicotine used to be used as a pesticide at strengths of 40% plus (for comparison, 24mg is 2.4%) which led to cases of nicotine poisoning if it was incorrectly handled (it's banned as a pesticide in the EU now).

I really wouldn't worry about nicotine strength - the safest is whatever strength stops you craving a fag.

Cheers for the info