Inhaling Nicotine Doesn’t Hurt, But It Could Make You Thinner Say Researchers!

· research suggests long term nicotine inhalation causes you no harm

· use of nicotine could help you lose weight

· tobacco has been used throughout history to control appetite

One problem with electronic cigarettes is that while short term studies have been carried out, there haven’t been any very long term studies.

Scientists tell us that the problem with smoking is not the nicotine, it’s the smoke produced when you burn tobacco (or anything else for that matter). But it still helps if there are studies to back that up.

Which is why I was intrigued to run across a 1996 study on the long term effects of inhaling nicotine.

Long Term Effects of Inhaled Nicotine

Waldum et al put rats in a chamber and pumped nicotine in for 20 hours a day, 5 days a week for two years.

They concluded that:

· there was no increase in tumours

· no increase in the death rate

However, the rats did lose weight.

The study lead the researchers to conclude:

our study does not indicate any harmful effect of nicotine when given in its pure form by inhalation.

How does it work? Researcher Marina Piccotio found that nicotine activates a path in the brain that suppresses appetite. His findings are now being used by scientists to try and develop new medicines to help people lose weight.

Rats and Humans

Anti-nicotine activists will be keen to point out that rats are not humans. (Although they probably wouldn’t point this out if the results were negative!)

But there is a reason tests are carried out on rats.

Intriguingly, rats suffer from the same diseases as us, and have:

· the same physiology

· similar organs

· similar body plans

· body chemistry that work in similar ways

· nervous systems that work in the same way

· react in similar ways to injury and infection

As rats don’t live as long as us, we also don’t have to wait decades to see effects on their health.

While a scientist would probably prefer to see the results of tests carried out on humans, I can’t see countries outside North Korea placing a person in a chamber for 20 years and pumping in nicotine for 20 hours a day!