Nicotine Revisited
canadizzy wrote:
Dear Lyndsey Layton,
Thank you for your excellent reporting of this controversial subject.
I believe the push to stop folks from using tobacco, a source of nicotine, is like getting them to throw the baby out with the bath water. Nicotine, like caffeine, morphine and alcohol, have been used for centuries by entire civilizations to reduce stress and perform ceremonies. Nicotinic acid is a naturally occuring substance that comes from plants and is accepted by the brain and nervous system in a healthy, normal, physiological system. There are receptor sites, with which we are born that accept it in a kind of biological receptor site wherein the nicotine locks into the cell membrane and induces the cells to produce biologic substances which stimulate brain cell growth and brain cell function. The North American Aboriginals used the "Peace Pipe" to make discussions of conflicts and histories more acceptable to the participants, mainly within the elderly population. The medical community used nicotinic acid in the form of pills and elixirs to treat stroke victims with success in the early 20th century. Studies show that folks that use tobacco products have more brain pathways and play Euchre better that those that don't. The same is true of caffeine product users. In a nursing home, the elderly folks that smoke and drink coffee tea or chocolate, do crosswords better than those that don't. Cigar and pipe smokers live two years longer than those that don't, and so on. It seems to me the problem with cigarettes is their adulteration with nicotine and other substances and the use of cigarette paper which burns with the tobacco and produces toxins like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. It is conceivable that cigarettes with unadulterated tobacco, wrapped in tobacco leaves, would be completely harmless and would provide the benefits of a natural, positive psychoactive substance. If cigarette manufacturers are not allowed to poison us with commercially driven additives, including the paper, then all would be honky-dory.
There is not enough space in the world of electronic newspapers to cover the wide spectrum of problems introduced by profit driven manufacturers who have no moral inhibition to make products that are untested and dangerous. I will only give as an example that before antihistamines were sold, no child ever died of asthma. In the past few years, the warnings for use in asthmatic children and adults have finally been heralded. I daresay that many more lives would be saved if strong alcohol, for which the brain has no receptor sites, would be banned, rather than cigars and pipes. Untold numbers of deaths are due to alcohol abuse with a resultant high cost to everyone else. Banning hand guns and gasoline engine cars would save more lives. Banning nuclear bomb manufacturing would save us from annihilation. Bringing back good beer and good wine, steam cars and hand to hand combat would be a blessing.
Thank you in advance for allowing me to post these humble comments right underneath your fine article.
Sincerely,
Izzy Sommers, MD, retired,
Welland, Canada
6/13/2009 8:39:09 AM
Dear Lyndsey Layton,
Thank you for your excellent reporting of this controversial subject.
I believe the push to stop folks from using tobacco, a source of nicotine, is like getting them to throw the baby out with the bath water. Nicotine, like caffeine, morphine and alcohol, have been used for centuries by entire civilizations to reduce stress and perform ceremonies. Nicotinic acid is a naturally occuring substance that comes from plants and is accepted by the brain and nervous system in a healthy, normal, physiological system. There are receptor sites, with which we are born that accept it in a kind of biological receptor site wherein the nicotine locks into the cell membrane and induces the cells to produce biologic substances which stimulate brain cell growth and brain cell function. The North American Aboriginals used the "Peace Pipe" to make discussions of conflicts and histories more acceptable to the participants, mainly within the elderly population. The medical community used nicotinic acid in the form of pills and elixirs to treat stroke victims with success in the early 20th century. Studies show that folks that use tobacco products have more brain pathways and play Euchre better that those that don't. The same is true of caffeine product users. In a nursing home, the elderly folks that smoke and drink coffee tea or chocolate, do crosswords better than those that don't. Cigar and pipe smokers live two years longer than those that don't, and so on. It seems to me the problem with cigarettes is their adulteration with nicotine and other substances and the use of cigarette paper which burns with the tobacco and produces toxins like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. It is conceivable that cigarettes with unadulterated tobacco, wrapped in tobacco leaves, would be completely harmless and would provide the benefits of a natural, positive psychoactive substance. If cigarette manufacturers are not allowed to poison us with commercially driven additives, including the paper, then all would be honky-dory.
There is not enough space in the world of electronic newspapers to cover the wide spectrum of problems introduced by profit driven manufacturers who have no moral inhibition to make products that are untested and dangerous. I will only give as an example that before antihistamines were sold, no child ever died of asthma. In the past few years, the warnings for use in asthmatic children and adults have finally been heralded. I daresay that many more lives would be saved if strong alcohol, for which the brain has no receptor sites, would be banned, rather than cigars and pipes. Untold numbers of deaths are due to alcohol abuse with a resultant high cost to everyone else. Banning hand guns and gasoline engine cars would save more lives. Banning nuclear bomb manufacturing would save us from annihilation. Bringing back good beer and good wine, steam cars and hand to hand combat would be a blessing.
Thank you in advance for allowing me to post these humble comments right underneath your fine article.
Sincerely,
Izzy Sommers, MD, retired,
Welland, Canada
6/13/2009 8:39:09 AM
posted by izzy sommers at 2:08 AM
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