Cigarettes' Power May Not Be In Nicotine Itself, New Study Suggests:
There may be a very good reason why coffee and cigarettes often seem to go hand in hand. A Kansas State University psychology professor's research suggests that nicotine's power may be in how it enhances other experiences. For a smoker who enjoys drinking coffee, the nicotine may make a cup of joe even better.
Participating In Religion May Make Adolescents From Certain Races More Depressed:
One of the few studies to look at the effects of religious participation on the mental health of minorities suggests that for some of them, religion may actually be contributing to adolescent depression. Previous research has shown that teens who are active in religious services are depressed less often because it provides these adolescents with social support and a sense of belonging. But new research has found that this does not hold true for all adolescents, particularly for minorities and some females.
Loss Of Sleep, Even For A Single Night, Increases Inflammation In The Body:
Loss of sleep, even for a few short hours during the night, can prompt one's immune system to turn against healthy tissue and organs.
PET Scans Help Identify Mechanism Underlying Seasonal Mood Changes:
Brain scans taken at different times of year suggest that the actions of the serotonin transporter--involved in regulating the mood-altering neurotransmitter serotonin--vary by season, according to a new report. These fluctuations may potentially explain seasonal affective disorder and related mood changes.
Speed Of Growth Of Young Dogs And Development Of Common Skeletal Diseases Not A Simple Relationship:
Cand. med. vet. Cathrine Trangerud defended her thesis for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science on August 22, 2008, entitled "Growth patterns and metaphyseal irregularities in dogs: a study of 4 large breeds with emphasis on irregularities in the distal metaphysis of the radius and ulna in Newfoundland dogs".
Molecular Evolution Is Echoed In Bat Ears:
Echolocation may have evolved more than once in bats, according to new research from the University of Bristol.
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I don't understand why people are studying nicotine per se. Don't they read the documentation on the other psychoactive compounds in cigarettes as sold? The tobacco company researchers knew this stuff decades ago, though it took the big lawsuit to let some of the research out.
-----just one example, you know how to look this stuff up -------
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0161-813X(02)00109-2
Monoamine Oxidase and Cigarette Smoking
Joanna S. Fowler, Jean Logan, Gene-Jack Wang and Nora D. Volkow
Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA
Available online 8 October 2002.
Abstract
Current cigarette smokers have reduced monoamine oxidase (MAO) and there is evidence that this is a pharmacological effect of tobacco smoke exposure rather than a biological characteristic of smokers. This article summarizes human and animal studies documenting the inhibitory effects of tobacco smoke on MAO and discusses MAO inhibition in the context of smoking epidemiology, MAO inhibitor compounds in tobacco, reinvestigations of low platelet MAO in psychiatric disorders and smoking cessation.
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Check who's administering these research grants. Chasing nicotine per se is following a diversion.
Nicotine is like a number of other stimulants in that its addictiveness is a function of quantity and rate of uptake. Cigarette tobacco is cured so that it can be inhaled, and treated with chemicals that make the nicotine more available.
Keep in mind that historically, cigarettes first became popular during the WW1 era, when they were supplied to the soldiers as a quick and convenient form of tobacco (as compared to pipes and cigars). Inhaling produced a much more rapid uptake of nicotine than pipes & cigars, which are not inhaled, and the rest, as they say, is history. Needless to say, producing something in a form that's more addictive provides a great "business model", compare to producing something less addictive.
One doesn't observe the addiction phenomenon in cigar and pipe smokers, who typically smoke from a few times a week to a few times a day (as contrasted to 20 - 30 cigarettes a day for a typical cigarette smoker). The smoke is not inhaled, the types of tobacco used typically have a lower nicotine content than found in cigarettes, and the tobacco is not treated with chemicals that increase nicotine uptake. Cigarette smoking typically begins in the teen years, pipe and cigar smoking typically begin in the late 20s to early 30s.
The entire paradigm that equates smoking with cigarettes is a product of Big Tobacco, and the antismoking side of it is also a product of Big Tobacco to promote a controversy, polarize opinions between "(cigarette) smokers" and "antismokers," and get attention. After all, if you can't advertise, you can always go for PR, and so far as publicity is concerned, any is better than none. Tobacco tax controversies are also highly useful to Big Tobacco and to the anti-tax (taxes in general) politicians backed by Big Tobacco.
The solution to smoking & health issues is to treat manufactured cigarettes far more strictly than cigars and pipe tobacco and even most forms of roll-your-own cigarette tobacco (which generally is not "souped up" to make it addictive). Do away with the additives, do away with the processing that makes smoke easy to inhale, and what you have left is something that's a relatively minor health risk (oral cancers, about 3 deaths per 100,000 population, and most forms are treatable) and hardly addictive in any meaningful sense.
I guarantee that if cigarettes are treated stringently and cigars & pipe tobacco treated leniently, smoking will decline to about 20% of the population within about 5 years. At that point we can deal with it as a live-and-let-live issue, just as we deal with a number of other more-or-less risky consenting adult behaviors.