It's also only a part of the addictiveness of smoking. Probably a small part, as everyone I know who has consumed nicotine in any form has no trouble without it if they vape, but often shows discomfort/restlessness if they smoke. Amazingly, this holds true for those who consume far more nicotine through vaping compared to others that get it through smoking.

There are MAOIs in tobacco smoke. I'm not sure that's what makes me feel calm though.

It also made me a little bit manic, and weaning off it sucked, but it worked well in general.

My mom recently switched to e-cigarettes, and she said that she still occasionally gets the urge to smoke a real cigarette. But she said the urge is a lot weaker than when she used to go prolonged periods without smoking cigarettes, such as after a long plane ride.

For me the addiction was partly psychological around the form factor. Using "light sabre" style vapes didn't work. However I was able to wean myself off smokes using realistic e-cigs (which I also eventually quit).

I've been smoking for a little over 20 years (since a teenager). Good luck.

If you try it. make sure you get fresh stuff before you pass judgment, because it ferments inside the package if left out for too long.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/business/studying-snus-a-...

This is not entirely true. I believe it can put you at risk for cardiac arrhythmia, and the risk goes up steeply the more nicotine you intake to simply cardiac arrest. I believe this is depicted in Thank You For Smoking when the protagonist is covered in nicotine patches and almost dies. It’s entirely possible that was do to BP issues but I wouldn’t dismiss it as trivial in that case.

Also if you read about the native american experience of smoking uncured tobacco, it seems like it was likely a near death shamanic experience and it did kill people occasionally.

That said, it’s rather easy to moderate your intake with the percentages, so it’s not a problem for most people (I hope).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2040350/

"Our findings indicated that more than 100 of 599 documented cigarette additives have pharmacological actions that camouflage the odor of environmental tobacco smoke emitted from cigarettes, enhance or maintain nicotine delivery, could increase the addictiveness of cigarettes, and mask symptoms and illnesses associated with smoking behaviors."

So it appears that although nicotine is mildly addictive, commercial tobacco was engineered to suppress the side effects of smoking which essentially made it much more (technically) addictive. Hence quitting tobacco is much more difficult than quitting nicotine because you are also quitting the additives which are suppressing cough and hiding the feeling of illness smoking causes.

A modern cigarette is not just a roll of tobacco. It's pretty much been 'bred', A-B tested, into being a drug delivery system.

It's not mildly addictive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_dependence#Dependenc...

Abstract:

Nicotine is the major neuroactive compound of tobacco, which has, by itself, weak reinforcing properties. It is known that levels of the enzymes monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) and MAO-B are reduced in the platelets and brains of smokers and that substances, other than nicotine, present in tobacco smoke have MAO-inhibitory activities. Here, we report that inhibition of MAO dramatically and specifically increases the motivation to self-administer nicotine in rats. These effects were more prominent in rats selected for high responsiveness to novelty than in rats with low responsiveness to novelty. The results suggest that the inhibition of MAO activity by compounds present in tobacco smoke may combine with nicotine to produce the intense reinforcing properties of cigarette smoking that lead to addiction.

The difference I've found with vaping is both a) I use a very cool setting so it's not nearly as hot as a cigarette (which you can't control the temperature of) and b) I used far less nicotine, starting from 24mg->3mg in the course of a year.

I can easily stop vaping for days at a time now without having a strong pang of nicotine dependency which I used to have.

But the only "study" referenced comparing smoking and nicotine was a video experiment that didn't even use humans.

Click on "how safe are e-cigarettes" which link to two studies, one by the royal physicians and one by public health England.

The one by the PHE is 118 pages and is a summary of all the available evidence as of 2015.

And the RCP does something similar in 189 pages.

They do not exclusively focus on comparing the relative harm, but that is a large section in each.

Short breath alone, which invariably follows the exposure to aggressive gases, leads to contraction of the vessels and increased heart rate, to keep up the oxygen level in vital parts.

Even if tar should not enter the blood streem in a healthy tester, which I'm not sure, the built up tar pits so to speak are cozy breeding grounds for all kinds of pathogens. Excess water in the lungs, or vice versa dry lungs impact the imunosystem as well.

Where did I say that?

I don't what UK study you're referring to, the ones I used are published in American and Middle Eastern journals.

I have had a BP crash I was cooking the Christmas dinner (the full works ) and accidently forgot I had taken my bp pills that morning and took a second set.

I passed out and vomited about 10 mins after sitting down to eat