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Asked by nrtyx to Alex, Amy, Andy, Georgia, Ollie on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by lukefleming.
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Alex Munro answered on 10 Jun 2011:
Nicotinic acid/niacin (or vitamin B3) is great – it prevents a deficiency disease known as pellagra (diarrhoea, dermatitis, dementia & death). Nicotine (the alkaloid/1 mg in a cigarette) is toxic and is apparently responsible for some of the addictive quality of cigarettes – not good!
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Georgia Campbell answered on 10 Jun 2011:
The nasty, toxic effects of nicotine include increased blood pressure and ‘vasoconstricton’ (where the blood vessels squeeze in tighter than normal, making it difficult to pump blood them) – is it’s basically very bad for your heart!
It’s important to remember that nicotine isn’t the only nasty thing in cigarettes though! As the tabacco in cigarettes is burnt,it releases carcinogens – chemicals that increase your riskof getting cancer. There’s also components of tar in cigarettes,which you breathe in with the smoke, and sticks to the inside of your lungs. Not very nice at all, but nicotine makes smoking addictive despite all of this!
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Andy MacLeod answered on 14 Jun 2011:
The nicotine in cigarrettes is an alkaloid, a class of chemicals found in many types of drugs (cocaine and morphine fall into this class, and so does caffeine!). As with any kind of drug, it affects the chemistry in people’s brains. Nicotine acts by releasing chemical messengers, including acetyl-choline and dopamine, which are part of the brain’s pleasure/reward system. This is one of the reasons why nicotine is so addictive – the chemicals short-circuit the brain’s normal pleasure systems, and the brain craves further stimulation.
Georgia’s already pointed out some of the bad effects of nicotine – as well as affecting your brain, it’s been associated with heart problems. However, they aren’t all bad. Due to the chemical messengers it can sometimes stimulate concentration and altertness, it’s been seen to have therapeutic value in some forms of bowel disease and to delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease in some cases. However, the mechanisms behind these claims are unknown, and as most nictotine is consumed via cigarettes, any potential benefit will be outweighed by the increased risk of lung, heart and other diseases linked to all the other chemicals in tobacco.
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