Nicotine

Nicotine is a chemical compound best known as the addictive stimulant found in tobacco. It is found in 0.6 ~ 3% of dry weight of tobacco leaves, and also in other plants such as eggplant, green pepper, potato, and tomato. The leaves of the coca have nicotine as well. Since it has a neurotoxin, it is used for killing insects. One cigarette contains 1 mg of nicotine on average.

American Heart Association says that Nicotine addiction is one of the hardest addictions to abnegate. So tobacco which contains nicotine is almost same as drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Nicotine is also bad for health. It reduces men's lifespan by 13.2 years, and 14.5 years for woman. 

Properties
Nicotine dependence causes many symptoms. People who smoke cannot quit easily due to its stimulant property. If they try to quit smoking, they will feel some physical symptoms such as they will desire to smoke hard, they will entertain some apprehensions, they cannot concentrate upon almost everything easily, and they even suffer from physical-ache, such as headache, stomachache, diarrhea, and diarrhea constipation. This is what we call 'withdrawal-syndrome'. So many people fail to quit smoking, even though they are aware that smoking is really bad for their health. Smoking might cause people's social or their leisure time, such as they don't go to restaurants because they cannot smoke in those areas. 

Causes


Smokers keep smoking due to nicotine's intoxicating effect which is similar to such as drugs. And another reason is that nicotine makes people's feel exited, and makes dopamine. If people get dopamine, they will be addicting to nicotine. So that they addict to smoke. They will smoke all day. For example, after meal, right after waking up. If they quit smoke, their levels of stress will be higher, and if they keep smoking, their levels of stress will be calm. 

Uses


Nicotine is mostly used for making tobacco. But it is also used for treating nicotine dependence. For example, people who smoke absorb only nicotine instead of smoking.

There are several sorts of nicotine therapeutic products such as patches, gums, sprays, and lozenges to quit from nicotine addiction. Since nicotine is used for therapeutic way, it is usually known as "Smoker's Paradox". People who smoke might get Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease as twice than the people who don't smoke. Many theories about Parkinson's' and Alzheimer's are published.

Nicotine can also be used to cure the people who have been suffering from Autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy according to recent studies. Nicotine is also used for diet. It is useful to lose weights as well as to prevent gaining-weights because it has ability to control appetite. But for the people who smoke, if they quit smoking, they might gain lots of weights due to its characteristic. 

Morbidity/Mortality


If five people are dead, one of them is caused from nicotine. In the U.S, deaths which are related to cancer are caused from the nicotine the most.

In 1964, Surgeon General's first report mentioned that because of nicotine, about 10 million people died, and nearly 2 million people were suffered from lung cancer in U.S. And 85% of lung cancers are due to smoking. Besides COPD, heart disease, emphysema, and bronchitis are caused from the cigarette. 50% of people who got esophageal caner were dead, and they used to smoke.

2.3% of men who got Kidney cancer were dead, and 1.8% of female who got Kidney cancer were dead. 2.4% of male, and 1.3% of female who got Bladder cancer were dead, 2.1% of men and 1.2% of women who got oral cancer were dead, and 1.1% of men and 0.3% of women who got laryngeal cancer were dead in 1988. 2.6% of men and 1% of female who got esophageal cancer were dead. 5% of people who got pancreatic cancer were dead in 1990. These deaths caused from smoking; nicotine. As well as caused about 30% of these deaths.