The war on smoking is fascinatingly perverted. Big Money indeed. Bloomberg Territory in fact. Investment and profit, wealth and riches unimaginable - and power.
Big Drug's Nicotine War
The PDF link I have posted here is an interesting read. This history of NRT only goes to 2001 - what a pity! However, it is also a history for vapers. Nicotine has been a most profitable industry for the Cigarette Industry AND Pharmaceuticals. There's GOLD IN NICOTINE. Big Pharma have been inside Tobacco Control from the beginning. Their involvement in the anti-smoking drive has been so deep they must be absolutely horrified that electronic cigarettes, not invented by themselves, and so utterly disruptive to the whole smoking/pharma symbiosis have taken off. Many vapers prefer vaping to smoking, and millions have dropped tobacco smoking. It makes Tobacco Control, and all its minion lobby groups like Ash look old fashioned and redundant. The whole Industry must be in crises. No wonder they don't want VAPERS to VAPE. We might discover more benefits to vaping than meets the eye. It's our alluring 2nd and 3rd generational delivery systems that is making them retch because it's OUR goldmine not theirs!
Quote
III - Gold In Nicotine
Publication date July 13, 2001
“It helps digestion, the gout, the toothache, prevents infection by scents; it heats the cold, and cools them that sweat,feedeth the hungry, spent spirits restoreth, purgeth the stomach,killeth nits and lice; the juice of the green leaf healeth green wounds, although poisoned; the syrup for many diseases; the smoke for the phthisic, cough of the lungs, distillations of rheum, and all diseases of a cold and moist cause; good for all bodies cold and moist taken upon an empty stomach; taken upon a full stomach it precipitates digestion.” John Josselyn on the medicinal uses of tobacco, 1675 (quoted in .A.Weslager, Magic Medicines of the Indians, Signet, NY: 1974)
“Nicotine is an amazing chemical.”Jack Henningfield, 1998 (quoted in “Smoking Aside, Nicotine Remains an Amazing Chemical,” Scott Shane,The Seattle Times, 1/11/98, p. A10).Henningfield, a pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins and former National Institute of Drug Abuse scientist, is also a consultant to SmithKlineBeecham.
Tobacco was used medicinally by the indigenous populations in the Americas long before the arrival of European settlers. After the Europeans began to colonize the New World, they too used it to treat numerous physical diseases and complaints, a practice which continued in American folk remedies until well into the 20th century.
However, as the anti-tobacco movement gained strength and momentum in the 1980s, both tobacco and the nicotine it contained were excoriated by public health officials. And in 1988 the U.S. Surgeon General’s report for the first time asserted that nicotine was an addictive drug, chaining smokers to their cigarettes. This claim has become a favored weapon not only of the anti-tobacco establishment but also of trial attorneys attempting to win huge sums of money in lawsuits against the tobacco industry.
Pharmacolgists and other scientists, who had been investigating the physiological effects of nicotine since at least the 1950s, began to find that nicotine could have significant therapeutic applications, both as a stop-smoking aid and as a medicine for treating various diseases. Their interest in nicotine increased as new discoveries about the substance emerged.
A time-specific online search of the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database demonstrates quite well the pattern of increasing scientific interest in nicotine. Between 1963 (the earliest publication year PubMed indexes) and 1970, 1092 articles on nicotine are listed; between 1971 and 1980, 2346 articles are listed; between 1981 and 1990, 3771 articles are listed; and between 1991 and 2000, 6919 articles are listed. In other words, in thirty-seven years, published research involving nicotine multiplied by more than a factor of six.
The pharmaceutical industry had seen for some time the potential profits in developing nicotine-based smoking-cessation drugs. In 1962, Pharmacia’s scientists began working on such nicotine delivery devices, and by 1971 they had perfected nicotine-laden gum, which was later marketed by SmithKlineBeecham as Nicorette. As the anti-tobacco movement grew, other pharmaceutical companies became interested in the potentially huge market for smoking-cessation products. When researcher Jed Rose developed the transdermal nicotine patch in the early 1980s, the pharmaceutical industry was quick to begin steps to bring it to market. It wasn’t just the smoking-cessation applications of alternate nicotine delivery systems that interested the drug companies, of course, but a multitude of other pharmacological applications as well.
Good research! All I can say is nothing surprises me. The Motley Fool (financial site) outed Big Pharma yesterday -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/10/electronic-cigarettes-have-a-rich-and-powerful-ene.aspx
Nice link - thanks.
DeleteThe nicotine is the same, in e-cig vapor or in tobacco smoke. But the latter is a far more balanced medicinal smoke, harmonized and optimized with additional medicinal ingredients over long time by huge numbers of test subjects (smokers). I mentioned few compensating effects available from tobacco smoke which offset some downsides of pure nicotine (there are many more, see brief summary in item #17 at previous link).
ReplyDeleteI am not suggesting that commercial junk cigarettes, filters and fire retardants (mandated in USA, as "Fire Safe Cigarettes") are good for you. Filters, which are result of early fear mongering campaign by tobacco control, will leave non-biodegradable fibers in your lungs which need to be coughed out, usually every morning. Light cigarettes have imbalanced the proportions of medicinal components of previously perfectly harmonized medicinal smoke from "oldfashioned" (or plain, natural) tobacco smoke. Myriad of additives, optimized to boost shelf life and cost to manufacture (tobacco sheets) are likely harmful as well, or at least not optimized for you but for big tobacco.
2. In short, the mass produced commercial cigarettes you find at gas stations and supermarkets are to real tobacco, what mass produced junk food found in those same places is to home grown natural/organic food. The former will ruin your health, the latter will keep you healthy.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with much of what you wrote on medicinal properties of tobacco, nicotine and pharma's major role in the rise of "scientific" antismoking, you are attributing too much therapeutic power to the single component of tobacco, nicotine.
Emphasis on nicotine is a typical one dimensional view of "active" and "inactive" or "accidental" ingredients in medicinal plants. To see the problem with such one dimensional oversimplification, consider a recent experiment on anti-inflammatory effects of nicotine vs tobacco smoke for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) described in this post: http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/61248-the-intelligent-smoker-what-should-a-smoker-take-to-nullify-harm/#entry564686
The RA is one of those diseases which is statistically associated (on _non-randomized_ samples) with smoking, hence smoking is a risk factor for RA and doctors will urge (force) RA patients to quit smoking. It turns out that hard science, such as experiments, shows exactly how such association arises. In the above mice experiment, the mice with induced RA is randomly split into 3 groups -- the "smoking group" (inhaling tobacco smoke), pure nicotine group and untreated controls. The result is probably surprising to most people, even in this group -- the smoking group did the best, had the RA onset delayed the most and had the least damage to cartilage. The nicotine group was second and untreated group did the worst.
So, the origin of positive association between smoking and RA observed on _non-randomized_ samples in humans is result of instinctive self-medication -- those susceptible to chronic inflammation smoke more than general population since tobacco smoke provides perceptible relief and protection against RA flareups, pain and damage.
3.
ReplyDeleteAs with the above anti-inflammatory effects, there are many other medicinal effects of tobacco smoke that are not replicated by nicotine. For example, MAO B inhibition (similar to that of 'youth elixir' and nootropic, aka smart drug, selegiline or deprenyl) is due to something else in tobacco smoke.
Similarly, some component/s in tobacco smoke (not nicotine) strongly upregulate (nearly doubling each) the three main detox and antioxidant enzymes in human body - glutathione, catalase and SOD (superoxide dismutase), which are also hailed in life extension circles as youth elixirs. As with the above RA example, people exposed to environmental toxins (miners, physical laborers, truck drivers, etc) would find that smoking provides relief by virtue of near doubling of their detox rates. Hence these people smoke more than general population, as a form of instinctive self-medication.
But those toxins they are exposed to (which include heavy metals, solvents, paints, carcinogens, etc) that these enzymes help neutralize and clear out, will still cause harm in the long run, since the protection isn't perfect. Therefore, these people suffer disease caused by the toxins and carcinogens, which will be attributed by the present antismoking junk science to tobacco smoke, even though tobacco smoke is protective (via upregulation of those detox enzymes) against the very diseases it is blamed for (see item #7 at the link above, where this is shown for association of COPD with tobacco smoking).
In conclusion, while vaping is certainly useful to get around antismoking regulations and hypertaxation of smokers (at least for time being, which likely will not last very long, the way it is moving), one should keep in mind that you are comparing medicinal plant honed for over eight thousand years for medicinal properties of its smoke, tested on billions of life-long test subjects vs. one-dimensional "active" ingredient (nicotine), which has far shorter track record of use in isolated form. For example, nicotine is vasoconstrictor by itself. But full tobacco smoke contains compensating vasodilating components (including low dose Nitric Oxide plus unkown others), which limit the constriction of blood vessels and help bounce-back when you sleep. Similarly, while pure nicotine upregulates cholinergic system (acetylcholine receptors), which in turn suppresses dopaminergic system, the full tobacco smoke, via MAO B inhibition, upregaluates also the compensating dopamine neurotransmitters, offsetting the imbalance from pure nicotine.
4.You should also recall that the same tobacco control, which you now see as lying scumbags, since they are unfairly attacking vaping, is the same tobacco control, same people and same organizations same pharma sponsoring them, which scared everyone away from tobacco smoke over previous few decades. Do you believe that previously truthful people suddenly turned into lying scum when vaping came on the scene, or is it more plausible that these same guys were the same lying scum all along?
ReplyDeleteKeep also in mind the recent history lesson from butter vs margarine flip-flop -- for decades doctors, scientists, health groups were advising everyone to stop eating artery clogging butter with its toxic saturated fats and switch to clean, pure heart saving margarine with its healthy, pure transfats. Today of course, the story is exactly opposite -- the margarine and transfats are so harmful for arteries they are being increasingly banned -- news story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2274747/At-truth-Butter-GOOD--margarine-chemical-gunk.html
How could that be? As always, to see what is going on, follow the money. The pharma came up with early broad spectrum cholesterol blockers and wanted a disease to cure, so cholesterol rich foods, especially saturated fats (butter, eggs, etc) were blamed and pharma had a fix. The chemical and oil industry (which often overlaps with pharma) had lots of junk fats that they needed to get rid of as industrial waste, preferably to someone who will pay them for it. What's better than add some coloring and flavoring to it and dump all the waste fats into arteries of stupid consumers, by convincing them that it replaces those harmful saturated fats from butter.
Coincidentally, the story flipped upside down, despite evidence all along for ineffectiveness of both, substitution of butter with margarine and general cholesterol suppression, when pharma discovered more specific cholesterol blockers, statins (by reverse engineering of medicinal red yeast rice), and suddenly there was "bad cholesterol" that needs to be blocked, and "good cholesterol" that needs to be promoted, and as luck would have it pharma had just the drugs that selectively block only the "bad" one. The old stories became inoperative and the new stories were fed to the gullible public, by doctors, media and "health" bureaucracies and organization (i.e. the sickness industry).
You may be falling for the same trick again, now with tobacco smoke tars (analogue of arteries clogging butter) vs clean pure nicotine with PG that leave no cancer causing tar (analogue of margarine & transfats).
Thank you for thought provoking comments!
ReplyDeleteAnother that was removed from public record is the fact that in the 60s (1964 IIRC) health advocates and tobacco companies were set to sit round a table and discuss how to make cigs safer. The health lobby backed out because the nicotine patch had just been invented. Says a lot, huh? It's a 50 year old war.
ReplyDeleteLiz, I thought you might be interested in another valuable ingredient in a tobacco leaf.
ReplyDeleteHaving been a keen gardener from a very early age who read books on plants like other children studied books on dinosaurs, I already knew that the same things in tobacco were in the nightshade vegetables that we eat, just in smaller amounts.
Chinese turn cigarettes into medicine
March 19 2006
"Beijing - A city in China, a country that's home to the world's most enthusiastic smokers, is crushing fake cigarettes to make medicine, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.
The northwestern city of Xian is using the counterfeit cigarettes to extract solanesol, a compound found in tobacco which is used to treat cardiovascular disease, it said.
"We used to incinerate the fake cigarettes, which is wasteful and causes air pollution," Xinhua quoted Zhou Yaqing, vice director of the provincial tobacco monopoly, as saying.
A kilo of solanesol is worth about $200 (about R1 200), and 30 tons of tobacco leaf can produce up to 120kg, Xinhua added."
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/chinese-turn-cigarettes-into-medicine-1.269897
CTRI wins patent for using tobacco as medicine
Sunday, February 17, 2008
"New Delhi: Tobacco will now be used for manufacturing cancer and cardiac drugs with the Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) bagging the patent for solanesol - a medicinal substance extracted from tobacco.
Solanesol, a white crystalline powder derived from tobacco's green leaf, has curative effects against cardiac insufficiency, muscular dystrophy, anaemia, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and liver injury
"Many pharmaceutical companies have approached us for carrying out clinical trials for the usage of solanesol as anti-cancer and anti-diabetic drugs," CTRI Director V Krishna Murthy told reporters.
Solanesol is rich in Coenzyme Q10 - a physiologically active substance with high pharmaceutical value"
http://www.hindu.com/holnus/008200802171223.htm
Believe it or not, tobacco too can save your life
"And solanesol, another tobacco leaf extract, is the starting material for many high-value bio-chemicals like vitamin-K analogues, vitamin E and co-enzyme Q10. The research shows that after introducing solanesol into the structure of some medicines, the effect are increased distinctly and its primary material, Co-enzyme Q is useful in the treatment of heart diseases, cancers and ulcers"
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2003-06-02/ahmedabad/27184285_1_smoking-tobacco-nicotine-sulphate-btrs
But it's not unique to tobacco and it has been used as a tracer for tobacco smoke.
"Many plants of the Solanaceae family, which includes the genus Nicotiana, of which the tobacco plant is a member, contain solanesol; particularly those that contain trace amounts of nicotine.
These include the tomato, eggplant, potato, and pepper.
The potential interference due to these sources is negligible, cooking being the only likely potential source of interference.
An interference of this type would bias results high, overestimating the contribution of ETS to RSP."
http://www.coresta.org/Recommended_Methods/CRM_52.pdf
Discovered in 1956
Flue-cured Tobacco. I. Isolation of Solanesol, an Unsaturated Alcohol
R. L. Rowland, P. H. Latimer, J. A. Giles
Publication Date: September 1956
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01599a041
And it does come through in the smoke.
New Test Allows Individualized Profiles of Cigarette Smoking
"Watson and colleagues based the method on previous research involving a substance naturally present in tobacco called solanesol."
"It provides a much more accurate estimate of exposure than using automated cigarette smoking machines to estimate mainstream smoke deliveries, which traditionally have been used."
Their findings indicate that measuring solanesol does provide a quick, inexpensive way to estimate a smoker's total exposure"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825093245.htm
Rose
Oh what a lovely comment - loads of delicious links and info! I know smoking improves heart attack recovery. Very Interesting stuff. Thanks you indeed!
DeleteUp here in Canada, one can tell there are a number of puckered sphincters loose among the big pharmas. Someone (totally unidentified) is now running TV ads showing people, in their own words, describing how they broke their cigarette smoking habits. No reference to any product, simply a nondescript statement of advice to consult one's doctor about NON-NICOTINE options for smoking cessation. Interesting times ahead, indeed.
ReplyDeleteOh had a good laugh about the "puckered sphincters"!!! Lovely expression. And yes - you are right. History in the making.
ReplyDeleteThis pretty well destroys the Myth of second hand smoke:
ReplyDeletehttp://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/28/16741714-lungs-from-pack-a-day-smokers-safe-for-transplant-study-finds?lite
Lungs from pack-a-day smokers safe for transplant, study finds.
By JoNel Aleccia, Staff Writer, NBC News.
Using lung transplants from heavy smokers may sound like a cruel joke, but a new study finds that organs taken from people who puffed a pack a day for more than 20 years are likely safe.
What’s more, the analysis of lung transplant data from the U.S. between 2005 and 2011 confirms what transplant experts say they already know: For some patients on a crowded organ waiting list, lungs from smokers are better than none.
“I think people are grateful just to have a shot at getting lungs,” said Dr. Sharven Taghavi, a cardiovascular surgical resident at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, who led the new study...........................
Ive done the math here and this is how it works out with second ahnd smoke and people inhaling it!
The 16 cities study conducted by the U.S. DEPT OF ENERGY and later by Oakridge National laboratories discovered:
Cigarette smoke, bartenders annual exposure to smoke rises, at most, to the equivalent of 6 cigarettes/year.
146,000 CIGARETTES SMOKED IN 20 YEARS AT 1 PACK A DAY.
A bartender would have to work in second hand smoke for 2433 years to get an equivalent dose.
Then the average non-smoker in a ventilated restaurant for an hour would have to go back and forth each day for 119,000 years to get an equivalent 20 years of smoking a pack a day! Pretty well impossible ehh!