WEBVTT - How Nicotine Works 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.320 from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:20.120 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.319 that makes this stuff you should know? The podcast. How's 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:31.560 it going? Man? Podcast intro Version Version one? Okay, point one? 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.760 How you doing? I'm well, sir, and you're enjoying I 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:37.880 guess we can't say a whole lot of beverage not anymore. 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.880 Remember we used to just blatantly say stuff, you're enjoying 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:46.400 a sparkling water. I can say that out of a can. Yep, frenchie, Yeah, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.640 it's good stuff. Yeah. Why are we just determined to 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.320 push it to the envelope? I don't know saying in 0:00:52.400 --> 0:01:02.080 Brandon it uh it rhymes with the boy? Uh so Chuck? Yeah, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:06.360 you know, I was a smoker for a while. Yeah, 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.600 and uh, one could make a pretty good argument that 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:14.000 I started out at an unreasonably young aide. No, you 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:18.160 weren't young. I was young. You weren't young. No, I 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:20.240 was young. How old were you? Let me paint you 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.840 a picture? Okay, so first time I tried a cigarette. 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.759 It's in the mall. I'm young enough so that the 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:30.679 the guy who owns the pub in the mall that 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.080 has the cigarette machine that I'm buying cigarettes from, it 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:34.680 comes out and it's like, well, you could do it. 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.760 But we made off with our cigarettes and smoked one, 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.640 and like the mall started spinning and everything was just crazy, right, 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:44.480 you could smoke in the mall. Yeah, it was a 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.880 while ago. Um, that was the first time. The second 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:53.880 time was a few months later eighth grade, and um, 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:56.120 my friends and I all decided that it was high 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.280 time we started smoking. So we pull all of our 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.760 mind together and ended up with enough. We figured for 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.480 ten packs of cigarettes, so everybody gave me the money. 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.160 I got on my bike and rode to the gas station. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.600 Rode up on my bike. Like the cashier saw me, 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.639 this kid who's thirteen right up on his bike. No. Fourteen, 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.320 just turned put his bike down and walk in and go, 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:25.120 I want ten packs of cigarettes. Brands exactly. I bought 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:29.040 like Cools, I bought Marlbro's, I bought Kent's draws like 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.520 anything else. I like that. And I remember the cash 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.280 here just like okay, here you go. Kidding and sent 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.160 me off with a bag of ten packs of cigarettes 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:41.040 dangling from the handlebars of my bike. It's probably like 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:43.519 ten bucks too. It was about ten bucks back in 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:45.640 the day. And we get back, I get back to 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.919 the woods, everybody's like, oh my god, we just started smoking, 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.240 and like right off the bat, I started smoking tons 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.600 of cigarettes. Yeah, And I turned green, got sick, and 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.760 still was like I like this a lot and smoked 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:07.440 for twenty years and chuck. Today is April, and how 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.679 many days are there in April, thirty or thirty one. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.239 I'm gonna guess thirty one. I'm gonna go with thirty 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.600 one too, and I'm going to say no, thirty In 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.040 three days, I may first it will be one year 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:23.440 since i've really, wow a long time kicked it. Congratulations, 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.880 I smoked too. You'd probably never even shared that with 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.280 You had no idea that you smoked. Yeah. I smoked 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.280 in college like everyone does here and there when I 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:37.840 hands Yeah, but it wasn't ever anything that got its uh. 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.280 Nicotine never took a hold of meat to where I 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.640 needed a cigarette. It was always very much a social thing. 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:44.760 And then when I traveled around Europe, of course I 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.280 rolled my own cigarettes and thought it was just super cool. Yeah, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.080 but you know what, kids, I was not cool. I 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.320 was dumb. No, I want to I want to add 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:55.640 that to there was absolutely nothing cool about what I did. 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.920 There's nothing adventurous. And many, many, many times over the 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.560 course of my life, I cursed myself. I cursed that 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.240 cashier and then cursed my bike for allowing me to 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.760 make one of the worst decisions of my entire life 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.080 that I regretted time and time and time again. You 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.560 cursed Abraham Lincoln because he was on the two five 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.520 dollar bills that you have to pay for it now, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.520 I think they're probably he was on the pennies that 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.200 we used to pay for ten packs of cigarettes. So, um, 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.680 nicotine got under my skin, chuck as it were, which 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.360 is one of a few ways it can diffuse into 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.160 the human body. Huh, that's right. Uh. Should we talk 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:39.800 about tobacco just for a second here, let's at the beginning. Um, 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.240 it was cultivated as early as six thousand BC. People 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:48.000 were chewing on or inhaling tobacco. They realize, hey, this 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:50.840 is pretty good. Yeah. Native Americans. I'm not sure what 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.200 tribes they used to roll um like cigars that were 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.560 several feet long, and somebody would hold it at the end, 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.800 maybe another one in the middle, and you'd walk up 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.760 in you puff on them like really hard and inhale 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.560 until you started coughing, and then from the coughing you 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.200 get light headed and supposed that you had a vision. Interesting, Well, 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.760 I do know that as early as the sixteen hundreds 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.880 people actually thought, you know what, this might be bad 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:16.920 for you. And I bet you there's a link here 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.400 to some of these diseases that are killing people and 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.600 the smoke that we're inhaling. Yes, and I didn't know that. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.120 I had no idea it went back that far. I 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:29.120 didn't either concerns about smoking right, and and cancer. Apparently 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.839 they were aware of the cancer back then as well. Yeah, 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.479 they probably call it like spirit intrusion or something instead, 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.159 but yeah, they they knew that there was something too smoking. 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.120 They also thought it was medicinal, which, as we'll see 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.160 towards the end of this podcast, um has actually made 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:49.280 something of a resurgence that the medicinal properties of nicotine. 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:56.880 So this is nicotine go uh Nicotiana tobaccum. Yes, nicotine, 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:01.720 uh Nicotiana tobaccum. What did I say no. I think 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.760 that's right. Okay, I like your Latin chuck. Thank you. 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.719 It's making a big comeback these days. It is so nicotine, Josh, 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.000 is a liquid alkaloid. Yeah, it's the only one. Most 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:19.479 alkaloids are white solids, really clean caffeine. Okay. I saw 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.200 on a page that that nicotine is the only liquid 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.400 all right, well I believe it then. Uh. It is 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:28.600 an organic compound. Alkaloid is and it's made of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:33.120 and sometimes a little oxygen in there and sometimes why. 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.520 And nicotine makes up about five per cent of a 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:41.400 tobacco plant if you're talking weight. But cigarettes contain between 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:45.200 eight and twenty milligrams of nicotine per cigarette. But here's 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:49.680 an important distinction. You only ingest about one milligram of 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.880 that into your body when you smoke a cigarette. It's 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.320 absorbed you ingest more, but only about a milligrams. Good point, 0:06:55.920 --> 0:07:01.760 um say it in Latin chuck absorbed um nicotine. So, 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.919 like I said, nicotine got under my skin, which is 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.240 one of three ways that it can be absorbed right, Yeah, 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.440 through the skin, uh, into the lungs and mucus membranes 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.080 like the landing of your nose and gums. And if 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.120 you think who would snort tobacco, that's what snuff was 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:22.880 and is done that too, you sniff snuff. They they 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.520 still make that stuff. They do. It's a real old 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:27.400 timy like I think. You can only find it at 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.200 a like the customer service counter at a Piggy Wiggly 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:34.440 and it's still there from the night. My grandfather's company 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:39.920 actually made snuff in Tennessee. Your grandfather R. J. Reynolds. No, 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.200 he didn't own the company, but he was like a 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.680 manager of the of the workers on the floor, I think, 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.440 so he exploited people. Yes, And they also made like candy, 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.440 popcorn and stuff. It was weird, one of those companies 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:56.000 that made all kinds of crazy things. It was not 0:07:56.040 --> 0:08:00.840 our gameral. So. Uh, nicotine, and we're talking about how 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.160 it how it gets into your body. It's absorbed. It 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.480 moves into the blood vessels that line these tissues, straight 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.080 into the blood stream and then pretty much directly to 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:13.200 the brain where it does its WAMO effects. That's right, um. 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.000 Out of the ways that you can ingest nicotine into 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:20.120 the body, the lungs are the most efficient, right, which 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.520 is why their cigarettes the little right, exactly. The inhaling 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:29.600 um nicotine through smoking tobacco, UM introduces this this drug, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:33.560 this alkaloid to the alveola, which are the little tiny 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.000 air sacks where gas exchange occurs. And this is the 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:42.920 fact of the podcast for me, the the alveola, right, 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:48.360 little millions of tiny little gas bags, cute little gas bags. Um. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:54.160 If you combine their their surface area, the total surface area, 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.600 they have ninety times more surface area than the human skin. Wow, 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:00.280 and I imagine that's like an average size person. But 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.800 still it's pretty impressive. Yeah, which again is why people 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:05.880 smoke it. And we we're gonna say cigarettes a lot, 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.480 but obviously this includes cigars and pipe smoke in any way. 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.240 You're gonna ingest tobacco dip snuff if you're still doing 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:17.840 the snuff the snuff, yeah uh so, but we're gonna 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:22.680 say cigarettes mainly. That's fine. Okay, that's the most popular way. 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.199 I believe that's right. So Josh, we said, um, here's 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.200 here's an interesting thing too about the half life? Is 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.720 that right? Is that how half life works? It said 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.839 that nicotine has a half life of sixty minutes, so 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:38.280 six hours after a cigarette, that one milligram that was 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.400 in your body is now point oh three one. That 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.400 didn't seem quite right, but I guess that is I 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.280 don't know, Chuck. Well, that's what it says. So that's 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:48.480 what we're gonna go with. Um, but how does your 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.000 body get rid of this stuff? How does it process 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:55.040 it for removal? Well? Um, several ways. Of it is 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:59.760 broken down by your liver, right, okay, Um, some is 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:04.400 habitalized by your lungs too and turned into uh, codine 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.800 and nicotine oxide. Yeah and coddina look that up. It's 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.040 an alkaloid as well, and also an anagram for nicotine. Huh. 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:14.400 And it does pretty much the same thing as nicotine, 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.439 just at a much lower potency. And alkaloids, by the way, 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:23.000 tend to really mess with humans. Like of there's different 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:26.160 types of alkaloids, but the under the large umbrella alkaloids 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:31.920 you have strychnine, night shade, opium, psilocybin, hemlock or got 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.080 anything that can get you wasted or kill you is 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:40.079 an alkaloid basis right. Um. You can also get rid 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:45.000 of cotonine um through your urine. So it takes about 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.240 twenty four hours to get rid of cotonine that way, 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.679 so you can actually do a nicotine p test a 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.240 day after or within a day. You can also do 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.120 a smell test that works too, with the breath or 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.200 the clothes or the hair or whatever. Here's the fact 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.320 of the podcast for me, Josh is that, Uh, some 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.280 people have a genetic defect and the enzymes in their 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:11.760 liver that the mutant enzyme is less effective at metabolizing nicotine. 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:16.480 So some people are born able to smoke less yet 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.880 retain the feeling they get from smoking longer. There's a 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:21.800 time in my life when I would have called those 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:26.280 people lucky. Uh yeah, well, I mean, I guess if 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.920 you're gonna smoke, it's better to smoke less. But I 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.800 still wouldn't should mess with it at all. Agreed, Chuck. Agreed. 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.160 It's so good to hear you say these things because 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.960 he used to say how much you loved cigarettes. I know, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:39.800 but I still I think in this one, even if 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.640 I did still smoke, I would I would advise never 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.800 to take it up. Um, Chuck, let's talk about the 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.439 effects of nicotine. It is an alkaloid, which means it's 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:54.720 a drug basically, um, which means it has an effect 0:11:54.840 --> 0:12:00.520 on a couple of parts of the brain, right yes, um, 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.200 and not just the brain of the body. One of 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.040 the first responses the body has um to nicotine is 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.199 the release of adrenaline, which kicks in our dear old 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:13.599 friend the fight or flight response, right yes, And that's initially, 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.360 but can also what they call it biphasic. Yeah, it 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.800 can invigorate and relax. Yeah, and that sounds a little 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.480 odd until you think about like something like alcohol, which 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.160 has the same qualities many times, which is why you 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.520 know the girl at the bar is all fired up 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:34.800 at first, and then later on it's why did it means? 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.120 Or you know, I can't hold my head up right um? 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.560 The last couple of shows, the last couple of comedy 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.600 shows I've been too. There have been chatty drunk girls 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:50.040 who have just been overly courageous in expressing what was 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.320 on their mind loudly at any given moment, heckling or 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:57.240 just too loud, but heckling but not not heckling like 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.640 you're a bad meeting, just like you know, the guy 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:01.400 would tell a joke and should be like I work 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.800 at home depot and it was that like you're you're 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.880 talking Bob Gold tweet right now and no idea what 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:11.720 he's gonna do. Za Galafernakis has some classic YouTube bits 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.440 dealing with hecklers. Yeah yeah, this one girl will take 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.280 a slate. It's really good. Everyone I've seen, though, has 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.280 done a pretty good job with these people. It's the 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:23.160 worst part of the job, I would imagine. Um, So, chuck, 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:28.320 you've got the release of adrenaline. Um. You. Also, we 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:33.320 have an explanation for why people who smoke tend to 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.720 eat less. Yeah, you hear oral fixation, and I imagine 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.400 that that probably has a lot to do with people 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:44.640 putting on the weight after they quit smoking. Um. But 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:49.760 if you smoke, you can go fairly long without food. 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:55.160 And now we understand why nicotine send some signals to 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.040 your brain. Right here, let me do a little dramatic creani. 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.720 So nicotine into the body. Hey, body, go ahead and 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.840 dump a lot of the glucost stores in your cells 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.480 into the blood stream. Okay. The body says, okay, and 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.480 the nicotine says, and by the way, I don't want 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:17.480 you releasing any insulin. Insulin absorbs glucost in the bloodstream, 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.720 and the body's like okay, And then the nicotine goes Okay, Well, 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:23.880 now that you have a bunch of glucose in your 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.720 blood stream, don't you think that you've just eaten and 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:28.880 are full and the body goes you know, I do, 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:36.160 and the insulin exactly, And yeah, so that's called hyperglycemic 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.080 And like you said, basically, it makes you feel like 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.880 you're not hungry, and um, it also increases your basal 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.600 metabolic rate. So you're gonna burn more calories sitting around 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:50.920 smoking than you would if you were just sitting around. 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.720 And this all sounds awesome. What I eat less and 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:58.480 I just burn calories sitting around? It sounds awesome, but 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.400 unfortunately it's not like, oh, I can lose weight smoking, 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.680 and that's like exercise, because what you're actually doing is 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.440 killing yourself over the long haul. And speaking of basil 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:16.080 or basil metabolic rate, um, that is something that apparently 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.480 is very overlooked when with people who exercise and count 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:21.920 calories and things like that. How did that? I just 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:27.080 sounded like Silvester the cat person. Um. You if you 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.240 exercise and you burn five hundred calories, people are like, well, 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.280 that's pretty awesome. I just burned five hundred calories. But 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.800 they're not taking too account the basil metabolic rate, which is, 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.040 had you just not gone to the gym and stay 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.240 at home, you would have burned a hundred and fifty calories. 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:43.960 So really you only burned three d and fifty calories. 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.920 You have to take your net calorie burn to really 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.480 figure out how much weight you lose exercising. Yeah, well, 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:52.240 I don't ever look at the like on a treadmill. 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.040 I don't ever pay attention to like, can you burn 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:58.320 this many calories? Like? You know what, I gave my 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.160 hard to work out for forty five minutes exactly, and 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.680 I didn't fall over dead exactly. And I never weighed 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.160 myself either, do you really? Yeah? I just fixed my 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.360 scale actually the batteries, I'll fix it up, put a 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.440 battery in it, and it had been out for like 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:14.040 four or five months, and I didn't, you know, I 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.080 felt myself getting fatter, and I weighed myself and I 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.600 was actually like a pound less than I was six 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:21.520 months ago. So it was all in my head. Well 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.280 it's not great. Ideally, I'm twenty pounds less than I 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.440 went six months ago. I've just been reintroduced to my 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:32.440 hip bones lately. Yeah, that's good. You can start wearing 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:38.440 the hip huggers you haven't noticed. Sorry, Okay, So chuck. 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:42.520 Cigarettes will kill you is where we left off, because 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.960 they will raise your bad cholesterol level, damage your arteries, 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:50.400 and eventually you are in line for a heart attacker stroke. Yes, 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:52.920 and that, and while we'll get into it later, let's 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:54.760 talk about the brain. Yeah, and I don't think that's 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:59.600 much of a spoiler. Now, cigarettes kill you. The the 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.680 the irony of it is is the nicotine won't kill you. 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.399 I mean, the nicotine can kill you, but you literally 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:07.760 have to overdose on it, and it takes more than 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:12.440 you could get from cigarettes. It's other chemicals, the thousands 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:14.760 of other chemicals in a cigarette that kill you. Well, 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.200 I'm glad you said that because that's a huge point. Um. 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.400 The other chemicals are killing you. The nicotine is what 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.879 makes you smoke over and over and over again. So 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.800 it's a it's a one two punch of death. Well, 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:29.879 let's talk about that. Let's talk about what happens in 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.600 the brain that gets you basically addicted. Um. First up, 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:38.840 as with anything, is the reward pathway is manipulated. Right, So, 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.280 just like with cocaine or alcohol or anything like that, 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.840 dopaminees released, which is how we learn how to eat 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.400 and reproduce and do anything that that causes our own 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:55.320 or our species survival. Were rewarded, right, Well, nicotine unlocks 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.399 the release of dopamine, which teaches us to smoke again. Rights, right, 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.560 But even more than that, a smarter neurotransmitter. And I 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.080 do kind of think that dopamine is kind of a 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.800 in fact, Chris Farley kind of neurotransmitter. You know, it's 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:11.480 just kind of like out for a good time kind 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.840 of thing. A setal colin. That guy is slick. That's 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:18.240 like a Patrick Bateman kind of neurotransmitter. That's right. And 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:23.320 nicotine docks to this uh that binds to this neurotransmitter, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.639 and that's where that's where it all happens basically, And 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.199 may I interject r I P Chris Farley. I know 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.199 for a fact that he was not dumb. He was 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.159 a very smart guy. I was talking more about his 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.640 buffoon like characters that played, not him specific. We don't 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.359 want to speak ill of the dead, especially not Chris Farler. 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.119 That's right. So we just mentioned the set to colleen, 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:49.479 which the nicotine binds to this neurotransmitter. It's gonna end 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.800 when you smoke, it's gonna increase the release of setal colleen. 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.320 And the problem is that the set colin is great 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:00.960 and the body, everybody loves the body regulates the release 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.120 of it in the proper way, but when nicotine gets involved, 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:08.520 it's just out of control. Willy nilly, cetoclin going crazy 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.760 in your body, right, um, one of the and it's 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.600 a bunch of a seal colin being released means a 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.199 bunch of activity in the cholinergic neurons. Right, So the 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.840 cholinergic neurons basically tell your body like, hey, you wake up, 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:25.359 bub Let's go do something right, Let's go roller skate 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:30.240 or something like that. Um. Cholinergic neurons also promote dopamine release, 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.119 so you're up and at them. You're feeling good, you're 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:38.960 feeling you forhork Um. You endorphins are released, which is 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.760 the body's natural painkiller. You've heard of the runners high. 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.520 That is h endorphins going crazy at the end of 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.400 your long jog, exactly. Um. And then lastly, the thing 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.160 that cements at all is the release of glutamate, which 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:57.200 glutamate has been shown to enhance neural connections, connections between 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:01.040 the neural pathways, which enhances memory. We talked about memory 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.240 that we didn't talk about glutamate. Yeah, how do we 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:06.960 miss that? I don't know. Well, what can happen here 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.160 is if you when you ingest nicotine, glutamate can create 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:12.640 a memory loop of how awesome it is. So now 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.399 you've got this recurring film playing in your head like 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.160 smoking is great, smoking is great. Have another cigarette over 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:24.960 and over and over a deadly concoction. Yes, so that's 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:29.840 what happens. You're you lose weight, you feel great, right, Uh, 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.639 like you said, but you're slowly dying. Yes, But we 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:38.320 mentioned earlier, Um that there there there are medicinal there's 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:42.480 medicinal value to nicotine specifically, right, because it has this 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.920 effect on your cholinergic pathways. Um, it could help with Alzheimer's. 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:53.200 They're finding Alzheimer's is a loss of cholinergic neurons, that's right, right, 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.640 which leads to memory loss, that kind of thing. You're 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.000 not quite as active, You are angry and you don't 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.919 know why. That's right. Um, they're finding that nicotine can 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.600 help replace these or it can at the very least 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:09.520 stop the loss of cholinergic neurons and promote the activity 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:12.320 of the ones that are still around. That's right, hence 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.840 reversing the effects of Alzheimer's or forestalling it. That's right. 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.160 And Tourette syndrome is another thing they're looking into now 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:24.080 with nicotine patches. Slowly delivering nicotine can reduce the episodes 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:29.159 of Tourette's ticks and outbursts. So did we come? I 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:30.760 don't even know if we covered that in turetts. This 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:34.560 may be news to us. Do you anyone who hasn't 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:36.680 heard Tourette sint him yet? Go back illicito. It's a 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:41.119 good one, um, but chuck again. We want to specify 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:45.960 that you are much more likely to die from ingesting 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:50.320 nicotine via the current ways that we have it. We 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:52.720 have to ingest it then you are to gain any 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:57.520 kind of benefit, right, that's right. Cancer obviously, emphysema, heart disease, stroke, 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.520 and uh, the nicotine is what gets you addicted, and 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.720 all the thousands of chemicals and the cigarette is what 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:09.560 kills you. And it will kill you. I mean, if 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.639 you smoke your whole life, you're very much a rarity. 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.719 If you're one of those people that's like smoking for 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.240 fifty years and not suffering any effects. That's that's really rare. 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:24.560 Sometimes I feel death over my shoulder. Really now you're healing, man. 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:26.240 You can you can reverse the effects. That's what's so 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:28.720 good about it. Yeah, you can reverse the effects, but 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:32.200 you can also do lasting damage well, all sorts of 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.640 time bombs in your body after smoking thousands and thousands 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:38.440 of cigarettes over twenty years. True, but you're you're doing good, buddy, 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:43.160 um So, Chuck, we talked about it being psychologically addictive, right, 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.280 very much. You do it compulsively. The definition of this 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:50.000 is you are compulsively engaging in an activity that you 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:53.400 know will harm you. Yes, you're still doing it. Yes, 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:58.920 And it is physiologically anything. Neuroscientists basically say anything that 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:03.520 that uh synthetically turns on your reward pathway is addictive, 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:08.040 and that's cigarettes for sure. Um or nicotine specifically. And 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:13.639 we also mentioned chuckers that um nicotine itself is harmful 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:18.480 if you overdose on it. Yeah, but it's very difficult 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:20.200 to overdose on it because we remember there's eight to 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:22.720 twenty milligrams with nicotine and a cigarette, but your body 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.400 only jests about one. It's very difficult to overdose by 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:29.879 way of smoking inhalation. It is, but if you're a 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:33.760 baby and you're dumb, you can eat cigarettes or cigarette 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:37.400 butts and overdose on it. It doesn't take very much. 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:40.080 It can take eating one cigarette can send a baby 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:42.879 to the hospital with a lot of problems. Yes, and 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:44.920 I looked this up and it says so in this article, 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:49.040 but I double checked the adults. If you eat like 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:53.320 three to seven cigarettes as an adult, you will likely die. 0:23:54.000 --> 0:23:56.320