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Comment by the_only_law | Hacker News Reader

> Pure nicotine seems to be harmless except in overdose

I think there’s also some sort of negative cardiovascular symptoms, but I would be unsurprised if caffeine had its own.

It's hard to separate the impacts of plain nicotine from the impact of cigarettes because the literature is almost entirely focused on smokers, and scientific writing sometimes conflates the two. That said,

> Nicotine constricts blood vessels, including those in the skin and coronary blood vessels, but dilates blood vessels in skeletal muscle. Vasoconstriction of the skin results in reduced skin blood flow and reduced fingertip skin temperature.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4958544/

Vessel constriction or dilation by itself is not necessarily a bad thing. CO2 is a potent vasodilator, but no one would claim holding/pacing your breath for swimming is a bad thing. Caffeine too has a strong vasoconstricting effect.

Sure, I was not trying to make the claim that constriction or dilation was a bad thing.

Cardiovascular effects of nicotine are probably more dangerous than potential carcinogenic nature of smoking.

edit: smoking is carcinogenic, but how much of it is because of nicotine I wouldn't know; a smoker might not live long enough to find out at what age the cancer develops if he drops dead because of the heart infarct.

I cannot imagine sincerely believing a statement that is so blatantly wrong. Moreover, there’s nothing ‘potentially’ carcinogenic about smoking, it is a known carcinogen.

> Cardiovascular effects of nicotine are probably more dangerous than potential carcinogenic nature of smoking.

Have any evidence to support this novel claim?

This is contrary to everything I have read about the health impact of nicotine. Do you have suitable references to back up these claims?

Smoking is carcinogenic because it involves incomplete combustion of tobacco, the products of which are directly inhaled. Nothing to do with nicotine.

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