Could electronic cigarettes be used to deliver nicotine with health benefits?

Since electronic cigarettes appeared on shop shelves across the world

the great smoking debate has opened up again.

The UK’s 2006 ban on smoking in public places had driven smokers onto the street until e-cigarettes provided the first credible solution to the problem of cutting down on nicotine intake or quitting smoking altogether.

Currently governments across the globe are responding to the rise in popularity of e-cigarettes, raising fears that they are unsafe, will corrupt children and lead them into taking up smoking, or alleging that e-cigarettes do not work as an anti-smoking aid.

Many ex-smokers beg to differ, having spent the best part of their lives struggling to kick the habit and finally managing to quit after switching to electronic cigarettes.

Tobacco companies are also on the attack as alarm bells ring over falling profits if smokers turn to e-cigarettes.

At the heart of the debate is nicotine and the various perceived evils the different sides of the tobacco lobby flag up regarding its use, either as a tobacco product or in liquid form in e-cigarettes (which the anti-e-cig lobby claims are unregulated and potentially dangerous as they have not been clinically tested, despite the known health risks of tobacco).

Electronic cigarettes were introduced to the market by China in 2003 in response to a growing population of smokers there.

Using liquid nicotine does away with the need for tobacco, which produces toxic and potentially carcinogenic smoke with by-products such as carbon monoxide in the mouth and cancer-causing nitrosamines in the blood stream.

Nicotine is naturally occurring chemical which belongs to a group of chemicals known as alkaloids.

And although nicotine has been painted in a dark (smoky) light, researchers have found that some forms of nicotine may actually have properties which are therapeutic.

Nicotine is a stimulant which increases heart rate and has an effect on the nervous system.

US researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle have found that dietary nicotine may protect against degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease (PD), which affects the nervous system. The study is published in the US journal Annals of Neurology and the researchers investigated a group of plants known as Solanaceae and followed 490 patients with Parkinson’s and a control group of 644 people without PD.

The tobacco plant belongs to the Solanaceae species and nicotine patches have previously been found to help restore memory function in some elderly patients.

The Seattle team led by Dr Susan Searles Nielsen questioned the two study groups about their diet and nicotine use.

The results suggest that people who eat large quantities of vegetables which belong to the group of plants known as Solanaceae may have greater protection against diseases like Parkinson’s compared with those who do not.

Edible Solanaceae include fruit and vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines and peppers and the researchers found that peppers appear to offer the best protection against PD.

The results of the study were especially marked in those who had never used tobacco products and therefore obtained their nicotine intake from the plants eaten for the study.

In previous studies smokers have been found to have a reduced risk for PD, although researchers are not yet sure whether it is nicotine in tobacco or another component of the tobacco plant which offers this protection.

Nicotine comprises carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen and its toxicity is thought to act as a deterrent to prevent animals eating plants, as nicotine can be useful as an insecticide.

However, when used in electronic cigarettes the “vaper” (the name given to a user of e-cigarettes because the nicotine is delivered via an atomiser) controls the level of nicotine they need to satisfy their craving.

Electronic cigarettes are available with refills in five different strengths of nicotine from zero to 11, meaning cutting back on intake or switching from a lower to a higher and then back to a lower dose according to need is possible.

Nicotine is still a powerful stimulant but is delivered by e-cigarettes without the toxicity of tobacco smoke, and inhaling nicotine vapour using an e-cigarette can represent a real step forward in the battle against tobacco addiction.

There are also many theories about whether fruit and vegetables can help people kick the tobacco habit – and it may be that eating large quantities of certain types of fruit and vegetables which are edible Solanaceae may help boost levels of nicotine in the brain.

Lead author of the University of Washington study Dr Susan Searles Nielsen said that further studies would be needed to confirm the findings that dietary nicotine may offer protection against diseases like Parkinson’s:

“Our study is the first to investigate dietary nicotine and risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

“Similar to the many studies that indicate tobacco use might reduce risk of Parkinson’s, our findings also suggest a protective effect from nicotine; or perhaps a similar but less toxic chemical in peppers and tobacco.”

Many smokers feel extremely down when trying to quit and this is because nicotine also works on the dopamine receptors in the brain.

Dopamine is a chemical which is released in the brain when we feel pleasure and that giddy feeling of falling in love is all down to dopamine.

Chronic smokers have been found to lack an enzyme which breaks down dopamine in the brain and this explains why smokers can experience severe symptoms of depression or agitation when they try to quit smoking.

US researchers at the University of Buffalo questioned 1,000 smokers and found that those who ate fruit and vegetables are more likely to be tobacco free for 30 days in a row 14 months after quitting compared with those who are not regular consumers of fruit and vegetables. The study in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research suggests fruit and vegetables may either make people feel fuller after eating so they do not reach for a cigarette, or fruit and vegetables may actually make tobacco products taste unpalatable.

Fruit-flavoured e-cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular and although electronic cigarettes have not yet been enhanced with vitamins like A and C commonly found in fruit and vegetables,  for many smokers just being able to taste the flavour of a fruit-flavoured e-cigarette after years of tobacco use is a bonus in itself.