Rhiannon said:"But now doctors have raised concerns about e-cigarette vapor separate from those about nicotine. A 42-year-old woman who had used e-cigarettes for seven months experienced shortness of breath, cough, and fever over the same period. The diagnosis was lipoid pneumonia—a chronic inflammation caused by fatty substances (lipids) in the lungs—due to e-cigarette use. The specific cause was repeated exposure to glycerin-based oils found in e-cigarette nicotine vapor. The patient’s symptoms improved after she stopped using e-cigarettes.1"
Wikipedia]Lipid pneumonia or lipoid pneumonia is a specific form of lung inflammation (pneumonia) that develops when lipids enter the bronchial tree[/quote] [quote author=loreta said:Thanks Rhiannon for you answer. Really, I am more lost than before. I had the impression that many members of this forum were very happy with this ecigarette. I will read the thread from the beginning taking in view your experience in my mind. Thanks!
loreta said:Thank you Keyhole!!! I will order next month in Virgin vapors. I wanted organic liquids, absolutely. Even if I continue to be lost in this subject because if they lie with tobacco they also lie with e-cigarettes. That's for sure.
Thanks.
Matai said:As with many of the members in this thread and elsewhere on the forum, I smoke American Spirit Organic tobacco.
I find that this blend has helped me tremendously. I feel more relaxed, sleep better and have found that I can focus more clearly.
Recently instead of simply inhaling the smoke, I have performed pipe breathing once the tobacco smoke is in my mouth.
I have noticed a more intensified feeling of calm than when I simply pipe breathe without the additional tobacco smoke.
Perhaps this method of smoking is delivering more nicotine to the Vagus nerve than simply inhaling? I am wondering if any other members have attempted smoking in this way and what their thoughts are?
Matai said:As with many of the members in this thread and elsewhere on the forum, I smoke American Spirit Organic tobacco.
Huxley said:I too smoke American Spirit. From the additive free tobacco i have tested, its the best suited for me aswell :).
Shijing said:There is supposed to be an important difference between big-brand processed tobacco and organic tobacco, owing to the fact that the former has a large number of additives and is normally grown in calcium phosphate based fertilizer. However, I'm trying to find more information about American Spirit, which is the kind of organic tobacco I smoke, and am having a hard time coming up with much straightforward information on it. I did a heavy metal provocation test recently, and the results showed that I've got very high amounts of lead and a respectable amount of mercury in my system. I haven't been exposed to any of the typical sources of lead as far as I know, so I'm trying to figure out how it got into my body, and am trying to look into all possible sources.
One thing that I've learned is that polonium and lead co-occur in tobacco grown in calcium phosphate based fertilizer. A search on this brought up the following two videos from organicslant.com:
There's nothing here about lead, and he's having to infer the presence of polonium from the radiation levels he's measuring. If there is polonium in the tobacco though, it could mean that American Spirit hasn't been forthcoming about the kind of fertilizer they use, which could also mean that there's lead in there too. This is merely speculative at this point, and I hope there's nothing to worry about, but if anyone can find more information one way or the other, it would be good to know more.
Additive free means they don't put chemicals and flavorings on it after the harvest. But they can use non-organic pesticides and chemical fertilizers on it. Organic shouldn't be using the phosphate fertilizers that are a bit radioactive, but I think to get certified organic your field must be fallow without and chemicals applied for five years. But if those phosphates were added even 10 years ago I would guess there is still some radioactivity.Huxley said:Thank you so much for the warning and information Keyhole!!!
I was under the assumption everything marketed as 'Additive Free' was pretty much the same as organic.
(My American Spirit heart now hates you a little for telling me this :P )
Recently just ordered some tubs of A.S from Germany aswell with my partner. SO i will relate this information to her, and once they are finished we will look into an alternative shmoke :)!
Hi, I made an order to organic tobacco on this page and shipping costs are $ 32 for Spain. I would check this before ordering definitely.Gaby said:Ariadna said:Gaby said:FWIW, I bought organic tobacco from _http://www.leafonly.com/ Came all the way from the US to Spain, and I had no taxes or EU importing issues.
Hi,
The website shows two types of organic tobacco, Canadian and American. Do you know which one has blonde taste? I used to smoke blond a few years ago.
I bought 1 pound of each... They're both equally blond to me, but they say that the Canadian one is blonder
Nicotine vaccine could vanish cigarette habits in a puff of smoke
16-Jan-2015
Last updated on 16-Jan-2015 at 12:27 GMT - By Fiona Barry
The Scripps Research Institute has created a nicotine conjugate vaccine it says could also treat cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine addiction.
The vaccine stimulates the immune system to identify nicotine as a foreign antigen. This elicits antibodies that alter nicotine’s pharmacokinetics, reducing nicotine levels in the blood and ultimately entry into the central nervous system.
It consists of a large carrier protein, needed because nicotine particles alone are too small to trigger the immune system, conjugated to haptens – molecular mimics of nicotine which provoke an immune response.
The team improved on an anti-smoking vaccine trialled by Nabi BioPharmaceuticals (now Biota) that failed in Phase III clinical trials in 2011.
Nabi’s nicotine conjugate vaccine was effective only for “one-third of clinical trial participants,” said the Scripps scientists, “likely due in part to its use of racemic nicotine hapten, (±)-3’-AmNic.”
Scripps’s study on rats found better binding to nicotine and a greater antibody response is achieved with enantiopure (−)-3′-AmNic haptens – that is, “left-handed” chiral haptens.
“Our vaccine work demonstrates that careful consideration must be made in hapten design,” co-author Jonathan Lockner told BioPharma-Reporter.com.
“A previous nicotine vaccine clinical candidate may have failed partly due to the fact that it contained a mixture of “left-handed” and “right-handed” nicotine haptens.
“Our improved version, which contains only “left-handed” nicotine haptens, is superior to that failed vaccine, which was a mixture. Our vaccine is better optimized for eliciting antibodies that can recognize “left-handed” nicotine molecules, which are the prevalent version of nicotine in tobacco smoke.”
Companies taking nicotine vaccine candidates to clinical trial should incorporate these enantiopure haptens into their design, he said. “There might even be more effective haptens out there.”
Vaccine make-up
The Scripps team created an adjuvant vaccine, using a combination of Alhydrogel (a type of alum common in vaccines) and CpG ODN (oligodeoxynucleotide), a short single-stranded DNA molecule newer to vaccine use.
“CpG ODN stimulates innate immunity and stimulates B cells, monocytes, and dendritic cells. In essence, the combination of Alhydrogel and CpG ODN stimulates the immune system to respond more robustly to whatever is co-formulated with it,” said Lockner.
The antibody therapy is a departure from small molecule-based smoking cessation methods currently on the market. These use synthetic agonists or antagonists to target brain receptors – but “do not help much” and have side effects, said the Scripps researchers.
Lockner told us the team has “been in conversations with various suitors” to license and commercialise the vaccine.
The research was funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program.
Source: A Conjugate Vaccine Using Enantiopure Hapten Imparts Superior Nicotine-Binding Capacity, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, December 10, 2014.
Ariadna said:Hi, I made an order to organic tobacco on this page and shipping costs are $ 32 for Spain. I would check this before ordering definitely.
Thanks Gaby