nicotine half life

Nicotine has a half-life of 2 hours.

They say it takes a max of 72 hours to clear your entire blood, no matter how much you smoke.

Well, I quit on Tuesday but I slipped up yesterday and had 2 smokes. I'm wondering now if it will take the full 72 hours to clear my blood again and regain my clean blood. The half-life of nicotine is 2 hours, and I was nowhere near saturation... Still 72 hours??
Thanks - no, not being drug-tested. Just trying to quit. I'm trying to figure out if I have any in my blood still, mainly because the withdrawals are supposed to peak at the point of having no nicotine in the blood.

Just want to know if theres an effective dose running around my bloodstream still or if I am in recovery-mode

If you are being drug tested for nicotine use, the metabolite that is detected is called cotinine. That can be detected in the urine for approx. 72 hours after the last use. So yes, another 72 hours. The amount taken does not affect the half life.

EDIT: "Recovery mode" as you put it.

2009-05-04 07:55:30 by dan G

Deaf Havana show off their mature side with their emotionally charged second single #39;Nicotine and Alcohol Saved My Life#39; taken from 2009 ...

Nicotine doesn't stick around your body for too long. It has a half-life of about 60 minutes, meaning that six hours after a cigarette, only about 0.031 mg of the 1 mg of nicotine you inhaled remains in your body.

Troy
http://primeherbal.com/Nicocure/

2007-05-03 15:59:49 by patblock1

I recently got a whole bunch of test done for life insurance that I applied for and they checked for nicotine in my system. It came back as no nicotine in my system. I have smoked half a pack a day for over 10 years. How is that my test came up negative?

Cool - you are lucky! Go to a pack a day!

2008-06-13 14:20:01 by Sunshine

I have always lived in a family of smokers. My mother and father have smoked for over 30 years. I have friends who have smoked for years, and who claim that they can not stop due to nicotine "addiction." I decided to perform an experiment so that I could put myself in their shoes and finally give me right to criticize their unhealthy habit. I decided to over a 1-month period build up my tolerance to nicotine to the equivalent of 2 packs / day using Nicotine Polacrilex gum. I began with the 4 mg gum, building up my tolerance to 10 pieces / day = 40 mg nicotine which is over the equivalent nicotine of 40 cigarettes. I build up to 10 pieces within 2 weeks, and continued to chew 10 pieces / day for 2 weeks. At the end of the 1-month period, I was going to stop cold turkey. I was returning home for christmas break, and left my nicotine at college. There was no way that I would have gotten away with sneaking to the local CVS in order to purchase more gum, even if I wanted to, so I knew I would not fail. The half-life of nicotine is very short, so the physical addiction is gone within a few days. Therefore, I knew I was going to be in for a bumpy ride.

However, it was nothing like I expected it to be. Yes - I felt the urge to chew more gum, and noticed myself feeling groggy, and a little more easily agitated, but I still was able to act like my normal self. By the third day of no nicotine, I had no desire to continue chewing the gum. Yes, I enjoyed it thoroughly, and would chew more if given the opportunity, but I really didn't feel an uncontrollable desire to chew more gum. My parents act as though they will go insane without their next cigarette when they get that urge, and refuse to do anything other than smoke when the urge comes around. Therefore, I think that I am living proof that cigarettes aren't that addictive. There is no use in smoking cigarettes... in fact, the gum is even more pleasurable than smoking a cigar (which I have smoke about 5 in my lifetime) I have never smoked a cigarette and never will. Currently I have bought another pack of 4 mg gum and chew a piece or two a day, sometimes not. Yesterday, I didn't chew a piece at all, and I haven't yet today. Tonight, I might, because it is an enjoyable drug... However, as far as I am concerned the physical addiction is bull. Sure, the habit might contribute to the inability to quit, but as far as I am concerned, one's health is more important. This goes out to all smokers --> stop chewing, pick up some gum, and enjoy. :D

My question to those of you out there, is has anyone else performed this type of experiment, and if so? what were the results? Also, can you smokers out there give me more input as to why you don't stop smoking and sacrifice your health for cheap pleasure, which actually can be obtained from buying the gum, and getting a nice nicotine buzz. 4 mg CVS brand nicotine citrus gum is awesome. It tastes good, and you get a gooooood buzz. (probably the equivalent of about 5 cigarettes at once.

Give me your opinions / suggestions, etc?
Then what do you all claim the real reason you keep smoking is?

Is it the habit, because the addiction doesn't seem that bad to me... Is it a social thing, or what?

I mean, smoking a cigar does help relieve stress. I'm sure cigarettes do the same for you all, but I prefer the gum to cigars anyways.... What's the addiction all about?

ALERT THE MEDIA!!!! Notify the American Cancer Society, and the American Lung Association and all the doctors around the world. You have solved the problem of nicotine addiction! WOW! All of the billions of dollars spent by smokers trying to quit and by the Surgeon General trying to get smokers to quit have been wasted. All any of us smokers needed was you and your oh so interesting month long experience with nicotine gum!

Smokers, now that you have read of this experiment, join with me lets just put those cigarettes out and praise BeyOND who has the answers to our quit smoking prayers! Who knew it could be so easy. Certainly not this 35 year smoker!

Buddy, you have no idea what you are talking about.

2009-01-31 11:35:20 by Bey0nd

Assuming nicotine has a half-life of 2 hours, after my last cigarette, should I apply a nicotine patch then? Every time i've tried I've gone into withdrawl and had a psychotic episode.
oh yeah, thanks for the spam links
you aren't supposed to use the patch and smoke at the same time. You can die.
eh, well my uncle ken had a friend who smoked while on the patch and he died from a heart attack.

40 something mg is fatal to humans. the patches (step 1) are about 21mg, so if you smoked a pack (assuming you absorbed 1mg per cig into your blood stream) that could definately cause altercations
also of note is the effect of nicotine on the heart along with whether or not the individual is a candidate for heart conditions. I still needed my morning smokes btw.
but i'm not going on the patch until I have a definitive answer, I definately don't want to die or freak out. (especially since my nana just passed away, my passing would destroy my mother)

Can't swear to where I read it, maybe a health mag, but they're supposed to work better if you use them before you actually quit. Let me know if it works, I need to quit, too.

PS--While you overstated "you could die", that's nonsense, but I gave some research and see that my advice about using the patch while smoking was indeed wrong. I'd love to get ahold of that health magazine that gave me that bad info!

2009-04-11 19:16:41 by zyph