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Ammonia in Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco Products

7K views 1 reply 1 participant last post by  Vini Vidi Vici 
#1 ·
For a long time, ive had a hypothesis that tobacco manufacturers were adding some chemical into their products to directly enhance the addiction process. i was looking for something that i thought would be hidden/concealed,, but it turns out, they didnt conceal it very well, or something.....

Ammonia potently enhances NMDA, Glutamate, and Ca2+ activity in the brain. As is common knowledge, NMDA/Glutamate is the major/most important mechanism causing addiction to opiates, nicotine, and most other addictive drugs. NMDA/glutamate activation causes the brain to hard-wire the rewarding effects of Addictive substances into the memory, thus causing an individual to strongly associate the rewarding effects with the specific drug that was consumed.

Also, not only is NMDA the major pathway causing addiction....NMDA activation is actually essential in order for Nicotine to cause Dopamine release (unlike other drugs, where NMDA/glutamate/Ca2+ activation is not essential to cause Dopamine release) .....meaning, Ammonia will directly enhance the rewarding effects of nicotine, while at the same time enhancing the brain's hard-wiring of the rewarding effects.

Ammonia is added to some cigarettes, of course i have no idea of knowing specifically which brands.....however, i have been able to find ingredient lists of Dipping/chewing/smokeless tobacco, and various preparations of Ammonia are usually added to many brands of such.......this explains why i have always noticed a wierd response to Dipping/chewing/smokeless tobacco, i always felt there was something in it which changed my response.

Thus...if you are an individual who consumes large quanitites of Smokeless tobacco products, it would be wise to consider the harmful long-term effects of excessive ammonia exposure (which is completely unrelated to the other harmful effects of tobacco) ....including an enhanced risk of developing Alzheimers, and Parkinsons disease, dose-dependent neurotoxicity, inreased Anxiety symptoms, and other crap like that. Note: i am a frequent tobacco/nicotine product consumer, im not bashing Tobacco :D

the link to the article....
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/88511293/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
 
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#2 ·
Abstract

Disorders of ammonia metabolism including urea cycle enzymopathies, Reye Syndrome, and liver failure are associated with brain edema and severe neurological impairment. Excess blood-borne ammonia crosses the blood-brain barrier by diffusion as NH3 where it interacts with various cellular processes involved in neurotransmission and brain energy metabolism. Ammonia exerts a potent effect on glutamate (AMPA) receptor-mediated neurotransmission. Ammonia also inhibits high affinity transport of glutamate by an action on astrocytic glutamate transporter expression, an action which results in increased extracellular concentrations of glutamate. Acute hyperammonemia directly activates the NMDA subclass of glutamate receptors resulting in increased intracellular Ca2+ and increased synthesis of nitric oxide and cGMP. Chronic hyperammonemia, on the other hand, results in a loss of NMDA receptor sites. Activation of NMDA receptors in acute ammonia toxicity results in depletion of ATP in brain. Neuropathologic studies in experimental animals with congenital urea cycle disorders and severe hyperammonemia reveal evidence of neuronal cell death which is excitotoxic in nature. These findings suggest that overactivation of NMDA receptors is a significant feature of acute hyperammonemic syndromes and that antagonists of these receptors or of their signal transduction pathway enzymes such as nNOS could be beneficial in the treatment of the central nervous system manifestations (encephalopathy, brain edema) which are characteristic of hyperammonemic disorders. MRDD Research Reviews 2001;7:276-279. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc...
 
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