Tobacco Tolerance
Definitions of tolerance include:
1. Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus, especially over a period of continued exposure
2. The capacity to absorb a drug continuously or in large doses without adverse effect
3. Diminution in the response to a drug after prolonged use, or
4. Physiological resistance to a poison.
The brain attempts to fight back against its toxic intruder. As if it somehow knows that too much dopamine is flowing, it attempts to diminish the influence of nicotine by more widely disbursing it. It does so by growing or activating millions of extra nicotinic-type acetylcholine receptors in as many as eleven different brain regions.
Although the average user’s body depletes and eliminates (metabolizes) nicotine at the rate of roughly one-half every two hours (129 minutes in Caucasians and 134 minutes in African Americans), the average nicotine intake per cigarette varies significantly.
1. Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus, especially over a period of continued exposure
2. The capacity to absorb a drug continuously or in large doses without adverse effect
3. Diminution in the response to a drug after prolonged use, or
4. Physiological resistance to a poison.
The brain attempts to fight back against its toxic intruder. As if it somehow knows that too much dopamine is flowing, it attempts to diminish the influence of nicotine by more widely disbursing it. It does so by growing or activating millions of extra nicotinic-type acetylcholine receptors in as many as eleven different brain regions.
Although the average user’s body depletes and eliminates (metabolizes) nicotine at the rate of roughly one-half every two hours (129 minutes in Caucasians and 134 minutes in African Americans), the average nicotine intake per cigarette varies significantly.
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