Low Toxin Lifestyle Tobacco Leaf as a Vitamin A / Carotene Source

[cfeehan]

Now that I'm on the right Low Toxin path, I've spent time thinking back over my life and places where I may have accumulated Vitamin A, copper and other toxins.

I grew up in a family of smokers - mom and grandparents and aunts and uncles: cigarettes dad: pipe
As a kid, I was constantly swatting away smoke.
I don't think they were maliciously trying to harm me, but I think now this could have contributed to a set of birth defects I was born with and some of my lifelong struggles. If you already start out toxic and then live a typical Western lifestyle, you start out with a stacked deck and just keep accumulating more and more. But now I'm breaking out of that cycle - hooray for this forum!

When I heard about spinach and other leafy greens being things we should avoid on this lifestyle, I had the 'aha' moment about tobacco, another leafy green. Luckily, I never became a smoker and now have even more reason to avoid those who do.

Carotenoid-Related Volatile Compounds of Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) Essential Oils​

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6804150/

Tobacco is one of the richest sources for degraded carotenoids (also labeled as norisoprenoids, norterpenoids, or nor-carotenoids), with almost 100 chemical constituents being identified

Beta-carotene degradation products - formation, toxicity and prevention of toxicity​

Beta-carotene degradation products - formation, toxicity and prevention of toxicity - PubMed

Carotenoid breakdown products (CBPs) including highly reactive aldehydes and epoxides are formed during oxidative attacks in the course of antioxidative action

Concerning mitochondriotoxicity, we found that CBPs strongly inhibit state 3 respiration of rat liver mitochondria at concentrations between 0.5 and 20 microM. This was true for retinal, beta-ionone, and for mixtures of cleavage/breakdown products. The inhibition of mitochondrial respiration was accompanied by a reduction in protein sulfhydryl content, decreasing GSH levels and redox state, and elevated accumulation of malondialdehyde.

 

[steel_reserve]

Beta-carotene degradation products - formation, toxicity and prevention of toxicity​

Beta-carotene degradation products - formation, toxicity and prevention of toxicity - PubMed

Carotenoid breakdown products (CBPs) including highly reactive aldehydes and epoxides are formed during oxidative attacks in the course of antioxidative action

Concerning mitochondriotoxicity, we found that CBPs strongly inhibit state 3 respiration of rat liver mitochondria at concentrations between 0.5 and 20 microM. This was true for retinal, beta-ionone, and for mixtures of cleavage/breakdown products. The inhibition of mitochondrial respiration was accompanied by a reduction in protein sulfhydryl content, decreasing GSH levels and redox state, and elevated accumulation of malondialdehyde.

Cigarettes + Coffee must be an aldehyde nuke.

 

[mosaic01]

It's probably the fresh tobacco that has this high carotene content (>20mg/100g dry weight). Curing and then smoking the plant will reduce it to basically zero, leaving some breakdown products. Burning and inhaling is different than ingesting.

It took me around 2 months to go through smoking 100g tobacco leaves. So even if you would eat 100g of uncured tobacco in 2 months, it would come down to a mere 0.3mg carotene per day.

The problem with smoking is the additives they add to commercial tobacco, and the heavy-metal and pesticide content. The founder of the American Spirit brand has talked about this problem.

Smoking also causes a dependence of the organism, because it has a stabilizing effect on the organism in the context of a toxic environment. In rat experiments, the rats who started smoking and then stopped were worse off then those who continued smoking.

Tobacco is a toxic plant with "healing" medicinal properties. Within the framework of a toxic life, it is a powerful crutch. It is psychoactive and the shamans of South America regard it as the younger sister of Ayahuasca. It is used in cleansing rituals as an oral drink to make the body purge toxins.

 

[mosaic01]

decreasing GSH levels and redox state, and elevated accumulation of malondialdehyde.

It has been shown in actual in-vivo studies that smoking tobacco boosts GSH levels and phase 2 liver detoxification like nothing else, probably via a hormetic effect.

CS exposure initially decreased ELF GSH levels by 50% but within 2 h GSH levels rebound to about 3 times basal levels and peaked at 16 h with a 6-fold increase and over repeat exposures were maintained at a 3-fold elevation for up to 2 months

Lung glutathione adaptive responses to cigarette smoke exposure - PubMed

CS exposures evoke a powerful GSH adaptive response in the lung and systemically. These data suggests there may be a sensor that sets the ELF GSH adaptive response to prevent GSH levels from dipping below basal levels. Factors that disrupt GSH adaptive responses may contribute to the...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

There is no other natural tool available that boosts GSH levels 6-fold.

Smoking tobacco works so well for liver detoxification that smokers need 2 to 3 times the amount of coffee to feel an effect. Smokers clear caffeine and other toxins extremely fast.

That is not to say that growing up in a household of people who smoke commercial cigarettes all day is a good thing. The best way to consume tobacco is probably by inhaling pure organic tobacco through a water pipe that cools down and filters the smoke from larger particles. The cellulose paper of cigarettes alone is a problem. Smoking that way 2 or 3 times a week should be sufficient to boost the detox systems.

 

[Peater]

It has been shown in actual in-vivo studies that smoking tobacco boosts GSH levels and phase 2 liver detoxification like nothing else, probably via a hormetic effect.

Lung glutathione adaptive responses to cigarette smoke exposure - PubMed

CS exposures evoke a powerful GSH adaptive response in the lung and systemically. These data suggests there may be a sensor that sets the ELF GSH adaptive response to prevent GSH levels from dipping below basal levels. Factors that disrupt GSH adaptive responses may contribute to the...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

There is no other natural tool available that boosts GSH levels 6-fold.

Smoking tobacco works so well for liver detoxification that smokers need 2 to 3 times the amount of coffee to feel an effect. Smokers clear caffeine and other toxins extremely fast.

A good cigar always seems to "clear me out", I've been smoking them on and off (mostly off since COVID as I don't have a smoking shed anymore ) since 2014 or so. Hopefully it's helped prevent too much liver accumulation.

Currently off cigarettes, I found it easier to quit when I started low A, curiously.

I prefer smoking something that isn't inhaled, it just seems "healthier".

 

[mosaic01]

I prefer smoking something that isn't inhaled, it just seems "healthier".

In the e-book "The Health Benefits of Tobacco: The Surprising Therapeutic Benefits from Moderate Smoking", William Douglas MD writes that cigars is among the best ways to smoke. Doesn't stress the lungs.

 

[Peater]

In the e-book "The Health Benefits of Tobacco: The Surprising Therapeutic Benefits from Moderate Smoking", William Douglas MD writes that cigars is among the best ways to smoke. Doesn't stress the lungs.

Now I want a nice Montecristo.

 

[cfeehan]

It's probably the fresh tobacco that has this high carotene content (>20mg/100g dry weight). Curing and then smoking the plant will reduce it to basically zero, leaving some breakdown products. Burning and inhaling is different than ingesting.

Yes, good point. I wasn't thinking through the effects of the drying and curing.

I still think there's a connection in there somewhere. With Vitamin A related to eye health, and eye health suffering with cigarette smoke exposure. But maybe that's more of a correlation than a causation.

 

[mosaic01]

and eye health suffering with cigarette smoke exposure. But maybe that's more of a correlation than a causation.

There's a famous thread on longecity that no longer exists, where some guy named "nightlight" deconstructs the entire history of anti-tobacco science quite well:

Smoking is good for you! - Page 4 - Lifestyle

Page 4 of 17 - Smoking is good for you! - posted in Lifestyle: The hamster study again? Already shown another, bigger hamster study with the opposite effect.You have shown a bigger study with aignificantly reduced lifespan in smoking group? Where was that?If you are talking about 1970 Dontenwill...

web.archive.org

Also

https://www.forces-nl.org/artikelen/lies.pdf

The great Covid and fags cover-up

Study after study shows that smokers are less likely to get Covid. But this inconvenient truth has been buried.

www.spiked-online.com

Cigarettes have many problems, but smoking pure organic tobacco (without any papers preferrably, as those do cause lung irritation) has not been proven to cause any detrimental health effects.

 

[gabys225]

There's a famous thread on longecity that no longer exists, where some guy named "nightlight" deconstructs the entire history of anti-tobacco science quite well:

Smoking is good for you! - Page 4 - Lifestyle

Page 4 of 17 - Smoking is good for you! - posted in Lifestyle: The hamster study again? Already shown another, bigger hamster study with the opposite effect.You have shown a bigger study with aignificantly reduced lifespan in smoking group? Where was that?If you are talking about 1970 Dontenwill...

web.archive.org

Also

https://www.forces-nl.org/artikelen/lies.pdf

The great Covid and fags cover-up

Study after study shows that smokers are less likely to get Covid. But this inconvenient truth has been buried.

www.spiked-online.com

Cigarettes have many problems, but smoking pure organic tobacco (without any papers preferrably, as those do cause lung irritation) has not been proven to cause any detrimental health effects.

Great resources, thanks!

 

[Peatfan69]

Does swedish snus provide the same GSH increase etc? Or you have to have the combustion from the small amounts of carbon monoxide to trigger GSH and SODs, catalase to get stimulated?

 

[mosaic01]

Does swedish snus provide the same GSH increase etc? Or you have to have the combustion from the small amounts of carbon monoxide to trigger GSH and SODs, catalase to get stimulated?

I think you have to have the combustion of all kinds of compounds of tobacco for the effect to occur.