Nicotine Overdose!

[4dotsasieni]

Yesterday, I had a most unpleasant experience, apparently a nicotine overdose.
I was smoking a bowlful of 4noggins Father Orrin (which I've enjoyed before, with no nic effects) in a fairly small, enclosed room on a mostly empty stomach. I started to experience a bit of a nicotine hit, which I do fairly often now, apparently due to my advanced age, and within minutes I was dizzy, nauseous, and my heart was racing like crazy. It was really unpleasant, and growing worse by the minute.
Fortunately, I was lucid enough to look up nicotine overdose on the internet, and found several references to remedies -- mostly, it was suggested to ingest some sugar, preferably in liquid form for fast digestion, so I dissolved a LOT of sugar in some fruit juice. It seemed to help, and within maybe ten minutes I was coming down off the high (if you can call it that).
Other suggestions included taking an antihistamine, and, if you have corticosteroids available, like prednisone or equivalent, take that too. Interestingly, most of the people experiencing these problems appeared to be cigar smokers.
Altogether, the symptoms lasted about an hour, and were something I'd never before experienced in almost 50 years of smoking (including some years of cigarettes in my much younger days). I can only attribute it to age, an empty stomach, and the closed, small room. So, in the future I'll have to be alert - smoke only in a well-ventilated area, with some food in me, and, if necessary, run for the sugar.
Give up the pipe? You've got to be kidding.

 

[boudreaux]

You might also want to keep in mind that sugar and additives like high fructose corn syrup, which is put in many, many food products these days (because it is cheaper to produce), are not good for your metabolic system.

 

[thesmokindragon]

Sorry to hear that brother, try keeping some of your favorite

chocolate (if you like chocolate) around and if this happens again

just have some of it. It is the fastest way at least for me to quickly

stop the Nic high
Now I love a good hard ride with Lady Nic, but sometimes

she slips off that red dress and I know I'm done for ;-) lmao

 

[gwtwdbss]

That does not sound like fun at all. I have had the niccups before but that is about all. Very good info though if and when it does happen. Thanks!

 

[numbersix]

Thanks 4dot for the lesson. I guess that explains why I crave cranberry juice whenever I ingest too much nicotine. I always down a big glass after a high nic dosage and feel worlds better afterwards.

 

[decigar]

I can sympathize. It is odd how a familiar tobacco all of sudden hit you with a Vitamin N attack. The human body is truly a mystery. I have had 2 instances where I took an unplanned nap. Peterson Irish Flake in a huge freehand (rookie mistake) and Samuel Gawith Brown #4 Twist in a regular size bowl. I guess I need to find a small bowl pipe =)

 

[brudnic1]

An hour sounds like a long time for a nicotine overdose. It is possible the nicotine triggered something else. I would see a doctor ASAP to determine the cause of your symptoms.

 

[4dotsasieni]

What I really don't understand is why I never experienced any of these nicotine effects back when I was smoking cigarettes, which, as someone pointed out, are basically a nicotine delivery system.
Okay, I understand I'm older now, and things affect me differently, and I understand that yesterday's experience was probably caused by my re-inhaling my own secondhand smoke in that closed room, but why should I experience the occasional nic hit even smoking outdoors, not over-puffing, etc. And I DON'T inhale.
Fortunately, I don't find nicotine at all addictive (when I quit cigarettes I just stopped cold turkey, with no side effects)and non-tobacco smoking herbs do nothing but give me a headache, and I don't seem to get high or drunk from alcohol (I had a pituitary tumor when I was 24, so that may explain the above), but why now, all of a sudden, in my dotage, am I getting nicotine effects from pipe tobacco?? Just one of life's little mysteries.......

 

[jndyer]

Nicotine can cause your body to use more sugar. Maybe you already had a little low blood sugar and this just pushed you over the edge. The symptoms you described could fit either condition. Just a thought.
Also it could be age, most medications have a dosage level for those under 65 and those over. Those who are older usually need less. I could see where nicotine would be the same.

 

[allan]

I can also agree that on an empty stomach a stronger nuc blend can hit me pretty hard
I smoke in my lower level if the house after work and sometimes hen know my wife us getting home ill get up and go upstairs and find myself very lightheaded-sometimes almost dizzy
I'm sixty so ...

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

I don't believe I've ever had a nicotine overdose, but there have been several occasions where I've been feeling green from a full bodied cigar. I usually just curl up in the fetal position until the effects pass. I've had this experience only once with pipe tobacco.

 

[andrew]

4dot you probably had low blood sugar from the empty stomach, and the nic hit sent you over the edge. That happened to me after giving CPR at work about 2 weeks ago, you don't realize how hard you're pumping someone's chest when you're actually performing it in a code blue situation, then while I was doing it the person came back from being dead, so after stopping, suddenly I started getting dizzy and a nauseus feeling, and I thought I was going to faint, so I went out of the room and had to sit down then started feeling better after about 10 minutes. No nicotine involved. I always have my first pipe with my coffee or right after breakfast, and I like my coffee with 2 sugars always at least. But I'd say it was a low blood sugar situation, not diabetic or anything, and having some sugar will bring it back up. The effects you mention and low blood sugar effects are pretty much identical.

 

[4dotsasieni]

"But I'd say it was a low blood sugar situation.."
Interesting - several others have also suggested that. Yet everything I read says that studies (going back to the 1930's) found that nicotine RAISES blood sugar levels.
Oh, well. Go figure.
Time for another pipe. ::

 

[kashmir]

Sorry this happened to you. I'm also a bit of a nic wimp. But I pipe throughout the day nonetheless. Mainly low nic level Lat blends like Star of the East, Pirate Kake, Westminster, Odessa, and the like. But when I smoke London Mixture, EMP or Nightcap, I do so on a full stomach. I've always found that strong cold black coffee or black Assam tea has been very beneficial to relieving the effects of nicotine.

 

[jndyer]

Nicotine, if I am not mistaken, does raise blood sugar levels because it causes the body to use sugars. If, however, you do not have enough I believe it can cause you to have sudden low blood sugar situation. Kind of like what rapidly goes up has the potential to rapidly go down. At least this is my understanding of what can happen. Of course I am not a doctor, scientist, chemist or biologist. I will say if you need vomit, blood, glue or other messed cleaned up from a classroom give me a call because I am your guy.

 

[andrew]

Yes if you don't have the sugar in your blood to begin with, it can't be raised. This why when diabetics inject insulin they have to have orange juice or something to raise the blood sugars so that the insulin can process it.

 

[tennsmoker]

4dot: I eat a little peppermint candy in between pipe bowls. Don't know if that helps or not, but my grandma Maude swore by peppermint. She dipped snuff and smoked a corncob.
I swear by peppermint, too. I am 71, smoked a pipe for more than 40 years, and I ain't quittin' now that I'm a geezer.
Try a little peppermint. Good for what ails ya.

 

[shaintiques]

Yeah it generally isn't wise to smoke on an empty stomach I have experienced that as well. It isn't fun.

 

[ravkesef]

1. Empty stomach --i.e., low blood sugar anyway.

2. closed, small room meant you were re-breathing the smoke. If I believed the crap about 2nd hand smoke, I'd say this is what it was, but the fact is you had no way to ventilate the smoke in the room, and I think this may have served to further increase the vitamin N level in your system. In short you were smoking a pipe and inhaling it, which is something most of us pipe smokers never do--at least intentionally.
the various suggestions offered are basically good ones. I have the experience on occasion and I take a teaspoon of honey. It works quickly because honey is absorbed into the blood stream pretty quickly. Then lie down for about 15 minutes and let the feeling pass. Nicotine overdose can also induce headache, nausea, vomiting and bowel movements--even if you didn't think you had to go. Not fatal in the doses we ingest, but there are times when you will be wishing it were.

 

[mindovermatter]

I think I just experienced it. Smoked Peterson old Dublin. I got almost half the tin gone from previous smokes and it never happened to me before. After around 40 minutes it hit me, horrible feeling. I had to lay down, I was smoking it in my living room but window completely open. oh boy..