• thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    IQOS is still not nicotine on its own, and if the symptoms you described were while you were using the IQOS, it sounds like a nicotine overdose.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Just for a record: Dizziness is not a nicotine overdose. At low doses it excites, then it calms, then it makes you dizzy, and several parsecs beyond that you lose consciousness, and even more parsecs beyond that you die, which would be an actual overdose.

      It’s actually quite hard to do. Trying it orally will make you puke as nicotine is a powerful emetic, via the skin you have to literally bathe in high concentrations. Intravenous would be easy but lots of things are fucking dangerous when you put them in a syringe with pointy end. Pretty much the only realistic variant is having high-purity nicotine (which isn’t available on the open market), taking enough of a whiff to directly lose consciousness, and then lie in the fumes for a while.

      It’s actually much easier to overdose on caffeine.

      …that might’ve taken a dark turn. In any case if you continue when you’re dizzy, when your mind isn’t actually enjoying the act, you aren’t serving your nicotine addiction but your habits. And withdrawal from habits can feel physical, that’s for sure.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Note how it says “early phase symptoms”?

          Now of course the term “overdose” is kind of fuzzy, in a personal sense you might say “yo I ate too many cherries, now my stomach hurts”. But in a medical sense that’s not an overdose: You’re simply at a point where you get a clear-cut signal from your body that it’s time to stop, powerful enough to overpower “mmmh cherries, tasty”, you are nowhere close to having to have your stomach pumped.

          Also on a more general note be careful about public health information about nicotine, much of it still hasn’t been corrected.

          • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            In a medical sense an overdose is just taking more than the recommended dose. That clear cut signal from your body is a symptom of an overdose.

            And yeah, the lethality of it is way over stated. Especially the “it can be super absorbed by the skin” stuff. I’ve spilt 250mg of nicotine on my hands and left it for a few minutes before washing it off, and all that happened was the spot was tingly for a minute or two.

            • barsoap@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              But then there wouldn’t be a difference between a plain junkie and someone who overdoses on heroin. The medically recommended dose of diamorphine in both cases was zero.

              What distinguishes those two cases is that one exceeded the effective dose. “Recommended dose” here doesn’t mean “what a doctor tells you” but “more than needed to achieve an intended effect”. For some getting past the boosting effect of nicotine into the depressing effect range might be an overdose. Yet others might enjoy some brief dizziness in an armchair.

              Toxicologically speaking nicotine has quite low overdose toxicity because any serious symptoms happen way after any desirable symptom. Toxicity, though, is what pedestrians generally think of when they hear “overdose” so that is what I focussed on.