In this article, we'll take a look at nicotine overdose. What is it, what processes in the body occur at the time of an overdose, and most importantly - how dangerous it is and what needs to be done if you go too far with nicotine.

What Happens in Overdose?

Nicotine is a neurotoxic poison. This means that it affects the nervous system. If you do not delve into the terminology, then nicotine excites certain receptors in the body and thereby activates the release of adrenaline. Hence - an accelerated heartbeat, high blood pressure, rapid breathing. In small amounts, it can help you wake up and concentrate, but if you overdo it, you don't feel very well.

The easiest way to catch an overdose is on an empty stomach. Especially if you didn't sleep well or, say, drank a lot of coffee. Alcohol and nicotine are also combined extremely effectively. All this does not exactly cause an overdose, but rather overlaps with each other, enhancing the effect.

The main symptoms of a nicotine overdose:

- High blood pressure;

- Nausea;

- Vomiting;

- Headache;

- Dizziness;

- Noise in ears;

- Rapid pulse;

- Pale skin;

- Cold sweat;

- Confusion of consciousness;

- lethargy;

- Heartache.

Symptoms can appear separately or together.

What to do in case of overdose?

If you find at least one of the above symptoms, you should immediately stop vaping. Overdose symptoms disappear in about an hour. If it doesn't get better, feel free to call a doctor. Here are some simple steps to take to speed up your condition:

• Get some fresh air. Avoid stuffiness in the room. If you want to lie down, lie down. But make sure that your head remains on a slight elevation. This is necessary so that the blood does not rush to the head so much.
• Drink plenty of water. It is better to give up tea, even weak one, for now: you don't need extra caffeine now. Water is a universal magic elixir given to us from above. Just do not drink very hot water, this can also affect the pressure.
• Do not panic. Most overdose episodes go away without much consequence. My head will hurt and will pass. This is especially important to keep in mind, since fear of panic is an additional adrenaline rush.

Attention: all this applies only to a slight overdose of nicotine during household vaping. If you - or someone in your family - manage to ingest a large (30 mg or more) dose of nicotine, you need to act quickly and decisively. Induce vomiting - then call an ambulance. While she is driving, throw in activated charcoal (one tablet per 10 kilograms of weight, with high doses more can be), drink water and wait. Don't worry, most likely everything will end well in this case too.

Lethal dose of nicotine

Dying from nicotine poisoning is difficult enough. It is believed that death can occur if you take a dose of nicotine of about 0.5-1 mg per kilogram of adult body weight - or 0.1 mg per kilogram of body weight if it is a child. But here's the thing: real deaths from overdoses have occurred with poisoning of 500-1000 mg of nicotine (6-13 mg per kilogram of body weight).

In general, we can say that if you follow the smoke break schedule, do not steam liquids that are too strong for you and do not get carried away with vaping in combination with alcohol, nicotine itself is not so terrible.