The substance in cigarettes called nicotine is what makes you want to keep smoking them. When you smoke, nicotine enters your bloodstream after passing via your small airways and lung alveoli. It takes 10 to 20 seconds for it to reach your brain.
There, it causes the release of neurotransmitters from your brain, such as dopamine, a substance known for making you feel happy. Your body needs to become used to a life without nicotine when you decide to stop smoking.
You’ll probably have cravings for nicotine, and you might even go through withdrawal. But how far does the tobacco stay in your system after you put out your last cigarette?
Time for how much tobacco stayed in the body:
The nicotine from cigarettes stays in your body for a while after you put them out as enzymes try to break them down. Because nicotine enters your bloodstream, it is transported to your liver, kidneys, spleen, lungs, skeletal muscles, and brain tissue, among other organs. Saliva, stomach secretions, and even breast milk all contain nicotine.
To identify whether you have been exposed to nicotine, nicotine tests often check for residues of those chemicals, such as cotinine, in the body where nicotine breaks down into other molecules. In addition to smoking cigarettes, there are other ways to be exposed to nicotine, including:
- Eating a second-hand cigarette
- Tobacco chewing
- Either growing tobacco or creating tobacco products, skin absorption
- Using vapes or e-cigarettes
- Using nicotine patches, gum, or lozenges as part of a nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) regimen
- Consuming things that naturally contain nicotine
Typically, nicotine is only detectable in your bloodstream for one to three days, whereas its metabolites might stay in your body for up to ten days. Your body starts to break down nearly half of nicotine within hours of your last exposure to it.
However, several variables affect just how far nicotine and cotinine can remain in your system.
Numerous personal factors, including genetics, food, and what you ate that day, affect how long it would take your liver to break down nicotine. Other elements consist of, but are not restricted to:
Age: Nicotine clearance declines as people get older.
Studies have revealed that women metabolize nicotine and cotinine more quickly than men.
High estrogen levels, which are seen in premenopausal women, are strongly correlated with an enhanced metabolism of nicotine.
The length of time nicotine remains in your system can also be affected by how much you smoke. According to studies, compared to only one night of quitting, nicotine clearance is 14 percent higher after four days and 36 percent higher after one week of quitting.
FAQs:
What Remains in Your System After Nicotine Use?
Compared to cotinine, nicotine leaves the body far more quickly.
The half-life of nicotine is around two hours. A substance’s half-life is the amount of time it takes for 50% of it to leave the body.
With a half-life of only two hours, nicotine is quickly eliminated from the body.
The body has largely rid itself of nicotine 3 to 5 days after your last smoke.
How long is cotinine retained in the body?
Compared to nicotine, cotinine is processed and excreted from the body significantly more slowly. Cotinine has a half-life of around 15 hours compared to nicotine’s 2-hour half-life.
Cotinine levels can take longer than two weeks to reach normal levels for nonsmokers. Additionally, it may take up to three weeks for some heavy smokers.
Cotinine, not nicotine itself, is what is measured during a nicotine test. This is since cotinine may be detectable for a lot longer than nicotine.
Since nicotine is the only known source of cotinine, the presence of cotinine in your system indicates that you once used nicotine.