Background: december 08 I had a total hip relacment and everything was great post surgery untill about a month ago when I seriously injured the same hip again some how.

Actual question: Is it possible that nicotine from the cigar can ease pain. The reason I ask is I have noticed that on days when I don't have a cigar pain in the problem leg is much worse. Is this a coincedince or could this possibly be true?

Any and all comments are welcome aside from banter.thanks for your time.
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Maybe the relaxation factor? Or maybe there is something to it. I know that painkillers seem to work better for me when I take him some caffeine as well, maybe Vitamin N has some similar effect?
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Nicotine amplifies the effects of some painkillers, so yes, very possible.
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I try to avoid taking pain killers because it puts me out of commission for the day No driving, Not clear headed enough for doing lab work in school. I thought about Relaxation being a key factor but What about when I have a morning smoke then im good for the day?

There may be no real answer to this question really But it sure would be awesome to get a prescription form a doctor to smoke cigars everyday. Then be able to write off my expenses as a medical write off. :-)
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There's a fella I talk to at the hookah community I'm a member of, and he has arthritis pretty bad. He claims that he has less aches and pains after smoking his hookah. So maybe there is something to nicotine providing some pain relief.
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The nicotine might boost your pain meds, but I'm no doctor. All I know is popping a vicodin before smoking a stogie is freaking awesome!:-)
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I try not to mix them. Ill Smoke a cigar then maybe an hour before bed ill have my pain meds. Im not looking to strengthen them If i needed more I would ask the doc.
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I'll agree with the relaxation factor too. If you smoke a CC at the time, could there be a Lithium factor? Thought I'd throw that in there for the fun of it...
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actually, it's quite simple.

Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor. It constricts your blood vessels...thereby, actually decreasing the blood flow to an injured area.

Does that help??

:-)
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Well son, I recomend having another cigar and contacting me tomorrow. :-)
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Smoking slows the healing process.
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I've always been told that nicotine is a stimulant.
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if its a cc you're smoking, they put marijuana in them, so that could have something to do with it. at least thats what i've heard:-)

stearns
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I was going to say that if a CC, not the marijuana but lithium in it could help relax some???
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There is a link here that goes into this very subject and something I always felt was true. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...i?artid=526783
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Wow Thanks,

that was what i was looking for. For anyone else here is part of the article.

"Nicotine's salutary effects in patients with neurodegenerative and mental disorders have been studied a lot and are fairly well known. Two much newer topics of academic research are nicotine's potential for pain relief and for treating obesity.Nicotine itself has provided modest pain relief in animal studies. Although the analgesic effect of drugs that mimic acetylcholine were originally attributed to a different class of receptors, it is now clear that nAChRs play an important role in the control of pain. For instance, epibatidine, a drug that is extracted from the skin of an Ecuadorian frog and that acts at nAChRs, has been shown to be 200 times more potent than morphine at blocking pain in animals. Current animal research is aimed at discovering just where, how, and which classes of nAChRs work against pain, with the aim of developing more selective drugs.
Meanwhile, nicotine is also being investigated as an analgesic in humans. For example, Pamela Flood, an anesthesiologist at Columbia, is investigating nicotine's future as a postoperative analgesic. She recently completed a pilot study of 20 women undergoing gynecological surgery. All the women had access to unlimited morphine and also got either a single 3-mg dose of nicotine nasal spray or a placebo. The placebo group had peak pain scores of eight out of a possible ten in the first hour after surgery. Women who got nicotine averaged a pain score of five. Despite the small sample size, Flood says, the results were highly significant. “As far as I know this is the first clinical study to use nicotine for analgesia, and it was much more successful than I ever would have imagined.”
“The nice thing about nicotine and drugs like nicotine is that they have opposite side effects to anesthetics. Instead of being respiratory depressants, they are respiratory stimulants. Instead of being sedating, they increase alertness. So theoretically this class of drugs is actually the perfect thing to add to an opioid regimen. The fact that they're synergistic was a fortuitous thing that we had never looked at, and neither had anybody else.”
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correct, thats why they are illigal in the US but legally available in The Netherlands :-)
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I have a knee replacement and I find that the relaxation effects of a cigar are as good as any prescription medication. Yesterday I went to the Massholes herf and my knee was bothering me before I went. After a few cigars and some alcohol, my knee was fine. Hope that this coming from personal experience helps. Paul
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Sure does Paul. I guess i have an excuse to smoke more now :-)
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Bookmarked that. Interesting stuff - scientific evidence for all the really old, healthy, avid cigar smokers. Smoking kills...mmmyessss...
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