Facts About Nicotine, Your Brain
and the Blood Brain Barrier

The facts about nicotine in the brain reveal that as one of the known psychoactive drugs, nicotine in the bloodstream passes through the blood brain barrier.

Once it has passed into the tissue of the brain, nicotine mimics the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, brings about an increase in dopamine levels, and enhances the action of serotonin.

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What is the Blood Brain Barrier?

The blood brain barrier is both a physical and chemical protective barrier that prevents the wide variety of substances in your blood stream from entering into the brain tissue itself.

The purpose of the blood brain barrier is protection.

Just like the skull protects the brain from external traumatic injury, the blood brain barrier protects it from assault from substances, chemicals, and even micro-organisms that might be in the general circulation of your body.

Anything that is in the blood stream circulates to the brain in the blood vessels, but not all molecules are able to pass through the blood brain barrier. This protects the brain from things such as bacteria, in fact bacterial infections of the brain are very rare. Viruses on the other hand can pass through the blood brain barrier more readily.

Psychoactive drugs like nicotine exert their influence on the brain because they can cross this protective barrier and act directly on the neurons in the brain tissue itself.

Facts About Nicotine in Your Brain

Nicotine is recognized as one of the drugs that acts directly on the acetylcholine neurotransmitter system in the brain.

After crossing the blood brain barrier, nicotine in the brain attaches to the receptor cells where the neurotransmitter acetylcholine usually docks. Thus the acetylcholine system is activated bringing about such changes in the body as:

• improved concentration and memory
• faster muscle response time
• stimulation of the adrenal glands to fortify the body to handle stress

Nicotine also acts to increase dopamine levels in the brain which is known to be a pleasure and reward pathway that is active with addictive psychoactive drugs.

Although nicotine does not act to actually increase serotonin levels it is known to enhance the action of serotonin which is a neurotransmitter known to have an affect on mood. Low serotonin levels are associated with depression.

With all this action while nicotine is in the brain, is it any wonder that you want a another cigarette after all the effects of nicotine have worn off?