Why Do Coffee and Cigarettes Go So Well Together?
Published by Joel November 7th, 2006 in Smoking. Share This
In a 1999 study at the National Institutes of Health rats who were given a moderate amount of caffeine in their drinking water self-administered nicotine more rapidly than their decaffeinated fellows. And I mean, come on—go to any Denny’s or self-respecting truck stop and see for yourself. Drinking coffee may not lead to smoking cigarettes, but I don’t know any cigarette smokers who don’t occasionally drink coffee to potentiate the effects of nicotine.
There is also some evidence suggesting that drinking coffee and smoking lowers incidence of Parkinson’s disease. (Especially Folger’s delicious “Stem Cell Roast.”) Caffeine is thought to be a MAO A and MAO B inhibitor, acting as a neuroprotectant. Nicotine probably also protects against Parkinson’s, but humorously the late onset of the disease sees far fewer over-65 smokers from which to gather data.
The second linked paper above does not claim that the neuroprotective nature of caffeine and nicotine are compounded in combination, but consuming the two simultaneously will certainly make your head feel like they’re swimming up the same stream.
It’s the first rule of psychoactive substances, of which caffeine and nicotine are the most commonly imbibed: Sometimes 1 + 1 = 3.
That said, nicotine may shorten the half-life of caffeine, making it possible for you to consume more. (Yet with a more powerful physical effect? I don’t know; I’ve sent up a flare to my chemist friends.)
Image via Danny Kick’s photostream.
“Stem Cell Roast” - Hilarious!
As a smoker and coffee drinker I always wondered this myself. If nicotine shortens the half-life of caffine, does caffine exacerbate the affects of nicotine? Does drinking coffee make you want to smoke more, or less. For me, I tend to want to smoke more when I drink coffee. On another note, I’m sure cigarette companies won’t promote smoking cigarettes as a prevention for Parkinson’s disease, that just wouldn’t go over well.
Like alcohol, caffeine increases the rate at which nicotine is metabolized out of the blood. Thus, drinking alcohol or caffeine makes you want to smoke more often to keep your blood nicotine level up. Of course, this is also why that first cig of the day is such a rush. If your’e a regular smoker, your blood nicotine level is never lower than right after you wake up and before you have that first one. It was always the best one for me!
Nicotine’s effect on caffeine is similar: you need more to get the same effect. The two sort of blunt each other. When I quit smoking I had to reduce my caffeine intake by about half, because my normal dose gave me extreme caffeine jitters.
I’ve got something a little different but possibly related. I’m a pipe smoker and live down South. My favorite drink is sweet tea and I drink gallons of the stuff weekly. Anyway, I found that whenever I sit down to smoke I would often want a drink and naturally went for my sweet tea.
Man, I don’t know what it is, but having the two together seems to up the flavor and enjoyment a TON. I know it may sound cheesy but it’s like some kind of synergy thing where together they’re better than their individual componets. Now I rarely every smoke my pipe without making sure I’ve got a glass of the stuff with me.
can’t quite remember the physiology but the combination of alcohol and nicotine on the nucleii in your head (supra optic and para-ventricular) means that whilst alcohol makes you pee more, the nicotine reduces this.
thus smokers piss less than their smoke free drinking buddies
It’s the “Infinite Addictive Loop”!
I LOVE IT!