Well, what positive health effects does tobacco smoke have that non-smokable forms of tobacco do not have (e.g. snus)?
I haven't seen any animal experiments in which the non-smoked tobacco or pure nicotine extended lifespans of animals, let alone by 20%, or protected against industrial toxins (e.g. as TS did the large NCI co-exposure experiments on hamsters). As noted in the R.A. experiments mentioned earlier, tobacco smoke has resulted in additional anti-inflammatory effects, beyond those of nicotine. The anti-apoptotic effects of TS are due in part to low dose carbon monoxide. The vasodilating effects of low dose nitric oxide are also exclusive to smoked form. The potent upregulation of detox & antixoidant enzymes (near doubling of glutathione, catalase and SOD) is a hormetic effect specific to smoked form. I also haven't seen papers on MAO B inhibition by nicotine or non-smoked tobacco (while it is 35-40% lower MAO B from smoked form). The same goes for protective effects against amyloidosis, which only smoked form seems to have. Angiogenic effects of nicotine are also distributed diffferently in smoked than in transdermal absorption: on lungs & heart in smoked form, on skin or mouth/tongue in transdermal form. The former targets for angiogenesis seems preferable. Then, there is also a major difference in speeds of biological feedbacks, which are much faster and crispier in smoked form than in transdermal form, which allows for better fine tuning of dosing and timing. The transdermal forms also lack the protective breaks against nicotine overdosing that smoked form provides -- you can easily kill yourself via nicotine poisoning in transdermal form (e.g. from patches or moist tobacco leaves), while that's impossible for smoked form. With the latter, the feedback and on/off control is so fast and clear, that after 10-15 cigarettes smoked at a very fast pace, you're so sick you can't take another drag (but that's only 10-15mg of nicotine, 4-6 times lower than the lethal dose of 60 mg). In contrast, by the time you start feeling sick from the transdermal nicotine, there is still another big load of nicotine which can't be stopped, still making its way through the skin and peripheral capillaries.
Finally, the pharmaceutical industry (along with the rest of sickness industry) has focused its most vicious attacks by far on the smoked form of tobacco, which considering their underlying motivation (more sickness => more profits), implies they see the smoked form as the most potent & most competitive medicinal substance vs their products. Since they know the best how their sales & profits shift with the changes in smoking rates, I consider the intensity of their attacks on tobacco smoking and on any other natural medicine, including snus, as a high quality indirect gauge of their beneficial medicinal effects.
Edited by nightlight, 08 February 2013 - 12:14 AM.