It is not a secret that smoking kills. Millions of people world wide suffer from an addiction to cigarettes. Like most of the drugs, nicotine also stays in the body even when a person is not smoking.

Now there is a big question. How long does nicotine stays in your system? More to this, how to face a drug test?

Here is a perfect answer for all those who are wondering how long does nicotine stays in your system. If you are going to face a drug test then this article is precious for you. Here you will find the timeframe in which nicotine can be traced in your system through urine test, blood test or hair test. Know the facts and easily pass the drug test.

Know Your Nicotine Drug Details & Facts

First of all know the quantity and frequency of toxin you consume. If you understand properly the quantity and frequency of toxin you consume then it is too easy for you to know properly how long does nicotine stays in your system. Just ask two questions:

• How much you smoke?
• How long you have smoked?

What Causes Nicotine Addiction ?

Nicotine causes some changes in the brain and these changes make people to use it more and more. It is in fact an addictive drug. Nicotine causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms and that is the reason people are not able to quit it easily. In addiction it gives a good feeling. Quitting it gives a bad feeling. So, breaking any addiction of nicotine is very difficult. Historically nicotine addiction has been one of the hardest addictions to break.

The Symptoms of Nicotine Withdrawal Are:

• irritability
• impatience
• hostility
• anxiety
• depressed mood
• difficulty in concentrating
• restlessness
• decreased heart rate
• increased appetite or weight gain

Duration of Nicotine Staying In Your Body

Nicotine stays in your system from three days to a few months. The duration in fact depends on how much you smoke? and of course how long you have smoked? as we mentioned above. If facing a drug test, it highly matters what test is being administered to find out nicotine in the body. Nicotine traces can be found in urine for upto 3-4 days on an average. So if you are appearing for a urine test, nicotine can be detected even after 3-4 days after you smoked.

Urinal Drug Test For Nicotine

Usually employers and other testing agencies use urinalysis to find out the levels of nicotine in your body. If you are an occasional smoker (one or two cigarettes a day) then the nicotine or the tobacco traces will remain in your urine for three to four days only . Nicotine will then be cleared up from your body after that. There will be no trace of tobacco found in your body after four days if its a urine test.

If you smoke steadily and have a long history of smoking then the nicotine stay will be longer. It may take at least one week and sometimes it is even carried on for the second week.

If you are a heavy smoker then nicotine will stay for about twenty days in urine.

Blood Test For Nicotine

Blood tests can detect even a small amount of nicotine in your body. The timeframe for nicotine being detected after consuming in blood test is much longer than the urine test. The mechanism of nicotine staying in the blood is different from that of urine. When the nicotine enters the blood system then it gets converted into cotinine. In fact blood test measures the cotinine substance in the blood.

Blood test detects nicotine even in a very small amount and for a longer timeframe because our body does not clear blood through the liver as fast as urine passes out of our body.

Hair Test For Nicotine

Hair test for the detection of nicotine in your system is expensive. So, it is usually not administered for nicotine tests by employers or testing agencies. This test has a longer timeframe and can detect tobacco/nicotine in the body even after years a person has stopped smoking.

Some Commonly Asked Nicotine Facts

How Much Nicotine You Get From Cigarette?

From one cigarette your body gets about 1 mg of nicotine. If you smoke one pack of cigarettes in a day, which are 20 in numbers, then your body will get 20 mg of nicotine. But, it also depends as how often you are smoking. If you smoke more and too often then the nicotine remains in your body more.

How Nicotine Functions In Your Body?

It is same as other drugs. When you smoke a cigarette then nicotine starts building up in your body and over the time you will start craving it. Suppose you become used to nicotine and then suddenly withdraw yourself from smoking then your body demands more from you. And with the nicotine, the cravings will keep on continuing until your body is completely free from nicotine.

How To Clear Nicotine Staying In Your System Fast?

This question may arise in everyone's mind before reading this article. Well, now it is well understood about the stay period of nicotine in the body. Now let us talk about the speeding up of the body's cleaning process.

When the body is getting rid of the toxins then water is the best friend for fast ridding of it. Drink more water and the clearing process becomes faster in your body. This is because drinking lots of water increases the metabolism of your body and hence the ridding or the clearing of nicotine from your body speeds up.

The next way of getting rid of nicotine from your body is by taking Vitamin C. In fact Vitamin C is a very good antioxidant besides helping in keeping you healthy. Taking of Vitamin C helps in metabolizing the drug and helps in quicker purge of the body.

Rigorous exercise is also a good method of getting rid of nicotine from your system. Rigorous exercise helps in metabolizing and processing of all the toxins in the body. This method is also a very good way in helping to deal with any cravings that you may have.

Will To Quit

Though risk is associated with cigarette smoking, still millions of people world wide continue to smoke. Many think of quitting, but according to research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse the attempts are many a time unsuccessful. This is because, as many smokers have said, the overwhelming craving for a cigarette usually weakens their will to quit.

But remember, many people in your life would love to see you quit and they may also be very supportive of helping out to quit smoking.