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Ron and Annmaureen,
 
I'm still puzzling over this nicotine thing.  Grace's blood tests showed her
to be severely low in 1-N-methylnicotinimide which is what they use to test
vitamin B3 levels in the urine.  (Normal range - 3 to 17 mg, Grace's level-
1)  Have either of you ever had this test?  I'm wondering if the body was
getting its niacin by breaking down nicotine.  Friend chemists, could this
be possible?
 
Some things have been haunting me.  I've been thinking of how Grace's amino
acid tests suggested something not quite working right with B6 and thinking
about her low B3 and thinking about the nicotine posts on this list, and
thinking about the opiate excess theory's suggestions of problems with
phenolic compounds and salicylates.  I've also been thinking about all the
mentions of autoimmune illness and remembering when I had ITP, the warnings
to stay away from benzene and toluene.
 
I have a copy of Geigy's Scientific Tables from my days of being a secretary
at Vanderbilt Medical School, and an organic chemistry book by John McMurray
that I have as a reference. (I never studied this stuff, because I was
kicked out of college chemistry when I said I was allergic to benzene and
couldn't test unknowns that smelled like benzene.) Anyway,  I thought I'd
look up these chemical structures and see if there is something about them
in common. These books have nice Kekule structures drawn for all sorts of
chemicals, but I was struck by the similarities I found in the following
chemicals:  (forgive crudity of ascii, please}
 
           H
            |
  H       C      OH
    \   /     \\  /
       C       C
       ||        |                  PHENOL
       C       C
     /   \    //   \
    H      C      H
             |
            H
 
 
 
          H
           |
  H      C    COOH
    \   //    \  /
       C      C
       |        ||                  NICOTINIC ACID (B3)
       C       C
     /  \\     /   \
  H       N      H
 
 
 
           CH2OH
                 |
HOCH2     C      OH
      \      //      \    /
          C           C
          |            ||                  PYRIDOXINE (B6)
          C           C
        /   \\       /   \
    H          N       CH3
 
 
 
 
 
            H         O
            |           ||
  H       C      O--C--CH3
    \    /     \\  /
       C        C
       ||         |                  ASPIRIN (SALICYLATE)
       C        C
     /   \     //   \
    H      C      COOH
             |
            H
 
 
 
   H      N   H
     \  //   \  /
       C      C     CH3
       |       ||         |             NICOTINE
       C      C       N     H
     /   \\    /   \    /  \   /
    H      C       C     C--H
             |       /|       |
            H    H C-----C--H
                      /|      |
                    H H   H
 
 
          H
           |
  H      C     H
    \   //   \   /
       C      C
       |        ||                  BENZENE
       C      C
     /   \\    /   \
    H      C      H
           |
           H
 
 
           H
            |
  H       C      CH3
    \   /     \\  /
       C       C
       ||        |                  TOLUENE
       C       C
     /   \    //   \
    H      C      H
             |
            H
 
Now, do you think the fact these things all look alike means anything?  I'm
no chemist, but these things resemble each other more than they resemble
other diagrams in my Geigy and Organic Chemistry book.
 
Coincidence? Or are some of our systems thrown into a biochemical tailspin
by some of these similarities?
 
(I tried to double check these diagrams, but if I missed a hydrogen atom or
something, someone please correct me!)
 
Two other facts I didn't know from Geigy:  "During the roasting of coffee,
considerable amounts of nicotinic acid are formed from trigonelline,"  and
"Nicotinic acid but not nicotinimide has an inhibiting effect at high dosage
on the synthesis of lipids, particularly cholesterol, but the mechanism of
this effect is obscure; the primary action of nicotinic acid is possibly the
liberation of free fatty acids blocked in the tissues."
 
Maybe that's why I like coffee so much!  And why getting off of cigarrettes
leads to weight gain.  Maybe?
 
Still operating under the notion that real truth is simple and beautiful!
 
Susan Owens