Nicotine
An alkaloid (a nitrogen-containing chemical) made by the tobacco plant or produced synthetically. Nicotine has powerful pharmacologic effects (including increased heart rate, heart stroke volume, and oxygen consumption by the heart muscle), as well as powerful psychodynamic effects (such as euphoria, increased alertness, and a sense of relaxation). Nicotine is also powerfully addictive.
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- Nicotinic acid
Mental disorientation, confusion, delusions and depression Death, if untreated. Pellagra, once a puzzle, was solved by Joseph Goldberger (1874-1929). Serving in the Public Health Service, Dr. Goldberger proposed that pellagra was due to a nutritional deficiency and in 1915 began experiments with Mississippi prison inmates (who “volunteered” in return for full pardons). Dr. Goldberger fed […]
- Nictitate
To wink. For example, nictitating spasm is spasm of the eyelid with continuous winking.
- Nictitating spasm
Spasm of the eyelid with continuous winking. To nictitiate is to wink. “Nictitate” and the older verb “nictate” both come from the Latin word for winking, “nictare.”
- NIDA
Stands for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S., whose mission is to “lead the nation in bringing the power of science to bear on drug abuse and addiction through support and conduct of research across a broad range of disciplines and rapid and effective dissemination […]
- NICU
Newborn, or Neonatal, Intensive Care Unit, an intensive care unit designed for premature and ill newborn babies. Less often, NICU may refer to a Neurologic Intensive Care Unit.