What is a urine cotinine test?
This test measures the amount of cotinine in your urine. Cotinine is a chemical your body makes after you are exposed to nicotine. Measuring cotinine is better than measuring nicotine because nicotine disappears from your system within a few hours, but cotinine remains for a day or more.
How accurate are cotinine urine tests?
The cotinine test strip identified smokers with a very high level of agreement (97.3% using 100 ng/ml and 97.1% using 250 ng/ml for the cutoff point) and non-smokers with a fair-to-moderate level of agreement (74.5% using 100 ng/ml and 86.4% using 250 ng/ml for the cutoff point).
Do urine tests test for nicotine or cotinine?
This testing detects and/or measures nicotine and its primary breakdown product (metabolite) cotinine in the blood, urine, saliva, or hair. Nicotine is metabolized by the liver into more than 20 compounds, which are eliminated from the body in the urine.
How long will cotinine show in urine?
People also process nicotine differently depending on their genetics. Generally, nicotine will leaves your blood within 1 to 3 days after you stop using tobacco, and cotinine will be gone after 1 to 10 days. Neither nicotine nor cotinine will be detectable in your urine after 3 to 4 days of stopping tobacco products.
How much water should I drink to flush nicotine out of my system?
To remove nicotine from your system, try to drink plenty of fluids and eat foods that help your body metabolize it. Drink at least 15 cups of water a day if you’re a man and 11 cups if you’re a woman, which will help you urinate the nicotine out of your system quickly.
How do you remove cotinine from your body?
There are several things you can do to speed up this process:
- Drink water. When you drink more water, more nicotine is released from your body through urine.
- Exercise. This increases your body’s metabolism rate, which may lead you to clear nicotine faster.
- Eat foods rich in antioxidants.
Does water flush cotinine out of your system?
Water helps flush nicotine and other chemicals out of your body. Therefore, drinking water in sufficient quantities is a must for every smoker. However, it will make you urinate more often. Frequent urination is helpful because nicotine, cotinine and most tobacco toxins are removed from the body through urine.
What is the half life of cotinine in urine?
Cotinine elimination from plasma, saliva, and urine was studied over 11 days in five subjects (three nonsmokers and two occasional smokers). Half-lives for cotinine averaged 16-19 hours in the different body fluids (range 10 to 27 hours between subjects).
What is the longest cotinine can be detected?
Saliva tests can also be used to detect the presence of nicotine for about 24 hours. 5 Cotinine can be detected for up to seven days after the last use, or up to 14 days in heavy smokers.