How to Remove Nicotine from Your Body

Medically reviewed by Sarah Gehrke, RN, MS

Last Updated: September 26, 2019 References

Nicotine, found in tobacco products, can be removed from your body fairly easily. As your body metabolizes nicotine, it passes into your blood, saliva, and urine, where it can be tested for and detected. Nicotine typically stays in your body for 1-4 days after you’ve smoked a cigarette.^{[1]
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Research source} You can remove nicotine from your body primarily through giving your body time, by eating and drinking well, and by exercising. Nicotine gives tobacco products their addictive quality, so the primary benefit to ridding your body of nicotine is that you’ll no longer crave tobacco.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Metabolizing Nicotine with Water and Food

1
Drink plenty of water. Since nicotine is expelled from the body through urine, making yourself urinate more will remove nicotine from your body. Drinking water will also dilute the nicotine that remains in your body. This will increase your chances of passing a nicotine urine test administered by your employer.^{[2]
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- As a minimum, adult men should drink 15.5 cups (3.7 L) of fluids every day.^{[3]
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  Mayo Clinic
  Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals
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- Adult women should drink 11.5 cups (2.7 L) of fluids every day.
- Note that in some states, blood nicotine tests are illegal for employers to give prospective employees. You can look up your rights in your municipality.^{[4]
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2
Supplement the water with other healthy beverages. Not all of the fluid that you drink during a day has to be water. Liquids without artificial flavoring or added sugars—like green tea or cranberry juice—will increase your body’s hydration and increase the rate at which you pass nicotine through your urine.^{[5]
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- When trying to clear nicotine out of your body, avoid alcohol, soda, and coffee. These substances do not hydrate the body as well as water and juices, and introduce many additional chemicals.
3
Eat foods that are rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants will help your body metabolize the nicotine, which will lead to it being quickly expelled through urine and sweat. Antioxidants also help remove toxins (e.g., nicotine) from your body. Foods that contain high levels of antioxidants include:^{[6]
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PubMed Central
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- Leafy vegetables like kale or spinach.
- Nuts, including peanuts, walnuts, and pecans.
- Fruits like blackberries, cranberries, and strawberries.
4
Eat foods that stimulate the liver to produce bile. Increasing your liver’s production of bile will encourage your body to metabolize faster. This will result in nicotine passing through your body more quickly. So, the more bile-stimulating foods you consume, the faster you’ll expel nicotine through your urine and sweat. Foods that prompt bile production include:^{[7]
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- Garlic and onions.
- Egg yolks.
- Vegetables like radish, leeks, asparagus, celery, and carrots.^{[8]
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5
Load your diet with foods that contain vitamin C. Vitamin C accelerates your body’s metabolism, which will result in faster processing of nicotine through your system.^{[9]
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Research source} Foods that are naturally high in vitamin C include oranges, strawberries, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, papaya, and kiwi.
- You can also purchase a vitamin C supplement in pill form. Check the “Supplements” section of your local grocery or health-food store.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Removing Nicotine by Physical Activity

1
Go for a jog. Jogging, and other cardio workouts, will raise your heart rate and cause you to sweat. As you sweat, nicotine will pass out of your body in the sweat itself.^{[10]
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Research source} Make sure that you jog long enough to work up a good sweat. Depending on the region you live in, the time that this takes will vary. Jog for at least 15–20 minutes.
- If it’s cold outside, or if you prefer not to run outdoors, you could visit the gym and run on a treadmill.
2
Visit a sauna. Saunas are designed to provide a hot, steamy environment with causes you to sweat. This is an ideal way to pass nicotine from your system: the more you sweat, the more nicotine will pass out through your skin. Sit in the sauna for 20-30 minutes, then take a dip in the pool. Then, get back in the sauna for another 20-30.
- If you don’t have a sauna at your disposal, try to find other hot environments that will make you sweat. For example, lay out for a couple of hours at the local pool.
3
Stop smoking to permanently remove nicotine from your body. In order to remove all of the nicotine in your body—and keep nicotine out—quit using all tobacco products. These include cigarettes, cigars, pipes, vapes (or twisps) , and chewing tobacco. When removing nicotine from your body, anything short of stopping the use of tobacco products is only a temporary fix.
- In addition to the possibility of nicotine addiction, smoking is tremendously harmful to your body in many ways. Stopping yourself from smoking will improve your health and decrease the likelihood of various types of cancer and disease.^{[11]
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  Trustworthy Source
  National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
  Health information from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health
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