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What nicotine does to your brain

economist.com

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Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#21

Post by mamonster »

Honestly, now that you have all-white snus, basically all of the issues of cigarettes are gone (and they are so fking expensive in Europe) and you get all of the benefits of nicotine. I don't need to go outside the office, just sit at my desk and continue working. Now that the market is developed you can vary nicotine dosage at will.

Maybe someone else here heard something different, but my dentist told me that there don't seem to be any dental issues associated with oral pouches, at least so far ?

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#22

Post by eru »

andy_ppp wrote: post #8

TLDR; • Nicotine boosts attention, memory and alertness by releasing dopamine and other neurotransmitters. • It’s far less harmful than tobacco but highly addictive. • Some evidence hints at therapeutic effects in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia models. • Developing brains (foetus, adolescence) show lasting harm in animal studies.

Gwern's page (https://gwern.net/nicotine) and personal anecdata seems to go against the claims of nicotine by itself being addictive, especially 'highly addictive'.

Smoking (or even vaping) might be 'highly addictive'. But nicotine as eg patches that you glue on your skin doesn't seem to cause much addiction, if any at all.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#23

Post by sph »

actionfromafar wrote: post #18
sph wrote: post #6

I am diagnosed ADHD. I have used dexamphetamine as prescribed which worked pretty well, in moderate dosages because I am sensitive, but I came to dislike the effect it had on me: I felt like I was attached to a horse that kept pulling me around even when I just wanted to stop and take a break. And the fact that I would crash 5 hours later. In 2020, before even knowing I had ADHD, let alone being medicated, I managed…

That pet theory might have legs. I like it.

I also blame screens. My other pet theory is that in 30 years we'll discover there is really no such thing as ADHD, just pre-frontal dopaminergic dysfunction from a lot of different causes, such as addiction (there is a great presentation by Dr. Todd Love about how ADHD and drug addiction present exactly the same), superstimuli frying our reward systems and natural differences in drive between people. What we're doing now is just treating the symptoms.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#24

Post by Knufen »

sph wrote: post #6

I am diagnosed ADHD. I have used dexamphetamine as prescribed which worked pretty well, in moderate dosages because I am sensitive, but I came to dislike the effect it had on me: I felt like I was attached to a horse that kept pulling me around even when I just wanted to stop and take a break. And the fact that I would crash 5 hours later. In 2020, before even knowing I had ADHD, let alone being medicated, I managed…

Not a doctor, but can recommend methylphenidat any day over amphetamine. It is a much less "angry" version and the slow release evens the effect.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#25

Post by wohoef »

mamonster wrote: post #21

Honestly, now that you have all-white snus, basically all of the issues of cigarettes are gone (and they are so fking expensive in Europe) and you get all of the benefits of nicotine. I don't need to go outside the office, just sit at my desk and continue working. Now that the market is developed you can vary nicotine dosage at will. Maybe someone else here heard something different, but my dentist told me that there…

Find a new dentist. Nicotine pouches are incredibly bad for oral health. Huge risk of oral cancer. And it’ll make your gums recline, exposing your nerves (this hurts). Also nicotine itself is quite bad for you to begin with (cardiovascular health, anxiety, etc).

Sure snus is better than smoking, but that’s just because most things are better than smoking.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#26

Post by HipstaJules »

jesuswasjew wrote: post #16
NalNezumi wrote: post #13

There's also this short video from Kurzgesagt about smoking (nicotine) about this topic https://youtu.be/_rBPwu2uS-w?si=VPqKyty7I96jtKj4

That's a bad propaganda channel.

Hey! Why do you say that? Curious to understand your POV

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#29

Post by austinjp »

elcritch wrote: post #3

I can't read the article unfortunately. However nicotine also seems somewhat palliative to a range of mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar, anxiety, etc. I once read a paper that said something like 90% of schizophrenics were chain smokers who were self-medicating. By that lens the widespread amount smoking in the past makes sense in eras before other pharmaceuticals.

Yep: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia_and_tobacco_smok...
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