41–50 of 62 posts
Paradoxically, nicotine has some medical use in e.g. displacing viral debris and autoantibodies from nAChR (nicotinic acetylcholine receptors) due to having highest affinity to these receptors, which seems to help with (long) Covid; "smoker paradox" in lower covid-related hospitalizations.
It would be great if they could improve upon it. I find nicotine to be an underperforming chemical, despite its popularity. A bit more of a cognitive kick would be nice. Know what I mean?
Paradoxically, nicotine has some medical use in e.g. displacing viral debris and autoantibodies from nAChR (nicotinic acetylcholine receptors) due to having highest affinity to these receptors, which seems to help with (long) Covid; "smoker paradox" in lower covid-related hospitalizations.
I was expecting to see a longer list of medical uses, but the wiki says that nicotine has performance impacts on cognition, improving fine motor motion and memory. The pharmacology section is sophisticated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Uses
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Modafinil? Ritalin? The latter is great for tedious tasks.
It's also great for totally messing up your brain chemistry and your reward wiring. Wouldn't touch it myself. I'm sure if you did it once or twice a year it'd be fine but let's be real, anyone who's willing to take it in the first place (outside of having a genuine medical reason like narcolepsy/ADHD) will want to take it a lot more than that. Besides, in the long run - measured over weeks or months - these absolutel…
So instead of plugging away on house work or chores or my employer's boring work, I was building compilers and databases from scratch at 3am, unable to sleep.
And then I checked my blood pressure. Oops.
Also seemed directly implicated in a loved one of mine acquiring an eating disorder.
1/10 would not recommend.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chewing tobacco causes mouth cancer. Nicotine is okay, everything else in the tobacco leaf no so much.
On a scale from the-state-of-california cancer to exposed-to-sublethal-amounts-of-ionizing-radiation cancer, how worried should I be?
Nicotine products aren't safe; they are highly addictive and may exacerbate tumors that are already there. But they're far less addictive than tobacco products and they probably won't kill you.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great to see this here. CIGS are bad, nicotine is pretty neutral to good, as a lozenge or patch or gum. Edit: Nicotine can be way more medically relevant than “less bad”. Not sure what the person replying to me is even on about, tbh
Really inhaling something burning is bad. Pretty much every other form of tobacco that is not cigarettes is less bad.
I imagine if you inhaled helium several times a day for decades that it would also mess something up.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On a scale from the-state-of-california cancer to exposed-to-sublethal-amounts-of-ionizing-radiation cancer, how worried should I be?
It's a serious concern and switching to synthetic nicotine products may prolong your life. All tobacco products are highly carcinogenic. Contrary to what was said earlier it is not really about the smoking (though of course that makes things worse). Nicotine products aren't safe; they are highly addictive and may exacerbate tumors that are already there. But they're far less addictive than tobacco products and they p…
I agree with you that tobacco is uniquely harmful, but smoking by itself is also bad by itself. Even exposure to smoke from campfires, if chronic, will elevate your risk for COPD, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, etc.
So both complement each other well.
[0]https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674%2826%2900335-1
[1]https://phys.org/news/2026-04-nicotine-biosynthesis-wild-tob...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a serious concern and switching to synthetic nicotine products may prolong your life. All tobacco products are highly carcinogenic. Contrary to what was said earlier it is not really about the smoking (though of course that makes things worse). Nicotine products aren't safe; they are highly addictive and may exacerbate tumors that are already there. But they're far less addictive than tobacco products and they p…
>it is not really about the smoking I agree with you that tobacco is uniquely harmful, but smoking by itself is also bad by itself. Even exposure to smoke from campfires, if chronic, will elevate your risk for COPD, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, etc.
But the role of the smoke itself is overemphasized which leads to a false sense of security. Switching from cigarettes to dip does lead to a significant improvement in mortality. But the real step change is moving to oral nicotine pouches, gum, patches, etc.
I'd also point out the risk from campfires and from cigarettes is not at all comparable. They are several orders of magnitude apart. Even smoking marijuana isn't nearly as dangerous as smoking tobacco. (Smoking marijuana is not safe, that just goes to show how ridiculously dangerous cigarettes are.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Inhaling? We're talking about a compound here, not tobacco.
The HN guidelines say "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says". The way I understand it is that different people on the thread often have different ways of thinking about the topic, and we shouldn't dismiss something because it's not what "we" were talking about. In this case, it was obvious to you that the parent was talking about smoking tobacco, right? So you can either engag…
No!, we’re specifically trying to avoid talking about tobacco.
We’re trying to talk about nicotine!