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What nicotine does to your brain

economist.com

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Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#61

Post by Pilottwave »

dsego wrote: post #43
ramon156 wrote: post #40

Brain fog for me became a lot less prevalent recently. I got no idea what it is but I don't want it to stop. I honestly think brain fog is mostly a mentality thing, but I have no evidence to back this up. It doesn't really matter what I eat. The only thing I changed was I started gymming again and I'm taking creatine. I still eat garbage food

Creatine is supposedly good for cognitive performance, at least that's what I took from a couple of youtube videos I watched.

Creatine might not be without risks. Search for creatine withrawal symptoms. Some people are wrecked for months when they quit the supplement. I tried one cycle of 4 weeks and quit cold turkey and had a crash/depressive episode unlike i ever experienced before for about 7 days. I did like the benefits, it provided me resitance to mental fatigue. Roughly i'd say i experienced a "+30% boost", significant!

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#62

Post by xtiansimon »

michelpp wrote: post #37

I caught covid for the first time in jan of 2024, the illness itself wasn't that bad for me, like a common cold, but the aftereffects lingered for months. Eventually my ability to smell and taste came back in a few weeks, but the mental brain fog would not let go. I would sleep over 12 hours a night and still be tired. According to my fitness tracker my daily step and energy burn counts were cut in half. It was so ba…

Curious, have you noticed any change in gum health?

I was chewing the gum (not mints) for half a year going from 2mg to 4mg several years ago. I experienced receding gum line from inflammation.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#63

Post by deinonychus »

xtiansimon wrote: post #62
michelpp wrote: post #37

I caught covid for the first time in jan of 2024, the illness itself wasn't that bad for me, like a common cold, but the aftereffects lingered for months. Eventually my ability to smell and taste came back in a few weeks, but the mental brain fog would not let go. I would sleep over 12 hours a night and still be tired. According to my fitness tracker my daily step and energy burn counts were cut in half. It was so ba…

Curious, have you noticed any change in gum health? I was chewing the gum (not mints) for half a year going from 2mg to 4mg several years ago. I experienced receding gum line from inflammation.

not him, but i use the amazon brand lozenges. they’re mints you tuck like a zyn, rather than gum. much less spicier in my mouth and doesn’t irritate my tummy like gum did. haven’t noticed any mouth issues but im sure a dentist wouldn’t approve

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#64

Post by deinonychus »

jovial_cavalier wrote: post #45
michelpp wrote: post #37

I caught covid for the first time in jan of 2024, the illness itself wasn't that bad for me, like a common cold, but the aftereffects lingered for months. Eventually my ability to smell and taste came back in a few weeks, but the mental brain fog would not let go. I would sleep over 12 hours a night and still be tired. According to my fitness tracker my daily step and energy burn counts were cut in half. It was so ba…

I have a similar average intake to you, and I've been on it much longer, about 3.5 years. I have had periods where I go off the stuff entirely, including a whole month and a half earlier this year. I've also had periods where my intake has spiked much higher. The withdrawal symptoms are actually strangely pleasant to me as long as I'm in the right mood and have something interesting to focus on. You will get irritabl…

>The withdrawal symptoms are actually strangely pleasant to me as long as I'm in the right mood and have something interesting to focus on.

i actually find this true, too. i’m dependent on nicotine lozenges and if i’m out and about and for some reason i don’t have my nicotine, i feel pretty locked in and focused on the task at hand (probably so i can hurry up and finish and access some nicotine). i often feel a bit chatty, too. maybe i haven’t tried being off it long enough to feel irritable. but this interesting headspace makes me optimistic that maybe quitting won’t be so bad, and that maybe the nicotine is somehow depressing my arousal and i’d be better without it (all the time).

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#65

Post by arevno »

eru wrote: post #22
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.

Anecdata, but I am extremely addicted to nicotine lozenges.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#67

Post by IAmBroom »

xyzal wrote: post #19
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.

Interesting, I remember sometimes actually 'getting' anxiety after a cig when I used to smoke.

It acts as a stimulant, especially in those who aren't accustomed to it.

Stimulants can trigger anxiety. QED, there.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#68

Post by IAmBroom »

eru wrote: post #22
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.

On the one hand, some webpage and you don't think it's addictive.

OTOH, decades of research and thousands of peer-reviewed papers, plus the authority of NIH, WHO, and FDA - to name a few - say it is highly addictive.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#69

Post by IAmBroom »

mamonster wrote: post #33
wohoef wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>And it’ll make your gums recline Would you happen to have a source? I mentioned this specifically, he said that he is only aware of gums reclining for very heavy users (5+ pouches a day) and that from the other patients he has 1-2 pouches don't seem to have any noticeable effect.

https://www.google.com/search?q=nicotine+pouches+gum+health&...

... and mouth cancer is so much more serious than having your teeth fall out, yes, find a new dentist.

Re: What nicotine does to your brain

#70

Post by sph »

r_singh wrote: post #55
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…

As someone who can relate: nicotine spray has been a great alternative for me with the following advantages: - better dose control for sensitive people, since you can use just one puff (unlike a patch, which delivers the full dose) - much faster onset Downsides: strong flavour and the need to spit it out if you have a sensitive stomach.

> much faster onset

That's what causes addiction though, which is a function of how quick and how large is the spike in dopamine levels over baseline. Nicotine patches take ~4 hours to reach peak dosage in the bloodstream, which is why I even considered them in the first place, as an ex-smoker that doesn't want to get addicted to the stuff ever again.

Nicotine from a cigarette, in comparison, takes about 7 seconds to cross the blood-brain barrier.

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