Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nicotine as a useful stimulant

gwern.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 138 posts

Re: Nicotine as a useful stimulant

#81

Post by gwern »

spion wrote: post #49
gwern wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To the OP: curious to know, are you a user? Yes. Reading the literature, I found no reason to not try out nicotine. I discuss my personal experiences in http://www.gwern.net/Nootropics#nicotine > Have you been off nicotine longer than 2 months in the past year? Why would I do that if I find it useful, as I do? But I have been keeping a log of nicotine use since June (to use it as a covariate in other self-experimen…

Ah, so basically, about 20 times less than an average smoker (compared to your calculated average), and about 4-5 times less for the peak days, if I'm calculating correctly? That is, assuming a 1-pack-a-day smoker of a 0.6mg / cigarette brand ... Okay, I guess - I wish you the best of luck, and your usage seems well controlled. Though, the withdrawal I went through when I quit - I wouldn't wish it to my worst enemy.…

> That is, assuming a 1-pack-a-day smoker of a 0.6mg / cigarette brand ...

IIRC, the effective dose of a smoker is going to be both quantitatively larger due to more efficient absorption through the lungs and also qualitatively different due to the much faster absorption.

Also, I should mention that in the experiment, half the days were placebos, so that's at least 5 pieces of gum which were allowed to dry out, reducing the average a little bit.

Re: Nicotine as a useful stimulant

#82

Post by gwern »

maxander wrote: post #77
gwern wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The hand-wavy "other compounds" that the article mentions and then doesn't describe? Anyone know what those would be? Excuse me? I went to considerable pains to give the primary source citations & jailbreak the PDFs.

Its possible I've missed something? I don't have time to read all the papers you cite, but from titles/abstracts they all appear to be talking about the effects of MAOIs. If there are separate substances in play I've somehow managed to read your article and completely miss any mention of them.

> Its possible I've missed something? I don't have time to read all the papers you cite, but from titles/abstracts they all appear to be talking about the effects of MAOIs.

Well, yes, what exactly else would you expect papers to be about when someone claims that nicotine+MAOIs is different from just nicotine...? Presumably the papers are going to have titles like "Monoamine Oxidase Inhibition Dramatically Increases the Motivation to Self-Administer Nicotine in Rats".

Re: Nicotine as a useful stimulant

#84

Post by pizzeys »

cnp wrote: post #33
agumonkey wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

vaporized liquid nicotine ? Where do you get it ? in Europe e-cigarettes are under scrutiny because the sold product is not guaranteed to be clean of toxic substances, otherwise it would be pretty great I guess.

I bought the eGO-T (meant for vaporizing plant matter) with a secondary nicotine adapter. In the US you can find both products at nearly every smoke shop. One thing that really makes a difference is that the vaporized nicotine is actually somewhat hot, like cigarette smoke, when you breathe it in. Standard pre-packaged e-cigarettes didn't cut it for me specifically for this reason.

> One thing that really makes a difference is that the vaporized nicotine is actually somewhat hot, like cigarette smoke, when you breathe it in.

Too hot, I found, with the first such device I tried - way hotter than cigarette smoke. With the one I have currently (a bottom coil design, I think it's called, though I'm not into the technical side of the things really) it's pretty accurate.

Re: Nicotine as a useful stimulant

#86

Post by mistercow »

maxander wrote: post #37

If nicotine is supposedly "not highly addictive," what heretofore obscure, hideous compounds are lurking in cigarettes that accounts for their legendary addictiveness? MAOIs? True, they give withdrawal symptoms. But despite being a widely used pharmaceutical, to my knowledge no MAOI-only drug has seen anything resembling the abuse patterns of tobacco. The hand-wavy "other compounds" that the article mentions and then…

It's not just MAOIs. It's the combination of nicotine and an MAOI that is so addictive (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091305703...).

Re: Nicotine as a useful stimulant

#87

Post by mistercow »

spion wrote: post #18

"Effects of nicotine on perceptual speed" [1] is behind a paywall, and I can't tell from the abstract whether the results also apply to non-smokers. However, the abstract of another of the articles, "Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Performance in a Simulated Driving Task" [2] states that the effect was only measured on minimally abstinent smokers. Are any of the other studies measuring the beneficial effects of nicot…

The good news is that nicotine's addictiveness is drastically reduced when it isn't combined with an MAOI. If e-cigs really take hold in the market, and aren't just a fad, we may see the end of smoking as a highly addictive habit (except for among MAOI users, of course).

Re: Nicotine as a useful stimulant

#88

Post by solox3 »

plasmacaster wrote: post #40

I've read about supposed benefits of nicotine a while ago and got myself an electronic cigarette. I have never smoked before. Not sure if there are any mental benefits. I feel a bit more relaxed right after vaping. No ill effects whatsoever. I made a few week to month long breaks to see if there would be any addiction - there was none. I was able to stop at any time. It's sort of like snacking for me, but without the…

So did I. As a non-smoker, I got an "e-cig" simply because it contains nicotine and no tar.

Two years of off-and-on "smoking" has revealed that this cigarette replacement causes no addiction whatsoever.

Re: Nicotine as a useful stimulant

#89

Post by racecar789 »

michaelwww wrote: post #16
whalesalad wrote: post #2

I can't imagine life without stimulants. I hope to move off into the woods one day and live a completely natural lifestyle for a while. Reset myself. No caffeine, no nicotine, no amphetamines. Just me, a dog, and a nice ranch property in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, nicotine is a staple of my day-to-day. I quit smoking a long time ago, now I stick to Swedish snus and vaping. For a period I was chewing gum too. D…

Snus is an awesome alternative to smoking. I've tried chew and nicotine lozenges, but snus is a happy medium. I've come up with a way to get off nicotine, which I do from time to time: dissolve about 8 nicotine lozenges in a bottle of water. Take a sip when craving hits. The craving goes away immediately. ymmv.

Thunder Extra Strong is a snus with no flavor and a high nicotine count.

Just passing it along since I tried 5-10 brands before settling on Thunder. To each their own.

Re: Nicotine as a useful stimulant

#90

Post by toddrew »

cnp wrote: post #27
whalesalad wrote: post #2

I can't imagine life without stimulants. I hope to move off into the woods one day and live a completely natural lifestyle for a while. Reset myself. No caffeine, no nicotine, no amphetamines. Just me, a dog, and a nice ranch property in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, nicotine is a staple of my day-to-day. I quit smoking a long time ago, now I stick to Swedish snus and vaping. For a period I was chewing gum too. D…

In an attempt to quit smoking I just discovered the vaporization method and WOW -- I'm so impressed. Its actually enjoyable in the way that smoking is enjoyable, and the stimulant kick is very real.

I started vaping this year. I love it. I've got a usb passthrough that just plugs in and I can sit in a co-working space and smoke and work. It gets some funny looks, but also starts some fun conversations.
Post reply on HN