5 Surprising Benefits of Nicotine
Nicotine by itself is actually viewed as the least harmful of all the compounds found in cigarette smoke, and what’s more nicotine may actually have medicinal benefits for a number of conditions.
Professor Polosa pointed out at the 1st Global Forum on Nicotine 2014 that:
“Nicotine is not the reason for smoking-related disease:
- officially it is not a carcinogen
- it does not cause lung cancer
- it has minimal effect on cardiovascular disease”
- Nicotine in Protecting Against Alzheimer’s
No cure has not yet been found for this awful disease, but nicotine shows promise in delaying the onset of Alzhimer’s disease as well as mitigating the associated symptoms due to its neuroprotective effect.
A study of people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (an onset for Alzhimer’s) over six months found that those treated with nicotine demonstrated statistically significant improvement on their reaction time, memory and attention.
2. Enhancing Memory with Nicotine
One study on the affect of nicotine in young and aged monkeys, showed significant improvement in matching-to-sample tasks as well as their retention.
A more recent study on humans concluded that nicotine enhanced prospective memory – that is remembering things for the future, such as to charge your e-cigarette battery when you get home from work
3. Controlling ADHD with Nicotine
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common behavioural disorder in the UK, affecting around 2-5% of children. It leads to problems with attention, restlessness and impulsiveness.
There is no cure for the disorder, but could interventions using nicotine patches help ADHD?
Quite possibly. Studies have shown that nicotine can alleviate the symptoms of ADHD by increasing an individual’s alertness, reducing muscle activity (and thus restlessness/impulsiveness), calming the patient and elevating their mood (source (page since removed).
Of course, no one is suggesting children take up smoking or vaping, but some studies are hoping to develop better treatments which have similar benefits to nicotine.
4. Nicotine for the Relief of Depression
Smoking to improve one’s mood has been a controversial subject, but one study conducted in 2006 confirmed that nicotine led to a significant decline in depression and an improvement in symptoms of depression.
This is thought to be due to nicotine stimulating areas of the brain, resulting in the release of serotonin and dopamine, two chemicals lacking in people who have depression.
Observations have shown that those prone to depression are twice as likely to be smokers and are less likely to succeed in quitting, possibly due to these therapeutic effects of nicotine
5. Nicotine in Delaying the Onset of Arthritis
The anti-inflammatory quality of nicotine may also prevent joint inflammation and delay the onset of arthritis (source).
A recent study on 11,000 older Australian men found that those who smoked were up to 51% less likely to need surgery to replace hips and knees damaged by arthritis, even when weight and obesity was taken into account.
The authors of the study believe this could be down to nicotine stimulating “the activity of the cells found in joint cartilage, which could help lessen the severity of osteoarthritis”.
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