Nicotine is Addictive

But Can It Be Beneficial?

Nick, Jason & Zac
June 15, 2023

Nicotine is a substance that is found in the highest concentrations in tobacco, but is also found in trace amounts in other plants including potatoes and tomatoes. Nicotine makes up about 1% to 3% of the dry weight of tobacco, and obviously tobacco is found in cigarettes. We all know that cigarettes are not good for you and this has obviously led to the conclusion that nicotine is also bad for you. However, a deep dive into the literature reveals some surprising benefits of nicotine ingestion apart from cigarettes.

First of all, nicotine has not been shown to be carcinogenic (causing cancer). There are many substances (almost 70) found in cigarettes that have been shown to be carcinogenic, but nicotine is not one of them. It can be addictive due to it’s effects on the brain as we will see. The way nicotine works is that it binds to certain receptors in the brain called nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. When it binds, it stimulates the release of acetylcholine which is a very common neurotransmitter. This in turn can increase the amount of other neurotransmitters like serotonin (which is important in mood) and dopamine (which is also important in mood, pleasure, and focus). We spent the majority of the podcast discussing the effects of nicotine in 2 big areas: Cognition (including mood, attention, memory, etc.) and weight loss/fat burning.

We discuss a meta-analysis from 2010 that looked at 41 different studies and how nicotine impacted several different performance variables including motor abilities, memory, and attention. This analysis found significant positive effects of nicotine on the following variables: fine motor abilities, alerting attention/accuracy, short-term episodic memory/accuracy, working memory response time, alerting attention response time, and orienting attention response time.

When it comes to the possible weight loss or fat burning effects of nicotine, the prevailing theory is that nicotine can decrease lipoprotein lipase activity in a fat cell. This will cause less fat to go into the fat cell, thereby preventing the fat cell from getting bigger. Nicotine also increases hormone sensitive lipase activity in the fat cell. This triggers fat to be released from the fat cell. We discuss a study looking at smokers where the above effects were observed and also a few other studies where an increase in metabolic rate and thermogenesis were observed. I discuss on the podcast that I feel these effects are a little less convincing to me and more research is needed. However, is there enough of a signal to conclude that a possible fat burning mechanism is at play? Quite possibly.

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Simplified Takeaways…

Nicotine is not cancer causing unlike many of the other compounds found in cigarettes. It can be addictive, however.
There is a good amount of literature supporting the use of nicotine for motor abilities, short term memory, and attention.
Nicotine binds to certain receptors in the brain and increases acetylcholine, dopamine, and serotonin.
Many of these effects are similar to caffeine.
There is a possible fat burning effect of nicotine that can decrease the amount of fat going into a fat cell and increase the amount of fat coming out of a fat cell. There has also been an observed increase in metabolic rate and thermogenesis.

Nicotine is Addictive

But Can It Be Beneficial?

Simplified Takeaways…

Further Reading…