Anxious about Alzheimer’s? Panicky about Parkinson’s?
Here’s an unlikely prescription. Take one cigarette. Light it. Smoke it (remember to inhale). Stub it out. Repeat 20 times a day for about 40 years. And while you’re at it, pop some Ibuprofen every day as well.
It turns out, that contrary to all that bad press, nicotine could be our new best friend. If you thought cigarettes made you sharper, you might have been right.
Researchers have known nicotine wasn’t all bad for quite a while. As long ago as 2000, a Stanford University study revealed some very interesting effects of nicotine on blood vessels. It actually boosts the growth of new ones. This has so far lead to some new treatments for diabetes.
But getting back to Alzheimer’s, researchers also discovered nicotine can act as a neurotransmitter. It makes nerve cells in the brain fire more often and improves cognitive function.
They only discovered this because smokers who wanted to give up found it too hard. So nicotine patches were developed. Thanks to nicotine patches, researchers could study nicotine without all the toxic chemicals cigarettes delivered with it.
(There’s no advice on a safe substitute for the Ibuprofen, which seems to protect against inflammation in the brain even if while it chews away at the lining of your stomach. However, research on the gut-brain connection is definitely something to watch. And the advice is, keep taking the pre and probiotics in the meantime.)
Here’s some more good things about nicotine.
It can help with depression. Smokers knew that already, but it took a study in 2006 using those nicotine patches for anyone in the science field to believe them.
The same study, at Duke university, also showed a direct link between nicotine and an increase in the release of dopamine and serotonin. Smokers knew that too, but they didn’t know why.
No one is seriously suggesting everyone should start self-medicating with tobacco, but it does look like at least one pariah of the plant world might be finding redemption. And it may not be the only one.
So how do you deliver nicotine safely? Even the patches are not recommended for those already compromised health-wise. But here’s a rare bouquet for The Big Pharmas. They’re onto it. After all, it’s a growing market. Just what they like. But in this case, we should not be complaining.
Several trials are underway that are looking at nicotine gels and two other nicotine-related drugs. Including one for dental pain. They’re not there yet, but it isn’t only the pharmaceutical companies who are excited about this.
Nicotine could deliver results for a whole list of other ills – anxiety, Tourette Syndrome, ADHD and schizophrenia.
If you’re old enough to remember Jerry Reed’s No 1 song on the smoker’s hit parade of 1971, Another Puff, you’ll see the irony. And if you took Jerry’s advice, “You quit smoking.That’ll leave more for for me!” fear not. At the very least, you’ll have both better breath and better skin tone. And lungs that you’re not ashamed to donate to science.
Border Lines 