Benefits of Nicotine on Brain Health | Max Lugavere x Dave Asprey

The nicotine thing is super interesting. I mean, I've been. That's a rabbit hole that I've been, you know, going down recently, you know, because of one, I noticed some pretty profound cognitive benefits for my, for myself. And I just want to be clear. I'm not suggesting that people go out.

And try it because don't try nicotine or don't try smoking.

Well, definitely don't. Don't try smoking and nicotine. I think you've got to know your. If you have an addictive personality, you know, it's not something that I would recommend because it's highly addictive. And, you know, so I'm not, I'm just, you know, not suggesting that people go and, and try it. But from a research standpoint, it, you know, we know that it activates these nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain. There's lots of evidence on its cognitive boosting effects. And there was a paper, actually that I tweeted recently from 2015 that has a really great synthesis of the research on how it might potentially help prevent, potentially and to alleviate symptoms in Parkinson's disease.

Yes.

It was published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2015. Beneficial effects of Nicotine Cotinine and its metabolites as potential agents for Parkinson's Disease. And, you know, I just thought that that was super, super interesting because Parkinson's disease is like this big question mark, like where we have very little insight with regard to that condition. But it does seem to be the case that smokers, you know, have. There's an inverse relationship in terms of risk profile, which is so crazy to consider because smoking just destroys your body in so many different ways. But they seem to be protected against Parkinson's disease.

I feel like we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Like ultra processed foods, generally they're bad for you, but processed protein powder that removes some bad things. It's ultra processed, but it's not bad for you. So categorically speaking, tobacco is not good for you. It doesn't mean that a component of tobacco in the right dose at the right time couldn't have profound effects. And I may be a little bit more aggressive than you in that. Would I recommend low dose nicotine for cognitive enhancement? Yeah, I would. Don't vape. It's worse for you than smoking. Don't smoke, don't chew. It's bad for you. But if you're doing 1 to 5 milligrams, that's between 5 and 25% of what's in a single Cigarette and you don't have a bunch of artificial sweeteners and things like that in it and you're willing to stick to a dosing regimen. I, I think that the preponderance of evidence is that it's probably good for you. The risk. Nicotine is addictive. Without all the crap that tobacco companies put in cigarettes. Nicotine by itself has a three day biological washout period, same as caffeine. After that, it's all physiological or psycho.

Sorry.

It's all psychological addiction where, you know, you're like, oh, I just kind of reach for it. Cause I like it.

Yeah.

And what I found is I use 1 milligram for five years, 1 milligram a day. I'm starting back in about 2015. And then I said, you know, I'm just gonna do a little bit more than that. Cause I like it. And I use it kind of on a as, as desired basis. And if I find that I'm using it too much, then I go off of it for three months. And the fact you can go off of it for three months and then go back on it, you say, well, it's because you can't give up an addiction. You can stop exercising for three months and decide to exercise again. You feel better when you do it. And it's got physiological benefits. I just do my best to not have an emotional judgment about something. I want to look at the numbers, look at the science. And I know that I couldn't get my grandmother to do it because, you know, care providers aren't trained in this. But if she could have had a nicotine patch for the last five years of her life, doing 5 or 10 milligrams a day, it probably would have improved her quality of life. Right. And, and if you're already on that path, it seems like it's a good idea. But you know, your mileage may vary. It's all we can say right now.

Yeah, I mean, I, I definitely am optimistic and, and hopeful that it, it plays some role in, in protecting the brain. But I think we, you know, to say with certainty, we, we, we definitely need a lot more research. But for me, cognitively, I enjoy it, you know, as a, as a, it's a stimulant and it, I feel like it, you know, it's a. Helps dial in my focus and it's. Compared to caffeine, it has a much shorter half life. So the half life of caffeine is about 8 to 10 hours. The half life of nicotine is like 2 hours. Although its metabolites stay in your. In your system for. Well, you know, for way longer than that. But the metabolites don't seem to have any negative impact.