About the dangers of smoking and the benefits of nicotine
Is nicotine good for the brain?
Yes, nicotine.
Mr. Hurley claims that he has read many scientific articles about the usefulness of nicotine for cognitive function. Yes, numerous studies of humans and animals have shown, according to him, that nicotine (by no means tobacco!) It is good for the treatment and prevention of many neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease, mild cognitive impairment, ADHD, Tourette's syndrome and schizophrenia. Plus, it has long been correlated with weight loss. Side effects are insignificant.
At the same time, oddly enough, nicotine does not help to quit smoking. In January 2012, a six-year study of 787 adults who tried to give up a bad habit showed that those who resorted to substitution therapy in the form of a patch, chewing gum, inhaler or nasal spray had the same recurrence rate as those who did not use these means. Heavy smokers who decided to quit without consulting a doctor were twice as likely to start smoking again if they helped themselves with the listed products.
"Smoking is harmful, I understand it perfectly well," says Marika Kik, director of the neurodegenerative diseases program at the non–profit SRI International Research Institute (USA). "My father died of lung cancer." Nevertheless, Ms. Kick, despite skepticism and open hostility from many fellow neuroscientists, has published about three dozen studies on the effects of nicotine on the mammalian brain.
"The rejection of nicotine is explained very simply," she explains. – The fact is that it is contained in cigarettes. People can't understand that nicotine and smoking are two big differences. The public does not annoy me, but scientists do, and not even by ignorance, but by inertia. In fact, there is a huge literature that smoking protects against Parkinson's disease."
As far as Mr. Hurley could find out, the first hint of the usefulness of nicotine was discovered in 1966 by epidemiologist Harold Kahn of the US National Institutes of Health. On the one hand, an analysis of health insurance data on 293,658 veterans who served in the U.S. Army between 1917 and 1940 showed, as expected, a correlation between smoking and mortality. At any age, cigarette lovers risk 11 times more than non–smokers to die from lung cancer and 12 times more from emphysema. The author emphasized that smokers should not be surprised by cancers in the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, larynx... On the other hand, the opposite trend was revealed: non-smokers were three times more likely to die from Parkinson's disease.
Why does tobacco, which destroys the heart, lungs, teeth, skin, at the same time protect the brain? In the 1970s, Ms. Kick and her associates found out that the nicotine molecule, like the key to the lock, fits the receptor of a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Along the way, it was possible to discover a whole family of acetylcholine receptors that remained unknown.
This family turned out to be quite remarkable. It turned out that "nicotine" receptors have an extraordinary ability to affect other classes of receptors, weakening or enhancing their function. As noted by psychopharmacologist Paul Newhouse, director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (USA), nicotine will cheer up the sleepy and calm the restless.
The neurotransmitter that nicotine primarily affects is dopamine, which plays an important role in the modulation of attention, reward seeking, addiction and movement. That's the answer to why nicotine prevents such a motor disorder as Parkinson's disease.
Ms. Kick tried to treat Rhesus with Parkinson's disease with nicotine. In 2007, she reported that after eight weeks of the experiment, the monkeys had fewer tremors and tics. Moreover, in animals taking the drug levodopa, nicotine reduced dyskinesia by another third. A similar human study is now in full swing with the support of the Michael J. Smith Foundation. Fox.
Another study showed that nicotine can protect against Alzheimer's disease at an early stage. An experiment involving 67 people suffering from moderate deterioration of cognitive function (when memory is somewhat weakened, but the ability to make decisions and other aspects remain within normal limits) allowed us to establish a correlation between taking nicotine and improving attention, memory and speed of psychomotor reactions without serious side effects.
Mr. Newhouse, who conducted this study, admits that the results of small studies are not always repeated in large experiments, but at least nicotine looks safe. In addition, no withdrawal syndrome has been noticed after stopping treatment, which is especially strange, since nicotine constantly appears among the substances that cause the most severe dependence, along with heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol.
In fact, Mr. Hurley emphasizes, this is not the case. Nicotine itself is almost not addictive, and the habit of smoking is the result of a combination of the effects of nicotine and other components of tobacco smoke: acetaldehyde, anabazine, nornicotine, anatabine, cotinine, myosmin.
In general, it turns out that nicotine is the most reliable cognitive enhancer, emphasizes Jennifer Rasted, an expert in experimental psychology at the University of Sussex (UK). In recent years, researchers from Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark have also published more than a dozen articles saying that taking nicotine in animals and humans temporarily improves visual attention and working memory. Ms. Rasted showed that nicotine also encourages prospective memory (when, in addition to memorizing the information itself, it is also required to remember the time when it should be requested – VM), but only by 15%. A healthy person will not notice this, but it would be very useful for a sick person.
Of course, any doctor and neuroscientist will dissuade you from using a nicotine patch for something unrelated to quitting smoking. There will be large studies involving hundreds of people before all the benefits and risks of nicotine become clear.
Prepared based on Scientific American: Will a Nicotine Patch Make You Smarter? [Excerpt].
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru11.02.2014