Hi everyone,
I was not satisfied with my answer to the question regarding the possible health benefits of nicotine in the case of long covid symptoms. I thought it might be good if I did a better job explaining my objection.
Dr. Bryan Artis, Dc. And others make a couple of arguments about the efficacy of nicotine for long covid symptoms.
One of those claims is that nicotine is effective because it blocks receptor sites for toxins and poisons in our environment associated with Covid-19 (both the infection itself and the vaccine) that are derived from “snake venom”
The data he is drawing on, as I understand it, is a genetic profile done on C-19 that shows it has genetic material from two types of venomous snakes in its genetic code.
I think at this point it would be a good idea to explain what some experts mean when they say “manmade” virus.
The process that took place connecting snake venom to Corona Virus is called serial passaging. It’s a process that is undertaken in a lab environment to induce evolutionary processes in the virus to see how it mutates in different hosts. Serial passaging means growing the virus in snakes, birds, bats, pangolins, ferrets, mice, rabbits, and all the other origins of the virus that we’ve heard were the “original host” This process leaves genetic material behind from all these creatures that Corona Virus can incorporate into its genome.
If the result of serial passaging makes the virus more contagious or deadly it’s called gain of function research. if, on the other hand, it makes it less contagious or deadly it becomes a candidate strain for vaccine research.
I am not of the opinion that this is in any way a good idea.
Suggesting that Covid 19 is snake venom because it has that DNA/RNA in its profile is incorrect. Many other people have used the same base argument to suggest that the “natural origin” of covid 19 was bats or pangolins. In interviews and written documents this argument is used to justify lines of supplements that don’t address the problem.
Now let’s talk about how nicotine fits into this specifically. Nicotine triggers the release of dopamine in the brain's reward system, creating a pleasurable sensation that reinforces continued use. Over time, the brain adapts to nicotine, leading to tolerance (needing more to achieve the same effect).
Two things can be true at the same time, tobacco companies do add Pyrazines which are a class of chemical compounds, some of which are used as additives in cigarettes to enhance flavor and increase their addictive potential. These additives, particularly in "light" or low-tar cigarettes, play a role in making the smoking experience more palatable and reinforcing learned behaviors associated with smoking. A fact which I will never cease to be disgusted by.
This doesn’t mean that patches and nicotine gum aren’t addictive and if you’re new to nicotine and you haven’t developed tolerance to it you will feel better on it because it is a dopamine agonist. “Feeling better” and “Healthy” are not the same thing.
Furthermore, the nicotine in cigarettes, gums, patches, is called freebase nicotine and is not the same thing found in nightshade vegetables.
Freebase nicotine has been purified to be unprotonated so to be more bioavailable and faster to absorb. Which is why you don’t get the same addictive hit from your vegetables. One would have to eat twenty pounds of tomatoes to get roughly the same amount of nicotine as a single cigarette. That would also be assuming the nicotine in the tomato’s was freebase, which it isn’t.
In conclusion, I don’t think this is a health hack. It’s a stimulant.
This post is also going to be publicly available if anyone wants to forward it as an alternative perspective.
Cheers,
-Evan
