#161 - AMA #23: All Things Nicotine: deep dive into its cognitive and physical benefits, risks, and mechanisms of action

The Peter Attia Drive

Peter Attia, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine, Fitness

4.7 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) episode, Peter and Bob dive deep into nicotine, a complicated and interesting molecule that has effects on both the brain and the body. They analyze the results of the studies that describe nicotine’s cognitive benefits and potential for inducing weight loss. They talk about a smoking cessation technique called nicotine replacement therapy and give a full breakdown of the various routes of administration, dosing, and safety. Finally, they explore the fascinating and counterintuitive observation that cigarette smokers are less likely to get a severe case of COVID-19.

If you’re not a subscriber and listening on a podcast player, you’ll only be able to hear a preview of the AMA. If you’re a subscriber, you can now listen to this full episode on your private RSS feed or on our website at the AMA #23 show notes page. If you are not a subscriber, you can learn more about the subscriber benefits here.

We discuss:

How Peter first became interested in the potential benefits of nicotine [1:15];
Untangling nicotine from tobacco [6:00];
Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for quitting smoking: products, protocols, and a review of the literature [9:30];
The cognitive benefits of nicotine: Overview of the literature [15:50];
Where nicotine has the most positive impact on cognition [30:30];
Possible mechanisms conferring the benefits of nicotine [37:00];
How modafinil and other nootropics compare to nicotine [47:15];
How nicotine may induce weight loss [54:00];
Relationship between smoking and COVID-19: Analyzing the observation that smoking appears protective against COVID-19 [1:01:45];
Breakdown of the various nicotine replacement therapies: route of administration, dosing, and safety [1:11:30];
Concluding thoughts on nicotine: use cases, addictive properties, and more [1:19:45]; and
More.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to a sneak peek, ask me anything, or AMA episode of the Drive Podcast.
0:16.5	I'm your host, Peter Atia.
0:18.3	At the end of this short episode, I'll explain how you can access the AMA episodes in full,
0:22.9	along with a ton of other membership benefits we've created.
0:25.9	Before you can learn more now by going to peteratia-md.com forward slash subscribe.
0:31.5	So without further delay, here's today's sneak peek of the Ask Me Anything episode.
0:36.5	Welcome to Ask Me Anything, AMA episode number 23.
0:43.8	I'm joined once again by Bob Kaplan.
0:46.4	In today's episode, we discuss nicotine and all things related to nicotine.
0:51.4	We talk about smoking, of course, and we talk about how nicotine works.
0:56.1	Turns out nicotine is a super complicated and very interesting molecule.
1:00.9	It has effects in the brain, it has effects in the body.
1:03.8	We talk about how nicotine works, and we talk about what the studies say about its benefits
1:10.0	to people that might sound like a contradictory term, given that we know tobacco is so harmful.
1:15.5	But in this episode, we distill all of that into something that I hope is digestible.
1:20.8	If you're a subscriber and you want to watch the full video of this podcast, you can find
1:24.0	it in the show notes.
1:25.4	And if you're not a subscriber, you can watch a sneak peek of the video on YouTube.
1:29.6	So without further delay, I hope you'll enjoy AMA number 23.
1:34.6	Hey peter.
1:39.0	Hey man, how are you?
1:41.6	I'm doing well.
	...

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