Nicotine’s Effects on the Brain & Body & How to Quit Smoking or Vaping

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2022

⏱️ 112 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, I explain how nicotine impacts the brain and body, including its potent ability to enhance attention, focus, and alertness, increase blood pressure and metabolism and reduce appetite. I discuss nicotine’s ability to increase the action of neurochemicals, including dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine and activate sympathetic (alertness-promoting) neural circuits. I also discuss common nicotine delivery methods, such as cigarettes, vaping, dip, and snuff, and how they each create their own unique experience and how they, but not nicotine itself, cause cancer and other adverse health effects. I also explain science-based tools to permanently quit smoking cigarettes or vaping, including peer-reviewed clinical hypnosis tools, antidepressants, and alternative nicotine replacement (patches, lozenges, gums etc.). As nicotine is one of the most widely used substances with billions of users — most of whom report wanting to quit — this episode ought to be of interest to former/current nicotine users, those who want to quit smoking or vaping and/or those interested in learning the biology behind how nicotine impacts the brain and body. For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/huberman Thesis: https://takethesis.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Nicotine (00:02:47) Momentous Supplements (00:03:41) Tool: Brief Daily Meditation & Focus (00:05:59) The Arrow Model of Focus, Alpha GPC & Garlic Supplements (00:10:43) Thesis, InsideTracker, ROKA (00:14:35) Nicotine Effects vs. Methods of Delivery, Acetylcholine (00:19:55) Where is Nicotine Found? Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors (00:25:12) Nicotine & Effects on the Brain: Appetite, Dopamine & GABA (00:30:58) AG1 (Athletic Greens) (00:32:11) Nicotine, Acetylcholine & Attentional “Spotlighting” (00:37:29) Nicotine, Norepinephrine & Alertness/Energy (00:41:10) Nicotine & Effects on Appetite & Metabolism (00:46:47) Nicotine & Effects on Body: Sympathetic Tone (00:51:29) Nicotine & Cognitive Work vs. Physical Performance (00:55:08) Nicotine Delivery Methods & Side Effects, Young People & Dependency (00:58:35) Smoking, Vaping, Dipping & Snuffing: Carcinogens & Endothelial Cells (01:02:34) Smoking, Vaping, Dipping & Snuffing: Negative Impacts on Lifespan & Health (01:09:23) How to Quit Smoking, Nicotine Cravings & Withdrawal (01:13:56) Vaping & Nicotine, Rates of Effect Onset, Dopamine, Addiction & Depression (01:25:06) Tool: Quitting Smoking & Clinical Hypnosis, Reveri (01:30:16) Bupropion (Wellbutrin) & Quitting Smoking (01:36:24) Tool: A Nicotine Replacement Schedule to Quit Smoking, Nicotine Patch/Gum (01:41:52) Tool: Biological Homeostasis & Nicotine Withdrawal, The “First Week” Strategy (01:51:39) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous Supplements, Neural Network Newsletter, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Uberman Lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:08.8	I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and
0:12.4	Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are discussing nicotine.
0:17.1	Nicotine is one of the most commonly consumed substances on the entire planet.
0:21.2	There are literally billions of people that ingest nicotine on a daily basis.
0:25.8	Most of those people consume nicotine via smoking and in particular smoking tobacco.
0:32.0	Tobacco contains nicotine and it contains a bunch of other things as well, which we will talk about.
0:37.2	And the burning of tobacco liberates nicotine and makes it accessible to the various cells and tissues of the body.
0:43.0	But of course there are other sources of nicotine as well. Some people consume nicotine through dip,
0:48.0	that is placing tobacco on the inside of the lip or in the cheek.
0:52.0	Some people consume nicotine via snuff, which is literally the shoving of tobacco leaves up the nostrils and allowing the tobacco to access the nervous system and other areas of the body by permeating into the mucosal membranes.
1:06.3	That's as the lining, the soft lining of the nasal passages. And of course there are nicotine patches, nicotine gum.
1:12.5	There's nicotine in pill form, there are toothpicks dipped in nicotine, etc.
1:16.6	Today we are going to separate our discussion of nicotine from a discussion of smoking and vaping and the other forms of delivery for nicotine.
1:24.2	We will be talking about smoking and vaping in other routes of nicotine administration, both for sake of highlighting their detriments to health.
1:33.3	And believe it or not, in certain cases, keep in mind, very specific certain cases, the possible health benefits of delivering nicotine through specific modalities.
1:44.6	Turns out those modalities do not include smoking cigarettes or vaping.
1:50.2	And we are going to pay particular attention to vaping today because vaping use is on the rise, in particular in young people.
1:58.2	And vaping use and the fact that most tobacco that's consumed through vaping includes quite a amount of nicotine has created a scenario where nicotine because of its ability to change certain chemicals in the brain can actually lead to addiction for a known purpose.
2:14.2	And for a number of other substances related to vaping and vaping associated behaviors, if all of that seems like a lot to get your arms and your mind around right here at the outset, don't worry.
2:25.4	I'll walk you through this regardless of whether or not you have a background in biology or not.
2:29.0	I promise that you'll come through the end of this episode with a deep understanding of how nicotine works in the brain and body, some of its benefits, some of its potential drawbacks.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Scicomm Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Scicomm Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.