Nicotine Benefits (That We Don't Recommend)!

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Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Nicotine is a performance-enhancing drug, and those benefits may include cognitive enhancement, depending on conditions

  • Today’s main feature shares the evidence for this, as well as the pitfalls beyond the obvious

  • In short, the use is (probably not too surprisingly) not remotely recommended, notwithstanding any possible benefits—they are too unreliable and cost far too much (healthwise).

• How would you like your oral hygiene to be 250% better with no extra effort?

  • Today’s sponsor, LIVFRESH, have developed a gel that safely dissolves plaque without harming the teeth or gums. There’s science for it too, so do check out their website for that!

• Today’s featured recipe is hero homemade hummus—if you’ve been having store-bought hummus at home, you’ve been missing out. Fortunately, hummus is easy to make and incredibly customizable, so you’ll be whipping up exciting platters in no time.

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

A Word To The Wise

Watch and Learn

When And Why Do We Pick Up Our Phones?

Observation suggests it may not actually be about information, or even mere habit:

Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text-overview, as well as the video!

Q&A Thursday

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝Does nicotine have any benefits at all? I know it's incredibly addictive but if you exclude the addiction, does it do anything?❞

Good news: yes, nicotine is a stimulant and can be considered a performance enhancer, for example:

Read in full: Acute Effects of Nicotine on Physiological Responses and Sport Performance in Healthy Baseball Players

However, another study found that its use as a cognitive enhancer was only of benefit when there was already a cognitive impairment:

Read in full: Effects of nicotinic stimulation on cognitive performance

Bad news: its addictive qualities wipe out those benefits due to tolerance and thus normalization in short order. So you may get those benefits briefly, but then you're addicted and also lose the benefits, as well as also ruining your health—making it a lose/lose/lose situation quite quickly.

See also: A sensitization-homeostasis model of nicotine craving, withdrawal, and tolerance: integrating the clinical and basic science literature

As an aside, while nicotine is poisonous per se, in the quantities taken by most users, the nicotine itself is not usually what kills. It's mostly the other stuff that comes with it (smoking is by far and away the worst of all; vaping is relatively less bad, but that’s not a strong statement in this case) that causes problems.

See also: Vaping: A Lot Of Hot Air?

However, this is still not an argument for, say, getting nicotine gum and thinking "no harmful effects" because then you'll be get a brief performance boost yes before it runs out and being addicted to it and now being in a position whereby if you stop, your performance will be lower than before you started (since you now got used to it, and it became your new normal), before eventually recovering:

The effects of nicotine withdrawal on exercise-related physical ability and sports performance in nicotine addicts: a systematic review and meta-analysis

In summary

We recommend against using nicotine in the first place, and for those who are addicted, we recommend quitting immediately if not contraindicated (check with your doctor if unsure; there are some situations where it is inadvisable to take away something your body is dependent on, until you correct some other thing first).

For more on quitting in general, see:

Addiction Myths That Are Hard To Quit

Take care!

Our Sponsors Make This Publication Possible

Oral Health, 250% Better!

LIVFRESH’s patented edathamil-based dental gel does something ordinary toothpaste doesn’t: it breaks down plaque on the molecular level, leaving your teeth themselves (and your gums) unharmed. So much better than scraping!

That “250% better” claim? Science was done to it, and it outperformed leading brand toothpastes by that much.

Which, given what a difference good oral hygiene makes to overall health, is a pretty big deal—with far-reaching implications for your heart, brain, and more.

So, treat yourself to the best:

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

You May Have Missed

• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity (book)

• Chia: The Tiniest Seeds With The Most Value

• Prostate Health: What You Should Know

This Or That?

Vote on Which is Healthier

Yesterday we asked you to choose between spinach and kale—it was close, but we picked the spinach (click here to read about why), as did 53% of you!

Now for today’s choice:

Click on whichever you think is better for you!

Recipes Worth Sharing

Hero Homemade Hummus

If you’ve been having store-bought hummus at home, you’ve been missing out. Fortunately, hummus is easy to make and incredibly customizable, so you’ll be whipping up exciting platters in no time:

Click below for our full recipe, plus ideas for extra variety:

You (Also) May Have Missed

• Intermittent Fasting for Women Over 50 (book)

• MSG: Sinless Flavor-Enhancer Or Terrible Health Risk?

• The Couple’s Guide to Thriving with ADHD (book)

One-Minute Book Review

Yoga for Better Sleep: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science – by Mark Stephens

The book has, as you might expect:

• postural exercises

• breathing exercises

• meditation exercises

Instructions given in all of the above categories are clear and easy to follow, and there are photographic illustrations too where appropriate.

What sets it apart from many books of this kind is that it also has chapters dedicated to various specific circumstances; the many actual reasons people seriously struggle to sleep; not just "screentime too late", but for example deprepression, sleep apnea, hyperarousal, or even just aging.

As well as the comprehensive exercises, there are also many tips, tricks, hacks, and workarounds—it's a practical guidebook with practical advice.

While the book is about yogic practices, the author also does tackle this holistically, acknowledging that there are many factors going on, and that yogic practices should be one more string to our sleep-improving bow—as we continue with other general good advice for good sleep too, have medical tests if it seems appropriate, that kind of thing. Basically, to have one's assorted approaches work together with synergistic effect.

Bottom line: this book will quite possibly put you to sleep! But only in the best possible way.

Click here to check out Yoga for Better Sleep, and get those valuable Zs in, healthily!

Penny For Your Thoughts?

Wishing you a healthy, happy day,

The 10almonds Team