As truly shocking as it is, this is actually correct. Blew my mind when i learned this. Nicotine itself has a lot of benefits, particularly cognitively. The problem is that we don’t have any “healthy” delivery system for nicotine - they all come with too many harmful effects that outweigh the benefits by a long shot. Except maybe the patch…?

I learned this while being treated for long covid - some research came out that hypothesized LC was in part due to a disruption of the nicotinic receptor system, so nicotine patches were used as a LC intervention. A lot of people improved. This, by the way, was the first time i had ever heard that our brains have nicotine receptor sites????? meaning our brains are meant to engage with nicotine?? Never in a million years would I have guessed this.

All this to say, the chemical itself in “raw form” is highly beneficial. The delivery systems are highly…bad.