Hey guys! I’m brother came to me the other day talking about his nicotine addiction. While I know addiction is much more complex than just understanding it, he was asking me what the harms were of just nicotine packets (Zyn), without Tobacco or anything like that present. I couldn’t find much. Do y’all know the harms of taking nicotine alone/an addiction to it? Sometimes I think when there is no apparent harm to the user it makes it that much harder to think of a reason to try and quit. THANKS!
In data sets where nicotine replacement therapy (gum, lozenges, patches, etc.) and Swedish SNUS users are compared against controls who don’t use nicotine, we find:
- The risk of various cancers increases, particularly pancreatic cancer.
- In pregnant women, fetal loss and stillbirth are much higher compared to those who don’t use any form of nicotine.
- The effects on cardiovascular disease risk are inconclusive, perhaps due to the populations being studied and methodology not being terribly revealing.
- There is an increased risk of chest pain, palpitations, insomnia, and GI complaints in nicotine users compared to placebo.
Yes, nicotine replacement therapy is better than smoking, but I don’t think we can say regular nicotine use is particularly health-promoting.