Anti-inflammatory Effects of Nicotine in Obesity and Ulcerative Colitis

It is a lot of spoken about the connection of cigarette smoking with atherosclerosis. In fact nicotine has an anti-inflammatory effect, thus preventing atherosclerosis.

Cigarette smoke is a major risk factor for many diseases, including lung cancer and respiratory infections. Paradoxically, it also contains nicotine, an anti-inflammatory alkaloid. There is increasing evidence that smokers have a lower incidence of some inflammatory diseases including ulcerative colitis and the protective effect involves the activation of a cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway that requires the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR) on immune cells. Obesity is characterized by chronic low-grade inflammation that contributes to insulin resistance. Nicotine significantly improves glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity in genetically obese and diet-induced obesity mice, which is associated with obstructed inflammation of the adipose tissue. Inflammation, which leads to destruction of the epithelial barrier, is a hallmark of inflammatory bowel disease and nicotine is protective against ulcerative colitis. Selective agonists for α7nAChR may represent a promising pharmacological strategy for the treatment of inflammation in obesity and ulcerative colitis. Nicotine is considered a therapeutic agent for the treatment of conditions such as attention deficit disorder, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Tourette's syndrome, sleep apnea, obesity, ulcerative colitis and inflammatory skin diseases. Nicotine has the following advantages:

• It restores depression

• Reduces anxiety

• Improves concentration and long term memory capacity

• Prevents high blood pressure

• prevents the development of Parkinson's disease.

Nicotine abstinence

Theoretically, the healthiest thing a smoker can do is to completely give up the use of nicotine in any form. But does reality correspond to theory? The official list of symptoms of nicotine withdrawal in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) includes depressive mood, sleep disturbance, irritability, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, decreased heart rhythm and increased appetite or weight gain. These symptoms are expected to peak within about a day and disappear completely in a few weeks. Researchers, however, have found that in some groups that fail, the symptoms are not distracting, but may actually worsen over time.  Problems of concentration, memory and mood make it difficult to fulfill the responsibilities of everyday life. How many employers tend to ignore the worsening of work in weeks or months at a time? What is the effect of prolonged irritability, which sometimes escalates in anger, on relationships with family, colleagues, and friends? For many who would have abstained, the catch is that some improvements in physical health - for example, better pulmonary function - should be paid with a possibly constant decline in cognitive and emotional health. Is it surprising that there are so many smoking attacks within a few days after a smoking cessation? For those who run long-term nicotine abstinence, the picture is not 100% better in terms of physical health. For years, the medical community claimed that smokers earn only 5 pounds after a refusal. More recent studies reveal that average weight gain is closer to 11 pounds, accompanied by an average waist circumference of 10 cm. In 13% of women and 10% of men, weight gain exceeds 28 kg. Weight gained on cessation of smoking is very resistant to weight loss interventions. Smokers who become abstinent from nicotine develop hypertension with a higher percentage than continuous smokers and those at risk of diabetes develop this disease with 26% more than the smokers who went on.

Nicotinic acid in treatment of dislipidaemia

As a treatment for dyslipidemia, oral doses of 1-3 grams of nicotinic acid lower serum triglycerides per day, increase cholesterol with high density lipoproteins, and reduce coronary heart disease mortality. These benefits probably stems from the ability of nicotinic acid to inhibit lipolysis in adipocytes and thus reduce serum levels of non-esterified fatty acids. Nicotine and nicotinic acid certainly have anti-inflammatory properties; therefore they act therapeutically against all autoimmune diseases. And according to the autoimmune theory, all of the aforementioned diseases are autoimmune: diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer, Parkinson, chronic ulcerative colitis, atherosclerosis. You should know that smoking is not recommended, but some alternative forms of nicotine like plasters and chewing gums could be used as a treatment for the above mentioned diseases.

The oral intake of nicotinic acid has some side effects such as digestive problems, but no side effect if it is applied as a plaster. So nicotine plasters may be a wonderful treatment of the above mentioned diseases incl. atherosclerosis.

Side effects of oral intake of nicotinic acid are in comparison to statins only 8 lines in this book:

Flushing/warmth in the face and neck, headache, itching, burning, sweating, chills, or tingling may occur within 20 minutes to 4 hours of taking this medication. Flushing may persist for a few hours. These effects should improve or go away as your body adjusts to the medication. Stomach upset, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may also occur.

Nicotine plasters have no other side effect except local allergy reaction to some of the other ingredients. And I have never heard of someone is allergic to cigarettes smoke