[anovikov]

That's incredible! Smoking is the hardest one of them. Mainly because smokers tend to be skinny, as cigs kill your appetite (unlike alcoholics who tend to be fat) and all GLP-1 effects go together with the weight loss.

Congrats. Smoking is a bitch of a habit and extremely hard to quit.

[KellyCriterion]

Unfortunately, Im doing both and Im skinny :)

[greygoo222]

Nicotine pouches (or even vaping) are astronomically less harmful than cigarettes and still work as appetite suppressors. As a bonus they are more convenient to use in public. Smokers should consider considering switching instead of quitting nicotine entirely if it's easier.

[sublinear]

I don't know why you're getting downvoted, but I totally agree.

I used to smoke a pack a day for years, but switched to vaping in the 2010s when nicotine salt juice became more available. It was a massive quality of life improvement. Though initially this unlocked a much higher dose of nicotine I'd ever get smoking, I eventually brought it down and regardless my lungs were doing better.

Around 2020, I switched to the pouches and since then I'm down to using maybe like two a day if any at all. Since they are a slower delivery method, the nature of the cravings has changed too. I can easily hold off for hours or even days since they're less intense. I have zero desire to go back to smoking or vaping ever again. I've never experienced any oral health issues from the pouches either. X-rays on my mouth and lungs now show no damage.

The only thing I will say is nicotine itself isn't entirely harmless and can trigger some mild anxiety. It seems to be related to keeping blood cotinine levels in check.

I'd never recommend people start a nicotine habit, but I think we're at the point where it's not much worse than caffeine if you take it orally. There is some research out there about the potential benefits of both preventing dementia, but I won't link anything. People can argue about that somewhere else.

[greygoo222]

The trouble with the dementia prevention claim is that while the retrospective studies are promising, none of the RCTs really show results. You can argue this is because the RCTs don't dose enough nicotine early enough to matter, and that's likely true, but retrospective studies can turn up all sorts of phantom correlations. Right now I would say we don't know for sure, and I wouldn't recommend nicotine as a preventative measure.

I would recommend nicotine as a stimulant, though. It is a solid adjunct to caffeine.