Comment · Sat, January 18, 2014 · Ceretropic
Nicotine and cognitive decline
Original post in this thread
darbyhouston · 17 points
"Evidence suggests that non-smokers are up to twice as likely as smokers to develop Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease.[106] A plausible explanation for these cases may be the effect of nicotine, a cholinergic stimulant, increasing the levels of acetylcholine in the smoker's brain; Parkinson's disease occurs when the effect of dopamine is less than that of acetylcholine. In addition, nicotine stimulates the mesolimbic dopamine pathway (as do other drugs of abuse), causing an effective increase in dopamine levels. Opponents counter by noting that consumption of pure nicotine may be as beneficial as smoking without the risks associated with smoking, although this is unlikely due to the importance of the MAO-B inhibitor compounds of tobacco in preventing neurodegenerative diseases."
Almeida OP, Hulse GK, Lawrence D, Flicker L (2002). "Smoking as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease: contrasting evidence from a systematic review of case-control and cohort studies". Addiction 97 (1): 15–28
---This is a summary of some cognitive effects of nicotine. I wanted to post this as an opening of a larger discussion on the cognitive effects of tobacco and nicotine in general.
---Do…
What they were answering
myne · 1 points
MAOIs in cigarettes?
If that's true, then it makes perfect sense that St Johns Wort is a massive aid when quitting smoking.
My logic was that the MAOI would help offset the dopamine crash and irritability.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
SJW is not a very strong MAOI, but it is one. Its actions are more to do with increasing extracellular sodium levels, which leads to up-regulation of various catecholamine receptors. It is also a mild SSRI. It probably helps by multiple different mechanisms.