AMA #70: Nicotine: impact on cognitive function, performance, and mood, health risks, delivery modalities, and smoking cessation strategies

I would say that clearly the biggest risk of pure nicotine... is in its addictive nature. And make no mistake about it, nicotine is highly addictive.

There are byproducts of nicotine that are produced in processing tobacco, and they can be carcinogenic ... This means that any tobacco-derived nicotine product may contain carcinogens.

The major health concerns that are associated with tobacco, which are primarily cancer and cardiovascular disease... are not caused by nicotine per se, but instead they are caused by several other components of tobacco itself and tobacco smoke.

You would think we would have legions of data that would explain the effect of nicotine on fertility, both for males and females. It turns out that if you want to talk about it through the lens of smoking, that's true. But if you want to talk about it through the lens of vaping or nicotine pouches, that's not true.

I think smoking is an absolute error—arguably the single biggest unforced error you can make with respect to your health.

If you look at certain mouse models and rodent models—such as other rodents, like rats—it's been demonstrated that high doses of nicotine can actually increase tumor growth and even foster metastases in addition to increasing atherosclerosis plaques.