3 ms·

FWIW, I've tried vaping, gums and nicotine pouches. They all make me sick, unless I drop the dose to a level that is so miniscule that I can't feel it. Real t

FWIW, I've tried vaping, gums and nicotine pouches. They all make me sick, unless I drop the dose to a level that is so miniscule that I can't feel it. Real tobacco, on the other hand, calms me down and feels great as long as I watch the dose(say, 1/2 cigarette, but usually pipe tobacco). I don't use tobacco very often, and I've never had a problem quitting(23andme confirms I have low nicotine addiction risk). Curious if anyone else has noticed this with nicotine products? I know there is a difference in pure nicotine freebase vs salt form, but I feel like it's more than that. There's something else in tobacco that makes it work for me.

bradstewart 8y ago
Yep, I have pretty similar experiences with those products (never tried gum though). Anything more than a few puffs of a cigar will make me sick as well.
mruts 8y ago
There's MAOIs in tobacco that are not present in gum or e-cigs. MAOIs change the psychoactive effects of nicotine. There is also some evidence that MAOIs significantly increase the addiction potential of nicotine. A little off topic, but I find that cigarettes really work for me as a software developer. Program for a couple hours, and then smoke a cigarette, rinse and repeat. More often than not, I catch bugs in my programs while smoking, not while at the computer. It significantly improves my cognition while also inducing a calm and reflective state. Part of this is probably from being alone and stepping away, but the tobacco definitely does have a strong effect separate of this.