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It's ironic that your knee jerk reaction was to choose one thing (nicotine for brain issues like Alzheimer's) that surely must be quackery, right? I mean, it's

It's ironic that your knee jerk reaction was to choose one thing (nicotine for brain issues like Alzheimer's) that surely must be quackery, right? I mean, it's so obvious that there's no need to look it up. And yet, if you'd researched it, you'd have found that it's an active area of research, not just for Alzheimer's treatment, but for several types of brain injury. https://discoveries.vanderbilthealth.com/2019/09/nicotine-to-treat-alzheimers-disease/ https://discoveries.vanderbilthealth.com/2019/09/nicotine-to... https://www.science.org/content/article/nicotine-and-alzheimers https://www.science.org/content/article/nicotine-and-alzheim... https://www.healthline.com/health/alzheimers-dementia/nicotine-and-alzheimers#prevention https://www.healthline.com/health/alzheimers-dementia/nicoti... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1670208/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1670208/ (Nicotine for Alzheimer's) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35138210/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35138210/ (Nicotine for traumatic brain injury). It won't be a miracle cure. And of course all of these articles are quick to point out that even if nicotine is potentially beneficial, smoking is still definitely bad for your health, and that's a strong confounding factor. There's cause for caution and I personally wouldn't start using nicotine or recommending it at this point. But it's not something to dismiss out of hand as "quackery", either. It seems more and more likely that the cure for Alzheimer's won't be a single drug, but rather a combination of several things: lifestyle changes, supplements, and drugs all working together. Nicotine might well play a role in this. At this point, I think it would be right to call Ray Peat out for overstating the efficacy of an uproven treatment, but unfair to label him as a quack, at least based on this piece of evidence.

cogman10 2y ago
You've weakened what Pete said to make him more reasonable (Motte and Baily). He didn't call for simple nicotine consumption, he called for tobacco use. That's where the quackery enters. Taking something with a kernel of truth and then expanding it past what the research says into unsafe practices. This is how a lot of quacks work. > People who take aspirin, drink coffee, and use tobacco, have a much lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease than people who don’t use those things.
- esperent 2y ago
  > People who take aspirin, drink coffee, and use tobacco, have a much lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease than people who don’t use those things This is true though. Tobacco smokers do have a lower incidence of Alzheimer's compared to non-smokers. This strange fact is what started the research, as noted in several of the links I shared. Of course, for smokers, it's offset by higher cancer, higher dementia, all kinds of other problems. > He didn't call for simple nicotine consumption, he called for tobacco use. Are you sure? I'm not familiar with Ray Peat but I've just spent a few minutes researching and it seems like the man himself never said this, but rather his followers took quotes out of context - like the one you shared - and ran with it. As far as I can see, he recommends using patches rather than smoking. If I'm wrong, can you find a quote from him (not someone else cherry picking his writing) specifically reccomending smoking?

cogman10 2y ago

You've weakened what Pete said to make him more reasonable (Motte and Baily). He didn't call for simple nicotine consumption, he called for tobacco use. That's where the quackery enters. Taking something with a kernel of truth and then expanding it past what the research says into unsafe practices. This is how a lot of quacks work. > People who take aspirin, drink coffee, and use tobacco, have a much lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease than people who don’t use those things.

esperent 2y ago
> People who take aspirin, drink coffee, and use tobacco, have a much lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease than people who don’t use those things This is true though. Tobacco smokers do have a lower incidence of Alzheimer's compared to non-smokers. This strange fact is what started the research, as noted in several of the links I shared. Of course, for smokers, it's offset by higher cancer, higher dementia, all kinds of other problems. > He didn't call for simple nicotine consumption, he called for tobacco use. Are you sure? I'm not familiar with Ray Peat but I've just spent a few minutes researching and it seems like the man himself never said this, but rather his followers took quotes out of context - like the one you shared - and ran with it. As far as I can see, he recommends using patches rather than smoking. If I'm wrong, can you find a quote from him (not someone else cherry picking his writing) specifically reccomending smoking?