Is Nicotine Protective Against Coronavirus?

[Annette Rogers]

Does nicotine actually protect against coronavirus? A shocking study out of France causes a run on nicotine patches and gum, prompting the government to clamp down on sales.

Is Nicotine Protective Against Coronavirus?

 

[Mikes1992]

Until the results of study comes out I'm sceptical, the low level of smokers with the virus could just be the patients being anxious to admit it because they're worried the doctors hold it against them when it comes to prioritising medical equipment to patients more likely to recover.

It will be interesting to see the results though. I can't imagine the results will come out early enough to have an effect on the current lockdowns though and I also can't imagine doctors getting permission to hand out on mass a highly addictive substance to the general public, which for us vapers may mean there's a massive price hike for nicotine if damand goes up astronomically.

 

[Annette Rogers]

Until the results of study comes out I'm sceptical, the low level of smokers with the virus could just be the patients being anxious to admit it because they're worried the doctors hold it against them when it comes to prioritising medical equipment to patients more likely to recover.

It will be interesting to see the results though. I can't imagine the results will come out early enough to have an effect on the current lockdowns though and I also can't imagine doctors getting permission to hand out on mass a highly addictive substance to the general public, which for us vapers may mean there's a massive price hike for nicotine if damand goes up astronomically.

You make an excellent point. We all heard that ventilators were going to be in short supply so it is definitely feasible that people may not have wanted to admit to being smokers in case it reduced their chances of getting one.

It has also been amusing watching some people's heads explode on Twitter over these reports! Nicotine is supposed to always and only be bad in some people's minds so the suggestion that it could have a positive effect has most certainly ruffled some feathers!

 

[Mikes1992]

I'm just wondering if I should buy more of the 72mg nicotine liquid I use for my mixes, I have about a years supply left but even before this sourcing 72mg liquid was a bit sketchy in the UK under the rules of the TPD (where it isn't technically legal to sell nicotine stronger then 20mg and/or in a bottle over 10ml).

Personally I don't understand why they banned stronger liquid, I stopped smoking using 32mg eliquid in a small ego style pen and found it easy, a few months after I started they banned the stronger liquid and found I struggled with the 18mg liquid and ended up smoking again (although I was smoking in conjuction with my vape pen which ment instead of 6-8/day I was mostly keeping to about 3-4/day). After a few years I decided to buy a cheap vaptio s75 mod (I really wouldn't recommend this mod, it's full of software bugs).. £10 for a tank and replaceable battery mod, using a 10a cell from a broken window vacuum at 30w, it was more a cheap experiment to see if It was enough to stop and I found I didn't have any issues wanting a cigarette using this with 6mg liquid. Which gave me the push to get a better mod and stop smoking permanently.

 

[Annette Rogers]

I agree, the cut off at 20 mg in the UK seems arbitrary or perhaps uninformed. A lot of people tend to think that the nic level on the bottle is the only factor but, in fact, the ohms level of the coil, the power of the e-cig device, etc, all have as much and maybe even more of an effect on the amount of nicotine actually introduced into the body.

This was shown in a study entitled "Nicotine absorption from electronic cigarette use: comparison between first and new-generation devices" that was done in 2014. The study looked at blood plasma nicotine levels, the amount of nicotine actually was delivered, and found a huge difference between so called 1st and 2nd generation devices (almost double the amount of nicotine introduced into the blood stream from the newer, more powerful devices when compared to our old Joye 510's). You can see the charts showing these results here if you're curious:

Nicotine Salts: A Vaper's Guide

Bottom line, if you need more nicotine than you're getting at 20 mg, look to your hardware for a solution. Sounds like you already figured that out though!