Nicotine is a valid potential treatment for lots of ailments. If you don't believe me, check out the research they're doing on nicotine's uses for everything from Parkinson's to mental illness to bowel disorders.
You're absolutely correct. There are medical benefits from nicotine. It's been proven to help avoid Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, rheumatoid arthritis, and probably many other diseases, as you mentioned. My mother quit smoking in 1988, cold turkey, and three months later, she got rheumatoid arthritis. She researched at the Michigan State Library the effects of lack of nicotine, after smoking for 40+ years, and she found credible sources that proved to her that she got RA because she quit smoking. And I've always believed that was why she got RA. She started smoking a year later, but she lived with RA for 13 years until she died at the age of 74½.
And that's one reason why I love
vaping (not to mention the throat hits)! I'm still getting the nicotine, without the smoke, tar, 4000 toxins, smell, and everything else associated with smoking. I'm hoping it will help me avoid getting RA. From the first throat hit on 09/14/10, I knew I no longer wanted to smoke, no matter how much more work it is to vape, compared to smoking.