Why to Reconsider the Advice to Use Nicotine Patches or Gum

I really haven’t wanted to write about this.

Because people are so excited about using nicotine. Since a certain former chiropractor took to the podcast circuit claiming it keeps you from getting viruses; stops arthritis pain; cures “long covid”; and even busts up spike protein from the vaccines.

So if you really want pharmaceutical, synthetic nicotine (which is what he’s promoting) to work for any of those uses or any other healing purpose:

I apologize in advance that you won’t like what I have to say. And I hope you’ll listen to and read a few OTHERS say, about what terrible advice it is to put people on a pharma product that is destructive and incredibly addictive, in References below.

I did my own research, but also spend a few minutes looking up others with good critical thinking skills willing to look at the actual research:

talking about how faulty the idea is, that Nicorette gum or the skin-patch nicotine equivalent could possibly be good for you.

In addition to my References (PubMed is also full of studies on the harmful effects of nicotine), I would like to share the main points to consider if you think synthetic nicotine products have value for your health:

1. The nicotine gum that this former chiropractor is pushing--he put the product he promotes on the screen in a recent interview, so I looked it up, to make sure:

Sure enough, there isn’t even any TOBACCO in the nicotine product used in the patches he is promoting.

It’s a chemical product made from nicotinic acid derived from petrochemicals.

And none of the manufacturers disclose the many chemical processes the substance goes through, and toxic substances with serious adverse events, to become their

• gum

• vape

• patch

• juul (removed from the market in 2022, back now—they’re e-cigs)

• packets (Zyn for instance, with an extra nasty bonus of aspartame as a sweetener) (like holding a wad of tobacco in your cheek, but it’s in a little mesh “pouch”)

Please do some googling and verify ALL of this for yourself. See the bottom of this article for suggested google searches to learn more, so it’s not just me you’re hearing this from.

It gets worse:

Synthetic nicotine is made from petrochemical products. Not tobacco. If you wanted to argue that tobacco leaf has medicinal qualities, I would not argue against that.

But these products are made by pharma, and they are derived from petrochemicals. None of the companies getting in on the vaping / nicotine gum and patches and pouches industry—

--are disclosing what all the chemicals and industrial acids and source of their synthetic nicotine are. But google it, and it’s not hard to discover.

The chemical and pharmaceutical industry have clearly said non-tobacco synthetic nicotine is the future of their products.

We will not discover the carcinogenic or other toxic effects of the vaping / juuling / synthetic nicotine industry until it’s been on the market for 20-40 years! That tends to be when the evidence is big enough, for long enough, to do the studies.

(Look at how it’s just now, 70 years later, that we’re finally all acknowledging that fluoride in the water was a terrible idea, and we’re finally banning it!)

But if you’re wanting to use nicotine because you’re convinced or hopeful it’s a miracle cure for anything:

Please be aware almost all of these products are not even derived from tobacco.

And they’ve been through many chemical processes, to become these synthetic mass-produced products.

All the acids and chemicals in the manufacture are NOT disclosed on an ingredient list, because they’re in the product from the manufacture, but they’re not added, as “ingredients.”

2. Cutting a nicotine patch in half, to use, can burn the skin.

The former chiropractor telling people nicotine is a miracle cure for everything is telling people to cut 7 mg nicotine patches in half. Please google for yourself something like:

Why do nicotine patches burn the skin when cut?

The answers you get as you poke around may have you reconsidering use of these products at all.

They’ll tell you that when you cut a nicotine patch, it burns the skin because too much of the chemical version of nicotine enters the skin at one time, and many sources will tell you not to cut the patches.

I actually think any “holistic” healthcare practitioner who thinks this is a solution to health issues should not be giving advice to patients.

Have you been well served by the pharmaceutical industry’s mostly petrochemical products actually curing any disease, ever?

Sure, you may FEEL something, when you take something. You may even feel a cessation of pain for some hours. Temporarily. But have you ever actually healed any condition in your body from taking a petrochemical or other pharmaceutical product

Perhaps someone may make the case that they were taking a drug, and got better.

The former chiropractor says he sees 100% success with people cutting a nicotine patch in half, for arthritis. Do they just briefly feel better, at that exact location? He doesn’t even have a licence or treat patients, nor is he doing clinical trials. So the 100% claim is hard to believe.

Perhaps he means that of the several people who have talked to him, they give positive reviews of localized pain relief.

And I would ask the question for your consideration: is it possible your immune and repair functions in your body actually got you over the healing hump, and that just coincided with when you took a drug?

I really hate robbing people of their healing stories, and I don’t know your body and experience like you do. But so often, we get correlation mixed up with causation.

As in, my body healed itself, as it virtually always does, but I give credit to whatever pill I was taking at the time. (Drug or supplement.)

3. Lots of other toxic ingredients are in vapes and juul and skin-absorptive patch synthetic nicotine products.

I looked up the product the retired chiropractor promotes. The toxic chemicals in the ingredient list besides synthetic nicotine were few, and appeared to be related to the patch and adhesive, versus the substance you’re absorbing.

However, again, the several chemical processes that companies do not disclose in the manufacturing of the substance on the patch, since it’s their intellectual property and proprietary advantage–

--do not end up on the ingredient list.

You will have quite the research project to get the company to disclose what-all chemicals were involved in the manufacture. Because there’s just no regulatory agency requiring them to disclose to you.

But just google “what chemicals are used in manufacturing nicotinic acid?”

4. The common adverse events of nicotine used over a period of time are dozens of other things we would all rather avoid. They include

• osteoporosis

• teeth and gums hurting

• dental appliances falling out

• chronic anxiety, restlessness, insomnia

• abdominal pain and nausea

• increased blood pressure and heart rate

• irritation in mouth and throat

• vomiting and diarrhea

• impulsivity, mood swings, irritability

• learning and memory difficulties

• lots more

When you take a hit of nicotine via a spray, or piece of gum, or inhalation, or release via a patch--you get a dopamine hit, for sure. And then your dopamine goes down to far below baseline levels, for many hours, as your body recovers.

Except most people DON’T allow that, and abuse the substance, and hit the vape 20, 30, or 50 times a day. This is giving them the amount of nicotine (and other toxic substances) that are the equivalent of a 4-pack a day smoker, in many cases!

As I had a year, and a couple shorter periods, of my own battle with nicotine, the main thing I recall is that I got very stupid, right after taking a hit. I couldn’t remember words, etc.

So I am beyond amazed to hear the pro-nicotine pushers out there doing content (paid by pharma?) saying that nicotine is good for your brain.

The whole idea that these are “smoking cessation” tools is really a joke. All you’re doing when you stop going outside and lighting up—is changing your delivery system.

In fact, vaping and all the other methods are much worse, because you don’t have to take a smoke break to go outside in public buildings, and other people’s homes and cars.

Fact is, my own brief addiction to synthetic nicotine was caused by being at industry parties with a colleague (influencer) who taught his followers that his nicotine he’d spray under his tongue every 10 minutes—and he’d do so, to all the women at parties (tell us to open our mouths, and he’d spray it)! I’d never had such a thing—

--he claimed it was a “microdose” of nicotine, and good for him and us!

It took me HOURS of research to learn that far from a microdose, the amount in those sprays was actually higher than in any cigarette on the market.

This was not something I could find on Google. I had to contact the company, ask multiple people multiple questions, etc. My point is, most people will never find out about this!

And now I find myself trying to help and encourage a very close family member get off her own synthetic nicotine product of choice.

Some people are chewing 20 pieces of nicotine gum a day. That’s a lot of toxic chemical exposure, and it’s a different way of being a two-pack-a-day smoker.

And, the cost is about $15 to $20 a day. Some people eat, for that much money!

Anyway, please watch some of the short video resources I recently gathered for a very close family member struggling with nicotine addiction.

I’ve had friends who were addicted to EVERYTHING say that giving up nicotine was the hardest of all the addictions to beat. My own one-year accidental addiction was very difficult. I tried to quit several times before I did so successfully.

This person close to me would very much like to have a baby, but she knows her body can’t handle it. The nicotine problem being one of the reasons.

Some of the videos below are by a doctor named Frank who is young but says his bones are brittle and he has had all kinds of health problems from his longtime previous addiction to stimulants and especially nicotine.

Why on Earth would anyone take the most addictive substance perhaps ever discovered, and risk addiction and all the health fallout, to hope that the theory is true that it makes covid less likely? Covid is just a cold, at this point.

And if you want nicotinic acid, and consider it a “B vitamin,” why not save money and just eat some tar, from the road outside? (Nicotinic acid is literally derived from the petrochemical tar! It’s also what they use to make most of the “B vitamins.”)

Obviously they’ve synthesized a very potent and concentrated substance, from the tar, that is very addictive. That’s why it’s a billion-dollar industry. Not because it’s healing anyone of anything, but because it’s so addictive.

It's nothing more than a theory, that the substance binds up certain receptors, making them less likely to get covid, that uses the same “receptors.” I know a bunch of smokers—and while I do know at least one who didn’t get covid, I know others who did.

And in fact, with their respiratory systems weakened from decades of smoking, they were sick for months, rather than getting well within 2 weeks like most of us did.

I share the References to hear perspectives from OTHERS concerned about synthetic nicotine products’ associated health issues. And then if you keep reading, questions to ask Google are below that!

Ask Google questions like the following, and the AI will supply you answers:

A. What is synthetic nicotine made of
B. Why do pharma companies make nicotine without tobacco
C. Are nicotine vaping patches pouches gum made from synthetic nicotine
D. Is nicotinic acid made from petrochemicals
E. When you find the chemicals used to make nicotinic acid, google “toxic side effects of [chemical]”

If you’d like to see this article in video form, here it is:

Thank you for your support of this blog! I share a few resources by others here:

1. Why cutting nicotine patches could be harmful. nicotine burns from cutting nicotine patches - Google Search

2. Tiny video about the 14-15 days it takes to detox from a vaping addiction: https://youtube.com/shorts/6GLhJLzBclI?si=hWBJuzVBQGnNgcva

3. Really good longer video by addiction specialist Dr. Frank, a longtime former nicotine addict:

4. Another great video about the health problems nicotine causes, by Dr. Frank, who knows from personal experience: