Nicotine and Weight Management

New research has confirmed previous findings that nicotine dosing can help weight loss, at least in mice.  

The potential role of nicotine in weight management is not news. Academics have previously noted that “nicotine has been the most effective long-term weight control drug in use over the past century.” But unfortunately, nicotine has a major problem in that it is delivered to most people via cigarette smoke, which is extremely toxic – deadly in fact. 

But every new study adds to the understanding of how nicotine affects body weight and how that information might one day be used to develop novel drugs for weight management. 

This latest study looked at the effect of nicotine dose and the frequency of dose in mice and found that both are important. 

Mice were given nicotine at different doses (0.5mg/kg, 1mg/kg and 2mg/kg), once, twice or 4 times a day for 4 weeks. The mice were then weighed and changes in body fat were measured. 

There are difference kinds of fat in the body – for example, brown fat helps to burn sugar, whereas white fat, which makes up most of the fat in the body, stores energy. Too much white fat ends up in obesity. 

The results show that nicotine helped reduce weight and the amount of both brown fat and white fat in mice.  It also caused white fat to become brown fat, a process called ‘browning’.  

While the amount of nicotine used was important, the frequency of dosage was more important, according to the researchers. The best results were achieved with 2mg/kg given twice a day. 

The study was published in the Journal, Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

A previous review of nicotine on Haypp UK details some of therapeutic areas that scientists have been researching – Nicotine has been found to increase attention and focus; mitigate the symptoms of psychiatric illness and dementia; reduce weight and appetite and increase metabolic rate.