Max Lugavere

And of course smoking, which is the way that most people typically derive nicotine, is very bad from the standpoint of brain health.

Combustible tobacco, combustible forms of nicotine, no bueno.

Bad for your vasculature, bad for your blood pressure, bad for metabolic health, bad for so many things.

I mean smoking, cigarette smoking literally accelerates aging.

I'm not too worried about many people in this audience smoking.

But, you know, it's not good for you.

And cigarette smoking is a modifiable risk factor for dementia, for Alzheimer's disease.

That being said, there is an interesting line of research linking nicotine consumption to reduced risk of Parkinson's disease.

And Parkinson's disease can in its later stages lead to a form of dementia called Parkinson's disease dementia.

Parkinson's is not dementia.

Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder.

But it is a neurodegenerative condition that can ultimately lead to cognitive decline.

And that's called Parkinson's disease dementia.

And that's distinct from Lewy body dementia, which is what my mother had, which at the onset of Lewy body dementia, you see both cognitive decline as well as movement symptoms.

But where nicotine becomes really interesting is

is that there is a line of research suggesting that nicotine might play a protective role against parkinsonism um we don't yet have solid human data to say that with certainty so again i'm not re even in the setting of parkinson's disease um prevention i'm not recommending

y'all go out and start popping nicotine lip pouches.

But there is some research.

It began with the paradoxical finding that cigarette smokers seemed to have lower risk for Parkinson's disease.

And then there have been some other studies in animal models that have shown that nicotine can help protect the brain from certain environmental toxicants that might otherwise create symptoms that look a lot like Parkinson's disease.