For years, nicotine has been stigmatized under the same narrative as the traditional cigarette, that is, addiction and disease. But biology sometimes forces us to separate pieces that in real life travel together. A research team has followed mice that drank water with purified nicotine for 22 months and has observed that upon reaching old age, these animals maintained mobility better than those in the control group, as if the motor “wear and tear” typical of age were slower.
The study, published in Advanced Scienceshows that mice that took nicotine orally from a young age maintained better performance in movement and coordination tests, especially with the highest dose, without the authors detecting obvious damage in the organs analyzed under these conditions.
Nicotine is not the same as smoking
The experiment makes an important clarification and that is that smoking tobacco and nicotine are not the same. That is to say, when taking nicotine there is no combustion, no tar, no monoxide, nor the mixture of substances that makes cigarettes a massive health problem. Knowing this, the study focuses only on how it affects nicotine isolated and administered in a specific way (in water).
According to the study, the benefit is, above all, in mobility, since the treated mice move more and better perform balance and coordination tasks common in this type of studies. On the other hand, when looking at simple memory tests in the animal, the result is not so much, since cognitive aging appears and nicotine does not clearly correct it in these measures.
In other words, the study shows that there is more improvement, so to speak, in “physical” aging than in memory.
Energy, intestine and certain “signal” fats
The article explains that, as the months go by, nicotine pushes the body towards somewhat more efficient functioning when it comes to managing energy, especially in tissues linked to movement.
This explanation includes, first, the intestine and the community of microbes that live in it (the microbiota). This microbiota changes with age and can influence processes in the rest of the body. According to the study, nicotine would have contributed to keeping this community more stable over time and would have modified some substances that these microbes produce and that the body uses as signals.
The second element is certain fats that are part of the cell membranes and that also function as internal “messengers.” The authors explain a change in balance between two of these fats in which, on the one hand, they tend to accumulate with age in different contexts, and another that appears relatively higher in the treated mice. In the hypothesis, this adjustment is associated with a better energy state of the muscle, which is key to sustaining mobility.
In addition, the work highlights that nicotine together with a molecule ensures that cells obtain energy and remain in good working order.