Nicotine Mints - Personal Success
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:04 am
As the title says, I found nicotine mints helpful for RLS, although I would advise caution.
My background is simple, change of diet around 8 years ago at 42 to keto, started to get what I thought were calf cramps at night, solved with a simple stretch. Then I went into extreme fat loss mode and used nicotine mints and gum to assist, which may have exacerbated RLS; not sure.
RLS was intermittent, inconsistent and easily solved with some water, a stretch or elevated legs against the wall for 5 mins or so. It was hard to explain to other people, as it wasn’t a cramp but a sort of half cramp that although not painful, was very unpleasant and disruptive to sleep.
I’ve had lots of placebos over the years that seemed to help, and then wouldn’t, which included avoiding cayenne pepper which I consume heaps of (after reading that it lowers blood salt), avoiding omega 6 from nuts, supplementing the minerals in electrolytes, huge salt consumption, huge water consumption before bed and during the night. The strange thing was, these things would work for a week or so and then no longer. I thought my existing tenuous grip on reality was descending into true madness.
About a year ago I started high intensity interval training (HIIT), which if you read the science and do it, is very good for you as you get older. This made my RLS go crazy, which I still thought of as cramps, and had to make a choice to do HIIT or not. I persisted with the HIIT resulting is some long sleepless nights, and I started to lose my will to live as the permanent fatigue kicked in.
About six months ago I saw a physio and described my problem. She had nothing to offer other than do some more leg exercises; which seemed to help a bit. After this I searched on line and found that it was restless legs; which I previously thought was made up and more psychological, like aspects of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and electro sensitivity. I tried all the remedies on line with no success.
I decided recently to give the nicotine a rest and noticed that my RLS got worse, even though previously I was able to give it up and had no problems. I was still doing HIIT and didn’t want to stop, deciding to find out what would happen if I took some nicotine when woken by RLS. My first attempt was a success, but I took too much nicotine and was awake for an hour. I then bought the smallest dose mints, 1.5 mg, and cut them in half. I would wake up as the cramping started and as soon as I had the mint dissolve in my mouth the cramping stopped; life changing.
Nicotine consumption before sleeping doesn’t seem to make a difference, so there must be something about the brain chemistry during sleep that needs a small top up.
I doubted that dopamine played a part in RLS, but nicotine boosts dopamine as well as increases heart rate, which may or may not help. As a side note, there is a study that moderate alcohol drinkers have reduced chances of dementia with the possible mechanism being that during non REM sleep your brain circulates brain/spinal fluid to clear the metabolites from your brain and the increased heart rate from alcohol consumption assists; so the nicotine at night may help in the same way. There is strong link to not sleeping and dementia, so any possible negative effects of nicotine may be worth it for this alone.
If you have never smoked, and would like to try this, I would suggest finding the smallest dose mints, cut them in half and try during the day to see what happens. If you get a sick feeling, or too much of a hit, keep it in your mouth for a shorter time and remove before completely dissolved to feel a slight boost in mood and energy.
Then try at night, maybe on a weekend, so if you are awake for hours you can recover the next day. You could also try cutting a small dose patch into smaller pieces and applying a small part. I haven’t tried this, but could be worth it to avoid waking up. From what I have read, look forward to some vivid dreams.
Be warned, nicotine is addictive. It is nowhere near as bad health wise as smoking, but can slightly increase your chances of mouth cancer. From my experience, nicotine is easily managed if you take it just once a day, but there is a tipping point when it becomes regular through the day and the addiction starts. I found the good feeling and extra energy more addictive than any physiological effects.
My background is simple, change of diet around 8 years ago at 42 to keto, started to get what I thought were calf cramps at night, solved with a simple stretch. Then I went into extreme fat loss mode and used nicotine mints and gum to assist, which may have exacerbated RLS; not sure.
RLS was intermittent, inconsistent and easily solved with some water, a stretch or elevated legs against the wall for 5 mins or so. It was hard to explain to other people, as it wasn’t a cramp but a sort of half cramp that although not painful, was very unpleasant and disruptive to sleep.
I’ve had lots of placebos over the years that seemed to help, and then wouldn’t, which included avoiding cayenne pepper which I consume heaps of (after reading that it lowers blood salt), avoiding omega 6 from nuts, supplementing the minerals in electrolytes, huge salt consumption, huge water consumption before bed and during the night. The strange thing was, these things would work for a week or so and then no longer. I thought my existing tenuous grip on reality was descending into true madness.
About a year ago I started high intensity interval training (HIIT), which if you read the science and do it, is very good for you as you get older. This made my RLS go crazy, which I still thought of as cramps, and had to make a choice to do HIIT or not. I persisted with the HIIT resulting is some long sleepless nights, and I started to lose my will to live as the permanent fatigue kicked in.
About six months ago I saw a physio and described my problem. She had nothing to offer other than do some more leg exercises; which seemed to help a bit. After this I searched on line and found that it was restless legs; which I previously thought was made up and more psychological, like aspects of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and electro sensitivity. I tried all the remedies on line with no success.
I decided recently to give the nicotine a rest and noticed that my RLS got worse, even though previously I was able to give it up and had no problems. I was still doing HIIT and didn’t want to stop, deciding to find out what would happen if I took some nicotine when woken by RLS. My first attempt was a success, but I took too much nicotine and was awake for an hour. I then bought the smallest dose mints, 1.5 mg, and cut them in half. I would wake up as the cramping started and as soon as I had the mint dissolve in my mouth the cramping stopped; life changing.
Nicotine consumption before sleeping doesn’t seem to make a difference, so there must be something about the brain chemistry during sleep that needs a small top up.
I doubted that dopamine played a part in RLS, but nicotine boosts dopamine as well as increases heart rate, which may or may not help. As a side note, there is a study that moderate alcohol drinkers have reduced chances of dementia with the possible mechanism being that during non REM sleep your brain circulates brain/spinal fluid to clear the metabolites from your brain and the increased heart rate from alcohol consumption assists; so the nicotine at night may help in the same way. There is strong link to not sleeping and dementia, so any possible negative effects of nicotine may be worth it for this alone.
If you have never smoked, and would like to try this, I would suggest finding the smallest dose mints, cut them in half and try during the day to see what happens. If you get a sick feeling, or too much of a hit, keep it in your mouth for a shorter time and remove before completely dissolved to feel a slight boost in mood and energy.
Then try at night, maybe on a weekend, so if you are awake for hours you can recover the next day. You could also try cutting a small dose patch into smaller pieces and applying a small part. I haven’t tried this, but could be worth it to avoid waking up. From what I have read, look forward to some vivid dreams.
Be warned, nicotine is addictive. It is nowhere near as bad health wise as smoking, but can slightly increase your chances of mouth cancer. From my experience, nicotine is easily managed if you take it just once a day, but there is a tipping point when it becomes regular through the day and the addiction starts. I found the good feeling and extra energy more addictive than any physiological effects.