Anyone using Nicotine patches for Long Covid?

Posted by tgroff @tgroff, Apr 19, 2023

There is lots of discussion on Facebook Long Covid forums about nicotine patches helping with long covid symptoms after a few days of adjustment to the patches. Any thoughts on this?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Post-COVID Recovery & COVID-19 Support Group.

abigailphoto | @abigailphoto | Sep 3 7:21am

I had fatigue and brain fog and started to believe this is how life could be. It was horrible. My friend shared the study of the people and I decided to try the patches. I have worn the lowest dosage patch for four days. I’m still not 100% but I am 1000 times better than I was four days ago. I am an ex smoker and was nervous about starting to crave cigarettes again. I did not crave cigarettes at all. I strongly suggest trying the patch for four days, yes it tingled my skin. I have sensitive skin and it didn’t always want to stay on. I wrapped it on when it was on my wrist. I am now looking to see if I’m supposed to continue it for a fifth day.
The dreams are crazy. They are so vivid. It feels like they’re real. That is my worst side effect. I am someone who is hyper sensitive to medications.

masnaricaebv | @masnaricaebv | Sep 3 4:35pm

In reply to @austinshorty "I heard about the Nicotine patches recently from a pharmacist who specializes in functional medicine. I've..." + (show)

Hi, I'm new to this group and wanted to ask you how you're feeling now. I see you posted in December so it's been nine months. Praying you continued to improve. I'm nervous about starting on the patches. Doing my research first.

klf58 | @klf58 | Sep 4 9:47am

I couldn't tolerate adhesive on patches, so use gum instead. Helps a lot.

juliepeck723 | @juliepeck723 | Sep 4 2:19pm

I just started with a 7mg patch and I’m already feeling better. 3 days in and I feel my energy and focus returning.

ccran | @ccran | Sep 4 7:37pm

Late to the party but happy to be here, finally. Almost 2 long years for me (although it seems a lifetime) of smelling and tasting? the scent of a very dead body. I lost well over 40 pounds and dry heaved a lot. Boring carbs my only acceptable food.

This started in January of 2023 and started slowly. By mid summer of 2023, I was ready to not exist. In November 2023, I read about the Nicotine patches and tried it with an entire box of the 7 mg. After a couple of weeks, I noticed about a 40% improvement in some things, but none in the worst (coffee, onions, Maillard reactions).

JUST recently 8/2024, I injured my shoulder and was given 12 days of 10 mg prednisone. After about 4 days, I started seeing some serious improvement in the parosmia as well as the shoulder! So today was the last day of Prednisone and I am probably 99.8% recovered at this time. Onions are tad off, but okay. Same for coffee and peanut butter and those were my main triggers post Nicotine patches.

If you have a doctor willing to let you try that therapy, I highly recommend. Wish I’d asked for it much, much sooner.

ccran | @ccran | Sep 4 7:39pm

In reply to @masnaricaebv "Hi, I'm new to this group and wanted to ask you how you're feeling now. I..." + (show)

Don’t be. I was too. There was zero chance of nicotine addiction with a mere 7 mg patch. It’s worth it to at least try!

lkirnbauer | @lkirnbauer | Sep 5 8:55am

In reply to @ccran "Don’t be. I was too. There was zero chance of nicotine addiction with a mere 7..." + (show)

I’m wondering if you lost your taste/smell from Covid and the Nicotine Patch is supposedly something to help regain them? I’ve been reading about it and am curious what dose you used and for how many days? Thanks in advance. I lost my taste and smell in December of 2022 and have had 5 Stellate Ganglion Block injections that didn’t help much at all, just gave me a more salty, sweet or bitter taste in my mouth.

masnaricaebv | @masnaricaebv | Sep 6 11:24am

In reply to @juliepeck723 "I just started with a 7mg patch and I’m already feeling better. 3 days in and..." + (show)

Glad to hear the NP is working. I’m starting next week. I’ve been doing more research and watching Dr Leitzke on YouTube

aldersage | @aldersage | Sep 7 12:11pm

I was loving the patch and the last two boxes I have had a big reaction to, swelling and itching on site that does not go away for two week. Maybe its a new formulation but I have to stop trying the patch and move onto other products bc the nicotine itself really does help me with energy and focus. At night it can cause vivid dreams, I actually like this as I have always had them but they had stopped but I know some do not.. So for me it helps with fog and energy (really notice when I go off of them how much it helped me). I know other sources are food and horsetail tea which I will also add in.

friedrich | @friedrich | Oct 4 12:29pm

In reply to @cropdoc "A friend told me about a nicotine Long Covid trial last year in October. I looked..." + (show)

@cropdoc

A friend told me about a nicotine Long Covid trial last year in October. I looked up the research (search: 2013 Long Covid Covid 19 nicotine treatment impact Sars CoV 2) and found multiple papers. One publication was in January or February and had the mode of action (at least two) of nicotine on Sars CoV-2 virus and how the nicotine modulated cytokinin and blocked the ACE receptors. The other papers provided additional information and one was a study (August publication as I recall) in which 100% of patients with Long Covid recovered to symptom free in 7 days.

These were all refereed journal publications.

I started taking nicotine immediately. I found that the patch (7 mg) had no impact. With medications I have found that most are metabolism-weight dose reponses. So, I used two patches an additional 7 days (7 mg each). The adhesive bothered my skin, but I began to see a response. I augmented gum (4 mg, no sugar) one piece then two pieces, mid afternoon. I began to see very significant responses. Positive. After 28 days I had "found my dose-response" and began to see Long Covid symptoms dissappear including brain fog, attention issues, analysis and deep thinking issues, major short term memory, nerve jerks, nerve shooting pains, sweating, and control after one day of my Covid Viral Reactive Arthritis, etc...

Astounding. I am not nor have I ever been a smoker. Nicotine is bad..... this is all we have heard from medicine all our lives. No, smoking is bad. Nicotine comes from plants in the Solanaceae family. This family includes tomato, potato, pepper, egg plant. Two other plant species not in this family produce nicotine, cellery and cauliflower.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199308053290619
No, you do not have an addiction to tomatoz potato, pepper, eggplant, cellery, or cauliflower. It is not the nicotine which is additive. My family and I have all been using nicotine since October as needed. I have been diagnosed with Long Covid over five times, never recovering from it before I was reinfected by Sars CoV-2 again.

This is a game changer. My daughtef had Covid in January. After one gum treatment, her head woozy from the 4 mg dose, in 8 hours she had her smell returned and by the next morning her taste returned.

The issues: stigma, lack of knowlegde of medical professionals and researchers of truth, nicotine is a plant phytochem which protects the plant, fruit, and seed from pathogens and insects. I have a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology and Microbiology.

A green tomato, at maximim (50 mg nicotine reported), has more than 35 times more nicotine than a cigarette. The nicotine drops in ripe vegetables to lower quantities. Seed desimination by animals, birds, or insects would be eliminated if the nicotine remained high.

Returning to "the bad", the side effects are mostly minimal to none. Nausea seems to be the worst side effect for some, or the light headed effect.

I have no issues. I had Covid, Flu A, and bronchitis in December - January. I began treatment again after the Flu was over. It took about 14 days to see major improvement on my dose-response. I continued to take nicotine another three weeks and continued to see positive impact. I have not had covid again and the Long Covid was mostly gone in 28 days.

Justin

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Thank you, Justin, for your detailed expert commentary! I’ll share it with a couple who have a vegetable garden, like to cook, and have some mild LC symptoms.

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