Is anyone doing the nicotine patch test?

[madie]

I've just sent for the nicotine patches to join this n=1 testing group: https://twitter.com/TheNicotineTest. Is anyone else trying this?

 

[This is Luke]

I have mild to moderate ME/CFS that was sudden onset in 2008 from an infection, I am on day five of 7mg nicotine patches. It still feels like I am on a IV caffeine drip. I haven't had to nap during the day over the weekend while on patches which I used to have to do and I am waking up early every night from the patches so it has increased energy. It has improved the aches and pains and I am less out of breath going up stairs. Negative symptoms are headaches and the restless hyped up on caffeine feeling. I am going to keep on it for a bit and see where it goes.

The first day or two I felt euphoric and somewhat high so this may be a little much for really sick people to manage at first. You may be able to put a piece of plastic over half the strip to lower the dose. From what I have read do not cut the patch as this supposedly causes it to be released faster but I can't find good data on that.

The important thing to note is nicotine patches are different from nicotine gum as it is a slow sustained released instead of a hit. If nicotine is blocking some receptor or inflammatory pathway it would make sense that you would want a slow sustained release instead of a hit. I know a lot of people have tried nicotine gum in the past for energy.

As of right now this is definitely doing something positive the questions are will it last, will I crash from it, and will it sustain with time.

The study author is retweeting a lot of random people's tweets that have little to no evidence basis behind it such that nicotine patches is working by people herxing or fighting hidden virus in the body which makes me feel far less confidence about the authors study and the science behind this. People are basically making up how this works at this point and the study author is hyping it up, not a good look. My smart ass side wants to throw in a BS theory as well to call out how ridiculous some of things people are saying but oh well. This treatment was low risk enough that I figured worth a shot.

 

[madie]

I've just started this morning. I've lived with CFS since 1985; my function is about 30%. I bought 7mg rectangular patches so I could easily fold them in half and tape on, for a 3.5mg dose.

I've been wading through the twitter posts, and there's a lot there that's helping me figure out a plan. If all goes well, I'll do 8 days on and then stop, and then start again but I don't know how long I'll wait. Are you doing this in bursts?

I'm interested in study links if you find any. Bunk the Biologist (Twitter) posted that the patches might help because nicotine triggers autophagy, which is true. I've been following his protocol for 3 months including a weekly fast to - trigger autophagy.

 

[This is Luke]

Yesterday the poor sleep from the patch caught up to me and was tired. I had to take the patch off last night when I woke up at 4:30am. The 7mg patch is a lot, I probably should have started with taping off half the patch. I am going to try taking the patch off at night moving forward and see how I tolerate it.

 

[madie]

I stopped the 3.5mg patch last night. I'd gone from waking 3x to 5 or more. I thought I would switch to wearing it during the day, but I'm taking a few days off to see what happens. Maybe I'll start up again at half of this dose, if I can fold the patch that small.

The patch improved thinking and communication on the first day, but then my brain started to fry from lack of sleep. I couldn't nap. I'm immediately back to my normal on a good day. So no crash, and maybe some gain.

 

[soph1359]

hey I was wondering how you both were getting on with the nicotine patches? I’m an m.e. sufferer of 10+ years and I’ve seen it on twitter, but I’m still a little sceptical and would really appreciate hearing from others with longer term cfs/me experience

 

[madie]

hey I was wondering how you both were getting on with the nicotine patches? I’m an m.e. sufferer of 10+ years and I’ve seen it on twitter, but I’m still a little sceptical and would really appreciate hearing from others with longer term cfs/me experience

Sorry! I haven't been on. I stopped using the patch because my bad insomnia got terrible. I'm still trying to get back to my previous normal of 3 wakings a night. I did test daytime only at 3.5mg, but didn't try going down to daytime at half that.

 

[madie]

I wrangled my sleep back to my-normal of 3-4 wakings in 9 hours, and am now testing 1/8 of a 7mg patch, daytime only. I fold the patch. This dose does not affect my sleep. There's a small increase in underlying energy - how interested I am in doing anything, and how long I can focus on doing it. I'm on day 5 of this go-around, and haven't decided how long to stay on the patch before cycling off. Somewhere between one and three weeks.

 

[Nicole Lazarus]

Hi everyone. I think this is my 1st Health Rising post but have been reading all the excellent content for a couple of years.

I'm trying out this nicotine patch idea, very gingerly. I have not read much of this n=1 testing group info yet.

I bought 7mg patches, the lowest available. I let about 1/3rd of a patch be exposed to my skin with the rest of the patch still covered.

I used a patch on 31st December, then a 2nd fresh patch on 1st January. My baseline is moderate ME/CFS, with severe restrictions on physical exertion. Brain not so restricted. Lots if trouble with POTS and histamine intolerance.

The effect of these 2 patches was immediate and remarkable! It's now 4th January. I still have lots of energy, very twitchy and unable to sleep. I havent tested if I can walk more without PEM yet. But I feel as though I don't have ME any more! It's bizarre.

I can't remember anything factual at the moment and I can't sleep. So this is definitely not sustainable. I only did those 2 patches over 2 days. I will wait for the effects to wear off before trying any more.

So it's very early days and I thought I'd share my experience so far ... as I can't sleep anyway 😀.

Any thoughts very welcome. Best wishes.

 

[Melissamp99]

Hi everyone. I think this is my 1st Health Rising post but have been reading all the excellent content for a couple of years.

I'm trying out this nicotine patch idea, very gingerly. I have not read much of this n=1 testing group info yet.

I bought 7mg patches, the lowest available. I let about 1/3rd of a patch be exposed to my skin with the rest of the patch still covered.

I used a patch on 31st December, then a 2nd fresh patch on 1st January. My baseline is moderate ME/CFS, with severe restrictions on physical exertion. Brain not so restricted. Lots if trouble with POTS and histamine intolerance.

The effect of these 2 patches was immediate and remarkable! It's now 4th January. I still have lots of energy, very twitchy and unable to sleep. I havent tested if I can walk more without PEM yet. But I feel as though I don't have ME any more! It's bizarre.

I can't remember anything factual at the moment and I can't sleep. So this is definitely not sustainable. I only did those 2 patches over 2 days. I will wait for the effects to wear off before trying any more.

So it's very early days and I thought I'd share my experience so far ... as I can't sleep anyway 😀.

Any thoughts very welcome. Best wishes.

You are supposed to remove the patch after 14-16 hours. That gives your buddy the opportunity to reset before bed time.
I just started this morning at 7am. I’m doing 1/3 of a 7mg patch. I will remove it at 5pm.
Hoping this helps me even if the research is still on going with it.

 

[Nicole Lazarus]

Hi. I've had a very good, dare I say miraculous experience from the nicotine patches. I'm following up on my earlier post on this thread on 5th Jan.

Like I said earlier, I used 1/3rd of a 7mg patch on 31st December, then again on 1st January. I actually forgot to take the patch off to sleep on New Year's Eve, which I should have done. Anyway I stopped after that as I was pretty manic, but in a good way. It wasnt unpleasant. Anyway, the extreme effects lasted about 6 days, then I gradually calmed down.

As of 19th Feb, I have not been the same since. I have much more energy. I have what I call "zing". I can walk further without ill effects and I'm just getting a lot more enjoyment out of things.

I only used those two patches. Did I read that the claim is that nicotine unblocks a neuro receptor? Well if that is true, it unblocked mine and I'm starting to think it might be a permanent change.

I am still pacing. I still suffer from histamine reactions and cognitively defunct days. I still get overwhelmed and need to retreat if I have several days of exciting stimulation. But I do feel like one of the main components of my ME has been resolved.

So this has been a remarkably good experience for me! I hope others can also benefit in a similar way!

Given how simple and cheap it is to try it, I'd like it if more people could hear about it.