Recently, injectable medicines like Ozempic®, Wegovy®, and Mounjaro® have swept the country, as people use them to lose weight in a relatively short amount of time. At the same time, another weight loss trend is growing in popularity despite its potential hazards. 

The trend involves people touting nicotine pouches, such as Zyn or Velo, as a way to suppress your appetite and help you lose weight. This new movement has become so popular many have begun referring to such nicotine pouches as “gas station Ozempic®.” However, behind this latest trend is a more questionable and potentially harmful reality. 

The effects of nicotine on your body

Nicotine’s most significant side effect, according to Kecia Christensen, APRN-NP, Pulmonary and Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery, is it’s addictive. “A lot of young people are hearing it’s better than smoking, but pretty soon find themselves addicted,” says Christensen. “Because nicotine is one of the most addictive substances and is the hardest to quit.”

Another significant side effect of nicotine is that it changes your brain. “Every time you use nicotine, your brain produces nicotine receptors – multiplying the number of such receptors with each use,” says Christensen. “When these receptors are empty, your brain is telling you to fill them again, which is how addiction occurs.”

When nicotine receptors are filled, dopamine—the body's feel-good chemical—is released, which is why people become addicted to nicotine so quickly—they begin to crave the feeling of dopamine release. However, this direct cause-and-effect relationship between dopamine and nicotine eventually leads people to stop looking for other, healthier ways to release dopamine (exercise, deep breathing, hydration, meditation).

Nicotine is also a vasoconstrictive substance, meaning it tightens your blood vessels. Too much vasoconstriction can lead to increased risk of:

• Coronary artery disease
• High blood pressures
• Hypertension
• Headaches
• Heart attack
• Stroke

Finally, nicotine, and specifically nicotine pouches, can also lead to anxiety, irritability, insomnia and mouth sores from the pouches breaking down mucus membranes in your mouth. 

Nicotine and weight loss

Many people are using nicotine pouches as a weight-loss aid because of the belief that nicotine is an appetite suppressant. “But nicotine actually does not suppress your appetite,” says Christensen. “People who are attempting to quit smoking or using nicotine substances of any kind tend to gain a few additional pounds due to a need to fill the craving for nicotine with something else, which is often food, specifically sugar.  They treat nicotine withdrawal symptoms with food rather than other distraction methods or activities.” Ultimately, there are no specific appetite suppressant qualities to nicotine.

Likewise, many also erroneously believe that nicotine increases your metabolic rate. “Similar to caffeine, nicotine increases your heart rate because of its vasoconstrictive properties, which can boost your metabolic rate, but it’s not proven,” says Christensen. “Moreover, these properties are why it’s such a dangerous product for people with heart or circulatory issues or those who need to heal a wound after surgery.”

Nicotine pouches compared to other nicotine replacement products

There’s another false assertion that these nicotine pouches are the same as long-existing smoking cessation products like nicotine lozenges, gum, patches or nasal sprays. However, these nicotine replacement products are FDA-regulated, whereas nicotine pouches are not. 

“Because the pouches are unregulated, you may be getting even more nicotine than you would in a cigarette,” says Christensen. “Ultimately, we don’t know exactly how much nicotine or what other additives are in these pouches.”

A better way to lose weight than nicotine pouches

“I’m a big believer in old-school weight loss,” says Christensen. “It’s all about calories in and calories burned.” Other factors contribute to your weight, such as certain health conditions like prediabetes, hormone abnormalities, or hypothyroidism, but generally, this weight-loss method is still quite effective. 

“First, you need to know how many calories your body needs to run daily,” says Christensen. “Knowing this number (your maintenance calories), then creating a 500-calorie daily deficit, either by eating less calories or burning calories with cardio/weight training exercise, will lead to 1 to 3 pounds of weight loss per week.”

While utilizing a calorie deficit is slower than using medications like Ozempic®, it is deliberate and healthy – especially if you’re consuming the proper nutrients through a balanced diet. “I encourage patients to include a source of protein with every meal, avoid sugar, portion control, and get carbohydrates from healthy options like vegetables and whole grains,” says Christensen. 

Similarly, exercise is essential to both aiding weight loss and releasing dopamine. “Dopamine release is pretty easy to accomplish without nicotine,” says Christensen. “Simple acts like drinking a glass of water, practicing deep breathing or meditation, hugging someone, or exercising will release dopamine.” People who use nicotine to release dopamine need to re-learn how to get a dopamine release from these other sources as they work to stop smoking or stop using nicotine products.

Any exercise releases dopamine, helping you feel better and establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between exercising and this positive feeling. "So, I encourage patients to practice these actions because even if they quit nicotine, one of their first reflexes when they get stressed out, angry, or sad is to return to nicotine," says Christensen. 

Nicotine isn’t harmless

“For people who think nicotine isn’t a big deal – especially if you’re not smoking cigarettes – I would tell them to view it as a substance use disorder,” says Christensen. “When people don’t see it this way, they’re living in a myth.”

Moreover, just like our grandparents 50 years ago, when nobody knew how dangerous smoking cigarettes was, we don’t know the exact damages long-term vaping or using nicotine pouches may cause.

“I would caution anyone using or thinking about using nicotine pouches if they think it’s safe because it’s not a tobacco product,” says Christensen. “It’s still affecting your body and mind and may cause brain chemistry changes.” Nicotine is an addictive substance and is the most difficult to quit, no matter the source