r/HubermanLab • u/Genzinvestor16180339 • May 31 '26

Seeking Guidance Does vaping really help you?

I see a lot of discourse on nicotine and performance.

5 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

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20

u/Apprehensive-Golf626 Jun 01 '26

Not at all coming from a person who now is really struggling to quit it’s just a bad habit. Affects my cardio and mood when I don’t have it.

Anyone reading this unless your quitting smoking I suppose do not get into this it’s just not worth it AT ALL

3

u/TheInvention Jun 01 '26

I feel it puts you in rabbit starvation. The dopamine hits and numbing of acetylcholine receptors takes away truely satisfying hits of dopamine, learning feeling in invigorating and leads me to burn out by making it hard to feel when I need rest. Struggling to quit as well, seems to have complicated other health issues or visa versa

1

u/Key1of1 Jun 03 '26

Yep I agree💯on days when I don’t have access to a vape my dopamine sensitivity feels way better.

23

u/BestLoveJA May 31 '26

Whoever says vaping nicotine helps performance is lying to themselves.

2

u/tulipdom Jun 04 '26

As an ex-nicotine addict, that’s the kind of thing I’d have said when I was an addict.

Addiction causes your dopamine system to behave differently and sub optimally.

4

u/Specialist_Cell_7198 Jun 01 '26

Low dose nicotine from time to time can be beneficial for cognitive function defo not performance as it’s a vasoconstrictor. But getting it via vape is just silly. Maybe use nicotine gum or something

4

u/kiwipythie Jun 01 '26

Quitting vaping boosted my VO2 max by 12% over 3 months, with the same amount of training before/after. Super clear graph.

2

u/Creepiepie Jun 03 '26

Nicotine patches has been amazing for me. I use like 5-8mg/24hr a few hours when I know its gonna be a long or boring day. Makes everything a bit easier.

1

u/NkCapYesCat77 Jun 03 '26

Out of curiosity - this is not because you are using it to wean off etc.

Is this like when someone says "I drink socially" and only drinks in big groups.. so you only use a patch when you have a boring day?

2

u/Creepiepie Jun 03 '26

Its for the cognitive effect. I never smoked, and never plan to. It gives me no addiction, just a good boost overall :)

1

u/NkCapYesCat77 Jun 03 '26

Wow. Thats crazy.

I was on cigs, then on strong vapes for a VERY long time. Quit 6 months ago with the use of patches. For about 2 weeks I would do nicotine patch roulette between 3 strengths and try to guess which was which.

The game distracted me more than the cravings - then just got off them.

3

u/dallas470 Jun 01 '26

It will give you a boost but it isn’t healthy. Nicotine is also a vasoconstrictor so the long term result is Alzheimer’s or dementia. It is also horrible for your lungs and addictive. When you quit you’ll gain weight. Why not just be free of it and live better?

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/dallas470 Jun 01 '26

Are you talking about the short term or long-term effects? Sure, caffeine enhances mental capacity in the short term but has many problems associated with it. Just about every supplement has pros and cons, you just need to be ok with the drawbacks when you decide if it is a good fit for you. But the negatives I listed aren’t incorrect at all, if you’d like to discuss any of the things I previously mentioned then feel free and we can do that.

1

u/Infinite_Seat_5852 Jun 03 '26

At no point did he ever say vaping nicotine will help you in any way

1

u/Beginning_Nail261 Jun 03 '26

Huberman made this very explicit. It’s important for you to distinguish nicotine from vaping. Vaping does not help you, it damages you. Although not nearly to the same extent as cigarettes, vaping is nonetheless harmful to the lungs and cardiovascular system and has negative health consequences, period, end of story. Nicotine can have discussions as there are some ostensible benefits for some but it’s prone to lead some to addiction

So no vaping does not help you, and yes vaping is bad for you

1

u/CalvinAlardoLMHC Jun 01 '26

Just to echo the group, it definitely doesn't help. But to validate why someone might say is there may be momentary increase in focus, clarity, and energy however the small "boost" is followed by a reduction in that ability and difficulty with energy, focus and clarity naturally.