Can Nicotine Pouches Cause Anxiety?

If there’s one innovation in the nicotine industry that has taken the world by storm, that would be nicotine pouches. Nicotine pouches are smokeless nicotine products that are advertised to be less harmful than traditional tobacco products thanks to their tobacco-free nature.

Aside from being free from tobacco leaves, they are also discreet. You can essentially consume nicotine anytime, anywhere since they don’t produce any smoke or drip.

One thing about nicotine pouches, however, is they still contain nicotine. So, those who want to quit smoking but still crave nicotine can depend on the pouches to satisfy their cravings. Those with withdrawal symptoms can likewise rely on nicotine pouches to somehow negate the effects of trying to quit tobacco products. But, since they contain nicotine, can nicotine pouches cause anxiety like tobacco products often do? How do nicotine pouches respond to mental health issues?

Nicotine Pouches and Mental Health

In general, oral nicotine pouches have become a go-to source of nicotine for many smokers, users of smokeless tobacco products, and nicotine users due to their smokeless and drip-free nature. Additionally, they lack tobacco leaves, saving consumers from their harmful byproducts such as tar, carbon monoxide, and other carcinogens.

Many users also love nicotine pouches since they are available in many flavours.

You see, cigarettes and other tobacco products typically come in limited flavours. And despite adding flavourings to these products, the rich taste of tobacco leaves still comes on top, which some smokers and tobacco users don’t love.

Nicotine pouches, alternatively, come with flavours that can sometimes be fruity, sweet, or juicy. They may also come unflavoured, which can favour those who only want to feel the natural spiciness of nicotine. If you’re coming from tobacco products and long for the taste and scent of the tobacco leaves, some pouches boast a tobacco flavour to satisfy your cravings.

The most important aspect of pouches, however, is their nicotine content.

These nicotine products have a nicotine content that can somehow match the hits provided by Swedish snus, chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco, cigarettes, and other types of tobacco products. They also boast a varying nicotine concentration to somehow help nicotine users gradually reduce their nicotine intake until they no longer manifest symptoms of nicotine dependence or nicotine addiction.

Nicotine, unfortunately, may affect the mental health of the users, regardless of where it comes from.

The impact of nicotine on mental health

To better understand the impact of nicotine on mental health, you must know how the stimulant affects the body in general, regardless of its source.

Nicotine is a substance you can find in all tobacco products, nicotine products, and e-cigarette liquids. It is known to be a highly addictive chemical that’s naturally present in tobacco leaves. Advancements in technology have allowed laboratories to produce nicotine synthetically.

Since nicotine is naturally present in tobacco leaves, all tobacco products you know today are expected to boast nicotine. They include the combustible ones like cigarettes and cigars as well as the smokeless ones like snus, chewing tobacco, and dip tobacco.

Synthetically made nicotine can then be found in e-cigarette liquids, nicotine pouches, and even tools used for nicotine replacement therapy or NRT.

As you consume products with nicotine, the substance is expected to enter the body. Once it reaches the brain, the highly addictive stimulant generates a temporary feeling of well-being and relaxation. It then increases the heart rate as well as the amount of oxygen your heart maximizes. It also causes a surge of endorphins, which are chemicals that relieve stress and pain and improve mood.

The effects of nicotine don’t stop there.

Upon reaching the brain, it increases your levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that generates feelings of pleasure and reward. It, unfortunately, reinforces the need to take nicotine over and over again, until you depend on nicotine products heavily and eventually find it difficult to quit nicotine.

Using nicotine products like pouches over and over again can slowly alter the way your brain works, particularly in terms of your self-control, stress, and learning. When you don’t smoke or use nicotine products in a given time, addiction and withdrawal symptoms may occur.

How about your mental health?

An article from Truth Initiative has found that consuming nicotine through vaping e-cigarettes can indeed affect your mental health in different ways.

Using nicotine, for one, may intensify anxiety and depression symptoms as well as increase stress levels. Additionally, users of nicotine, particularly e-cigarettes, have double the odds of being clinically diagnosed with depression as opposed to those who have never used nicotine products.

The article has also pointed out that e-cigarette use can worsen depression symptoms, bring out higher depressive symptoms including feeling sad or having crying spells, and lead to poor mental health.

Aside from anxiety and depression, vaping is linked to having higher levels of ADHD symptoms. Adults who vape can likewise have a higher chance of cognitive complaints, which are related to serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.

Nicotine pouches and anxiety: examining the scientific evidence

The previous part of the blog talked about the effects of vaping products and their nicotine content on one’s mental health. Now, it’s time to talk about nicotine pouches.

Nicotine pouches are now becoming more popular than vaping products as well as other nicotine products since they are smokeless and drip-free, making them discreet. They also present fewer health risks, which most nicotine pouch brands would say and advertise. But do they really provide nicotine with fewer health effects on your body?

Nicotine consumption through nicotine pouches is truly less harmful than tobacco products since they don’t possess any tobacco leaves. They also don’t require combustion, which somehow turns tobacco leaves more dangerous due to the harmful byproducts they release into the air.

Nevertheless, consuming nicotine pouches may still present a number of health risks to various parts of your body. On your gums, for instance, nicotine pouches may somehow reduce the blood supply to your gums. And when you take pouches excessively, it can lead to receding gums and nicotine burn.

In the short term, taking nicotine pouches won’t cause any cardiovascular diseases. Long-term use of pouches, unfortunately, may cause extensive damage to the cardiovascular system, which can take years to heal. Nicotine from the pouches may likewise cause a vasoconstrictor effect, which thins your arteries and causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD and cardiovascular diseases.

As for your brain, nicotine from the pouches may gradually affect its core functions and rewire your neural pathways. Nicotine pouches could make you happy, active, and alert in the short term. In the long term, they can lead to nicotine addiction and dependence. And once you decide to withdraw from nicotine pouches, it can lead to brain fog, irritability, frustration, anxiety, and depression.

To date, there’s no available research on the relationship between nicotine pouches and anxiety. The only thing that exists today is scientific evidence suggesting that nicotine is highly linked to several mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders. It is, however, still unknown whether nicotine can directly cause anxiety as well as depression.

Based on statistical research in 2019 regarding adult tobacco users in the US, 45% of all tobacco users experienced extreme anxiety, while 30% had symptoms of mild anxiety. Another study finds that smokers have a higher risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder after experiencing a traumatic event. It has also been revealed that teens who smoke are more likely to develop panic disorders, especially during the early phases of adulthood.

Nicotine exposure, based on several studies, can then either relieve the stress and anxiety symptoms or elevate them further. While the stimulant has anxiolytic and antidepressant properties, which alleviate stress and anxiety symptoms, exposure to nicotine for a long time may lead to dependence. Nicotine dependence can subsequently cause heightened anxiety levels during nicotine withdrawal.

Other potential mental health risks associated with nicotine pouches

Nicotine, as mentioned earlier, triggers the release of feel-good neurotransmitters, which can calm you down. This effect, unfortunately, doesn’t last for a long time. At best, nicotine’s effect on your body only lasts for a few hours.

So, nicotine users would have to consume another nicotine pouch or use whatever tobacco or nicotine products they have just to get their much-needed relaxing effects. Without doing so, they’ll start to feel nicotine withdrawal symptoms and side effects. One of these effects is to make stress symptoms, irritability, and anxiety more intense. Consuming nicotine products over and over again will eventually lead to nicotine dependence and nicotine addiction.

Now, as you consume nicotine pouches, their nicotine content can do the following things:

• Stimulate the adrenal glands, releasing epinephrine (adrenaline) that is responsible for increasing your heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration
• Activate the reward centres of the brain, regulating behaviour and feelings of pleasure

As the nicotine enters your bloodstream, it travels to your brain. There, it latches onto nicotinic acetylcholine receptors ornAChRs, activating a reward response by releasing neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, and glutamate.

These neurotransmitters then affect your behaviour and cognitive function, triggering feelings of pleasure, increased focus, boosted memory, and a sense of calmness.

And since nicotine pouches contain nicotine, they are expected to pose various mental health risks. These mental health risks include:

1. Anxiety and depression: While studies regarding pouches and their mental health effects are scarce, these products still contain nicotine, a stimulant that has been proven to be closely related to anxiety and depression. Nicotine, as discussed, causes dopamine release, which is the brain’s feel-good chemical that provides a sense of well-being. This effect, however, is temporary. So, as pouch users experience a rebound effect, it only leads to feeling anxious or depressed. It can then perpetuate ongoing mental health problems, causing chronic anxiety and depression.
2. Cognitive impairment: Nicotine is a stimulant naturally found in tobacco leaves. As you consume nicotine pouches, this chemical can impact your brain function, particularly in regions related to memory, attention, and learning. Excessive consumption of nicotine through nicotine pouches can, unfortunately, impair cognitive abilities, hindering concentration and memory retention. For adolescents and young adults whose brains are still developing, these effects can be particularly detrimental and have long-term consequences on academic and professional performance.
3. Mood swings and irritability: Users of nicotine products such as nicotine pouches may experience ups and downs, which are connected to mood swings. They may find themselves feeling restless, irritable, or agitated, especially when they don’t consume nicotine or satisfy their nicotine cravings. It then pushes them to constantly use nicotine products to ensure a sense of normalcy. Their rollercoaster of emotions can, however, interfere with daily functioning and strain relationships.

The highly addictive chemical nicotine, which you can get from nicotine pouches, can cause a number of mental health risks that can ruin your overall well-being in the long run. If you don’t want this to happen, make sure to regulate your nicotine intake until you no longer depend on it.