The Effect of High Nicotine Dose on Maximum Anaerobic Performance and Perceived Pain in Healthy Non-Smoking Athletes: Crossover Pilot Study
Abstract
Background: In recent years, there has been intensive discussion about the positive effect of nicotine usage on enhancing sports performance. It is frequently applied through a non-burned tobacco form before physical activity.
Nicotine is under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) 2021 monitoring program. Therefore, study results that reveal either positive or negative effects are expected.
This is the pilot study that reports the effect of 8 mg dose of nicotine on performance and perceived pain. Material and Methods: This research aimed to explore the oral intake effect of a high-nicotine dose (8 mg) on the maximum anaerobic performance and other selected physical performance parameters in healthy, well-trained adult athletes (n = 15, age 30.7 +- 3.6, BMI 25.3 +- 1.7).
The cross-sectional study protocol included the oral administration of either sublingual nicotine or placebo tablets before the anaerobic load assessed by a standardized 30 s Wingate test of the lower limbs. Afterward, the Borg subjective perception of pain (CR 10) and Borg rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were evaluated.
Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for the analysis of data with a 0.05 level of significance. Results: The results revealed that oral administration of an 8 mg nicotine dose does not significantly improve any of the physical performance parameters monitored.
We only reported the statistically significant positive effect in RPE (p = 0.03). Conclusion: Lower perception of pain intensity that we reported after nicotine application might be an important factor that affects performance.
However, we did not report any improvement in physical performance parameters.