The Effect of High Nicotine Dose on Maximum Anaerobic Performance and Perceived Pain in Healthy Non-Smoking Athletes: Crossover Pilot Study

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 20; no. 2; p. 1009
• Main Authors: Bartík, Peter, Šagát, Peter, Pyšná, Jana, Pyšný, Ladislav, Suchý, Jiří, Trubák, Zdeněk, Petrů, Dominika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 05.01.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Adult; Anaerobiosis; Athletes; Blood pressure; Caffeine; Cross-Sectional Studies; Exercise; Heart rate; Humans; Ice hockey; Nicotine; Nicotine - pharmacology; Oral administration; Pain; Pain - drug therapy; Pain Perception; Parameters; Perception; Perceptions; Physical activity; Physical Exertion; Physical fitness; Pilot Projects; Rank tests; Respiration; Smoking; Statistical analysis; Tobacco; Warm up (exercise); Wingate test; perceived exertion; anaerobic performance; pain perception; high-nicotine dose
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20021009

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. 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 ( = 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. 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 ( = 0.03). 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.