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- Nicotine improves human brain performance
- Is the bad reputation of smoking undeserved?
- Professor: About time the positive side of tobacco is emphasised
By Niels Ipsen, environmental biologist, and Klaus Kjellerup, researcher.New Analysis Summary: Update Of 40 Years Of Nicotine ResearchAccording to public health officials, tobacco has no benefits at all: "A harmful and unnecessary product," says the WHO (World Health Organization), which has lobbied national governments to combat tobacco use since 1975
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The Danish anti-smoking lobby wants a total ban on tobacco: "We can not see what tobacco contributes," said the Cancer Society. "A smoke-free society should not be an unreasonable policy objective," they say in the Danish health directorate
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Since the 1960's authorities worldwide have focused exclusively on the health hazards of tobacco, and thus given it a very negative image. Their many anti-smoking campaigns may have made the world forget that tobacco use also has positive aspects. But as we know, any issue always has at least two sides, and now the positive effects of tobacco have resurfaced in the scientific literature.
After 40 years of scientific research on the effects of nicotine, researchers now say that they have sound scientific proof that smoking and nicotine have a significant positive effect on human brain performance.
The brain works better when it gets nicotine - almost like an optimized computer. Nicotine is a "work-drug" that enables its consumers to focus better and think faster. The brain also becomes more enduring, especially in smokers: Nicotine experiments show that smokers in prolonged working situations are able to maintain concentration for many hours longer than non-smokers.
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