Yes, nicotine properly used is a potent boost to performance involving your brain (cognitive) and fine motor functions (driving a bobsled). Nicotine is not useful for physical performance (pushing a bobsled) , as it in fact has a relaxing effect on muscles.
Thirty-six years ago when I first became involved in bobsleigh and made my first trip to Europe as a bobsled athlete I was surprised to find that European athletes in the sport smoked as a matter of course. This did not make any sense to me as I had always been told that cigarettes are not for the sportsman. I could find no reason why smoking would be a performance boost, so I avoided it. I had had the experience of nicotine, for concentration during preparation for Advanced Level Examinations, during which I smoked before studying because it gave me noticeable increases in concentration, the exam results however led me to discard smoking as a performance aid.
Now neuroscience has revealed the way that nicotine impacts the brain and body and so leads to high focus and motivation, (well explained here by @hubermanlab,) while at the same time relaxing muscles. This would be the perfect combination for driving a bobsled, heightened focus, improved fine motor skills, which I can see mixed with coffee could lead to the creation of an almost perfect tension, for the explosiveness of the push followed by the concentrated relaxation of the drive.
Nicotine ‘simultaneously impacts all the pathways for focus and motivation’ including simultaneously stimulating the release of dopamine while inhibiting the way in which such release is slowed or stopped. This is also the way that nicotine becomes addictive, through the potent dopamine release.
Nicotine itself is not carcinogenic, and the fact that we have receptors all over the body for the uptake of nicotine suggests that we have evolved with it. Also nicotine is found in food (tomatoes and potatoes and others) as well as tobacco. The thousands of toxic compounds found in cigarettes are responsible for the many ill effects of smoking.
From a performance perspective, nicotine can turbocharge motivation, concentration and focus, for relatively short periods of time. I have been trying using nicotine in conjunction with ultradian rhythms to maximise performance. Promising but early days yet.
Other effects of nicotine include appetite suppression and mood boost, I think there are other ways to do this which carry less risk.
Next we will look at how best to get nicotine for performance.
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