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Effect of nicotine on repeated bouts of anaerobic exercise in nicotine naïve individuals

  • Original Article
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European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Nicotine is a psychostimulant that is reported to be commonly supplemented by athletes. The purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of a rapidly absorbed form of nicotine on repeated bouts of anaerobic exercise, perception of exertion and a range of cardiovascular variables while monitoring side effect profiles.

Methods

Sixteen healthy, nicotine naïve male athletes (24.1 ± 5.3 years, 179.0 ± 8.8 cm, 81.7 ± 13.5 kg, BMI 25.5 ± 3.0, Body fat% 13.2 ± 5.1%) completed two repeated 30 s Wingate tests with 3 min rest between bouts following consumption of either a 5-mg oral-dispersible nicotine strip (NIC) or a flavour-matched placebo (PLA) in a randomised, double-blind, cross-over design. Before the Wingate test, resting heart rate and blood pressure were also measured prior to and following PLA and NIC ingestion.

Results

Peak and average power output were significantly greater following NIC administration compared to PLA (P < 0.01). Similarly, significant increases were also seen in heart rate and blood pressure following NIC administration compared to PLA (P < 0.01). No significant effect on pre-exercise side effect score, reaction time, rate of perceived exertion or post exercise blood lactate levels were observed (P > 0.05).

Conclusions

It was concluded that oral-dispersible nicotine strips increase repeated anaerobic performance, possibly through strong sympathetic stimulation, as evident by significant elevation of cardiovascular parameters.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

BMI:

Body mass index

DBP:

Diastolic blood pressure

HR:

Heart rate

ICC:

Intra-class correlation coefficient

NIC:

Nicotine

PLAC:

Placebo

REP:

Repeatability session

RPE:

Rating of perceived exertion

SBP:

Systolic blood pressure

SpO2 :

Saturated oxygen percentage

SST:

Serum-separating tube

WADA:

World Anti-Doping Agency

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Robert Johnston

  2. College of Healthcare Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Melissa Crowe & Kenji Doma

  3. Discipline of Sport and Exercise Science, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Melissa Crowe

Authors
  1. Robert Johnston
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  2. Melissa Crowe
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  3. Kenji Doma
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Contributions

RJ and MC conceived the research and all authors designed the research. RJ and KD conducted the experiments. RJ, MC and KD analysed the data. RJ wrote the manuscript. All authors read, edited and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melissa Crowe.

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Conflict of interest

On behalf of all the authors, the corresponding author states there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional Human Research Ethics Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Communicated by I. Mark Olfert.

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Johnston, R., Crowe, M. & Doma, K. Effect of nicotine on repeated bouts of anaerobic exercise in nicotine naïve individuals. Eur J Appl Physiol 118, 681–689 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3819-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3819-x

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