Health influencer falsely claims nicotine can cure neurological disorders
Ardis, whom AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading health misinformation, goes on to claim: "Nicotine is known by medical science to be a curative agent and a preventative agent for Alzheimer's. Did you know nicotine could also cure the symptoms of hypothyroidism?" He also asserts that "glioblastomas were proven in 2021 to be cured by nicotine alone."
The clip has attracted tens of thousands of interactions on Instagram since May 19, 2025. Ardis's endorsement of nicotine patches continued to be shared across platforms in July, alongside other edits of the conversation, including one Clark posted on YouTube.
Image
Screenshot from Instagram taken July 18, 2025
But nicotine is an addictive chemical, and the only use for nicotine patches approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to quit smoking (archived here and here).
"Don't use nicotine, other than trying to help quit smoking," Edward Levin, chief of the Neurobehavioral Research Lab at Duke University Medical Center, told AFP July 14 (archived here).
He said the effect of nicotine on cognition, depression, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's "has not been proved, so it's still under investigation."
Parkinson's disease
In the podcast, Ardis claims nicotine by itself can prevent, cure or reverse symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Scientists are exploring nicotine's potential as a Parkinson's treatment due to the chemical's dopamine-increasing properties and the fact that smokers develop Parkinson's at a lower rate, but research has yielded mixed results (archived here).
"Nicotine does potentially up the release of dopamine, and dopamine is what is impaired in Parkinson's disease. So the rationale for it is there, but the proof of it is not," Levin said.
"To say flat out that it does prevent or cure Parkinson's just is not true."
A 2015 study by the Parkinson's Institute concluded that nicotine could hold promise in terms of protecting against nerve degeneration, alleviating symptoms and reducing side effects of other drugs used to treat the disease (archived here). However, the study stops short of recommending nicotine as a proven treatment, saying instead that it "may represent a new disease modifying approach."
A 2021 literature review published in Molecular Medicine Reports said nicotine may slow the progression of the disease by improving memory impairment and dyskinesia (archived here).
Conversely, a trial supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation showed nicotine patches did not slow the progression (archived here).
"Despite some initially promising findings from animal models and correlational studies in humans, this has not translated well to clinical trials," Maggie Sweitzer, an associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University, told AFP in a July 15 email (archived here).
"I am not aware of any solid evidence to support nicotine as a treatment in Parkinson's disease."
Alzheimer's disease
Ardis's second claim is that nicotine is "known by medical science" to be a curative and preventative agent for Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers in the United States are currently investigating the effects of nicotine on mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer's, as part of the "Memory Improvement Through Nicotine Dosing" (MIND) study (archived here). But nicotine has not been incorporated into human treatment beyond clinical trials.
A 2012 trial focused on 67 subjects concluded that nicotine led to cognitive improvement in attention, memory and processing, but it said further study would be necessary to determine if the findings were clinically important (archived here). A much larger follow-up is currently in progress, with results expected later in 2025 (archived here).
Levin, a researcher on the MIND study, said despite promising findings, nicotine patches have not yet been FDA approved to protect against cognitive decline.
"I can't recommend it," Levin said. "It's not FDA approved for that purpose. It's under investigation."
Levin said that if nicotine patches were implemented as a treatment for Alzheimer's or other cognitive diseases, they would likely be used alongside other drugs, rather than alone.
He also pushed back on Ardis's claim that it is safe to place nicotine patches on children, saying the drug is toxic from early fetal development through adolescence and can adversely impact the nervous system (archived here).
Glioblastoma
Ardis then claims nicotine alone was proven in 2021 to cure glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
AFP did not find a reference with such clear proof. Instead, a 2021 paper in Pharmacological Research showed nicotine can promote the proliferation of glioblastoma cells, with nicotinic receptors potentially contributing to the tumor's aggressive behavior (archived here). The paper also discovered that drugs that block nicotinic receptors can decrease glioblastoma cell growth.
An earlier literature review said smoking and other uses of tobacco and nicotine during treatment can detrimentally affect a patient's prognosis (archived here).
Keyword searches did reveal a 2022 in vivo study which found that nicotine, in conjunction with lithium carbonate, can suppress and kill glioblastoma cells, although the study also warns of health risks resulting from nicotine's cytotoxicity (archived here).
But such findings have not been replicated outside of in vivo cell studies, and Sweitzer said it would be difficult to study the isolated effect of nicotine on glioblastoma in a clinical setting.
"It would be unethical for researchers to assign patients with glioblastomas to a treatment condition where they received 'nicotine alone' in the absence of usual standard of care, because this would deprive the patients of treatment that they would receive if they were not in the study," Sweitzer said.
"In general, people should be highly skeptical about claims that something has been 'proven' in health and medicine."
Lead Stories and Medical Dialogues previously debunked claims by Ardis that nicotine can cure brain tumors in as little as 72 hours.
Hypothyroidism
Finally, Ardis poses that nicotine could cure symptoms of hypothyroidism, a thyroid gland condition that can lead to high cholesterol and heart problems.
The 2021 Molecular Medicine Reports literature review said nicotine may "activate thyroid receptor signaling pathways" to improve hypothyroidism-induced memory impairment (archived here).
But Sweitzer said Ardis's claim misleads.
"There are interactions between nicotine and thyroid hormones that have been clearly demonstrated in animal models," Sweitzer said (archived here and here). "But I am not aware of any evidence that would suggest nicotine can be used as a treatment in itself."
Rexford Ahima, director of the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at Johns Hopkins University, agreed (archived here).
"Nicotine does not cure hypothyroidism," Ahima told AFP in a July 15 email. "Nicotine use, especially through smoking, is linked to worsening of autoimmune hyperthyroidism."
AFP has debunked other health misinformation here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local France
20 hours ago
- Local France
French left urges Macron to act over US plan to destroy contraceptives
A State Department spokesperson told AFP this week that "a preliminary decision was made to destroy certain" birth control products from "terminated Biden-era USAID contracts." The US Agency for International Development, the country's foreign aid arm, was dismantled by Donald Trump's administration when he returned to office in January, replacing former president Joe Biden. Under the plan, some $9.7 million worth of implant and IUD contraceptives stored in Belgium are reportedly set to be incinerated in France. An open letter signed by French Green leader Marine Tondelier and several female lawmakers called the US decision "an affront to the fundamental principles of solidarity, public health and sexual and reproductive rights that France is committed to defending." In the letter, they urged the French president "not to be complicit, even indirectly, in retrograde policies," saying women's contraception products such as IUDs and implants were intended for "low- and middle-income countries." "Cutting aid for contraception is shameful, destroying products that have already been manufactured and financed is even more mind-boggling," Tondelier told AFP. The Greens urged Macron to request the suspension of the plan "as part of a joint initiative with the European Commission." They also called on him to back humanitarian organisations that say they are ready to redistribute the contraception products. Separately, Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of the hard left France Unbowed (LFI) party, also urged Macron and Prime Minister Francois Bayrou to take action. "You have a responsibility to act to prevent this destruction, which will cost lives," she said on X. Advertisement "These resources are vital, particularly for the 218 million women who do not have access to contraceptive care." The US plan has sparked outrage from global health NGOs, with Doctors Without Borders denouncing the "callous waste." "It is unconscionable to think of these health products being burned when the demand for them globally is so great," said Rachel Milkovich of the medical charity's US office. The State Department spokesperson said the destruction will cost $167,000 and "no HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed." Doctors Without Borders says that other organisations have offered to cover the shipping and distribution costs of the supplies, but the US government declined to sign off. US lawmakers have approved slashing some $9 billion in aid primarily destined for foreign countries.
AFP
2 days ago
- AFP
Misinformation about abortion safety spreads via US podcast
"Does having an abortion increase a woman's risk for getting breast cancer?" asks health influencer Bethany Cameron in a video clipped from her podcast and shared to her 1.5 million Instagram followers July 10, 2025. "Yes," says Seth Gruber, founder of The White Rose Resistance, a US advocacy group he describes as a "pro-life ministry." Image Screenshot of an Instagram post taken July 14, 2025 The exchange comes from a longer conversation on the July 9 episode of Cameron's "Digest This" podcast. The episode aired as legal and legislative battles over abortion play out across the United States following the Supreme Court decision to overturn the federal protection for the right to the procedure in 2022. It also comes as misinformation about the safety of abortion, which has been shown to influence public perception and policy making, continues to spread (archived here and here). Findings from leading health organizations show Gruber's comments about the risks associated with abortion are inaccurate. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Gynecologic Practice says there is "no causal relationship between induced abortion and a subsequent increase in breast cancer risk" (archived here). Breast cancer risk According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), several factors (archived here) contribute to innate greater risk of breast cancer. They include age, inherited genetic mutations, family history of breast or ovarian cancer, breast tissue density and whether the person started menstruation prior to the age of 12. Other variables a person can impact, such as their activity level, weight and consumption of alcohol. Reproductive history also plays a role. The National Cancer Institute says on its website: "Women who have their first full-term pregnancy at an early age have a decreased risk of developing breast cancer later in life" (archived here). The number of births makes a difference, with more children linked to a lower risk (archived here). Breastfeeding for a year or more is also associated with decreased risk (archived here and here). Some studies in the mid-1990s suggested induced abortion was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer (archived here). However, ACOG and the American Cancer Society say the studies had important design limitations. "Higher-quality studies have generally found no link between abortions and breast cancer risk," the American Cancer Society's website says (archived here). Jo Freudenheim, professor at the University at Buffalo School of Public Health, explained two kinds of studies commonly used to examine the relationship between abortion and breast cancer to AFP in a July 15 email (archived here). Case control studies, which compare women with a new cancer diagnosis to those with no cancer history, may suffer from "recall bias," she said. Those recently diagnosed "will be thinking about their health history in a different way" and may recall more events than healthy women. Cohort studies have participants fill out questionnaires about their reproductive histories and then follow them to see who gets breast cancer, eliminating this bias. But in cohort studies, Freudenheim said follow-ups are essential to producing reliable results. In both study designs, confounding factors such as age at first pregnancy must be considered to see if the association is truly related to abortion. A study published in 2020 analyzed the combined results of six cohort studies and eight case-control studies and concluded that abortion is not associated with breast cancer risk in women who have never given birth to a child (archived here). Over the past 15 years, medication abortions have increased steadily in the United States (archived here), drawing attention to the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol which are used in the procedure. But Katharine O'Connell White, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston Medical Center (archived here), and A Mariquit Rosete Lu, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist (archived here), told AFP: "There is no evidence that either drug leads to a higher risk of breast cancer." "In fact, mifepristone's anti-progesterone effect has been explored as a potential therapy for patients with progesterone-sensitive breast cancer," they said in a July 24 email. A comprehensive review from the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) also said abortions were not found to increase the risk of breast cancer (archived here). Maternal mortality In the video with Cameron, Gruber also asserts that having an abortion is far more dangerous that giving birth. Experts AFP talked to and the NASEM's 2018 report show that childbirth is more dangerous than elective abortion (archived here and here). The United States is one of the more dangerous advanced-economy countries to give birth, with Black Americans dying at a rate three times higher than white people (archived here). The World Health Organization defines a maternal death as "deaths from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy" (archived here). Following this definition, the CDC reported the 2022 maternal mortality rate was 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births (archived here). By contrast, the mortality rate from legal, induced abortion for the same year was 0.8 deaths per 100,000 abortions (archived here). A separate long-term analysis of mortality rates from 1998 to 2005 concluded: "The risk of death associated with childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than that with abortion" (archived here). This statistic is disputed by groups that oppose abortion, who argue death certificates fail to document if the procedure led to a death by suicide or alcohol abuse. But White and Lu pointed to a five-year longitudinal study which compared outcomes for women who had abortions to those denied the procedure. It found no significantly higher risk of suicidal ideation, mental health problems or substance abuse in the abortion group (archived here). ACOG has also raised concerns about restrictions on abortion, saying on its website that where the procedure is illegal or highly restricted, women often resort to unsafe means (archived here). "Today, approximately 21 million women around the world obtain unsafe, illegal abortions each year, and complications from these unsafe procedures account for approximately 13 percent of all maternal deaths, nearly 50,000 annually," the organization says. More of AFP's reporting on false and misleading claims about abortion is available here.
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
EU regulator backs new Alzheimer's drug, months after rejecting it
The European Union's medicines regulator is reversing course on its decision to block a new Alzheimer's disease treatment, saying the drug can be offered to certain patients under strict safety protocols. In late March, the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) drug evaluators said the risks did not outweigh the benefits for the medicine donanemab, which can slow the progression of early-stage Alzheimer's but also raises the risk of potentially deadly brain swelling and bleeding. But in a revised opinion on Friday, the group said donanemab can be offered to a specific subset of Alzheimer's patients in tightly controlled settings. Donanemab, which is sold by Eli Lilly as Kisunla, is a monoclonal antibody taken via a once-monthly infusion. It's already been approved in the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and China. In a clinical trial, Kisunla slowed dementia symptoms by up to 35 per cent over 18 months – but three people died with serious amyloid‑related imaging abnormalities (ARIA), which are a common side effect of the medicine that can cause swelling and bleeding in the brain. Two of these patients carried a type of gene that raises the risk of Alzheimer's, and Lilly had suggested that the medicine only be offered to people who do not have the gene. In March, the EMA committee said that people without the gene were still at risk of fatal complications from ARIA. On Friday, the group said the drug can be offered to early Alzheimer's patients who have at most one copy of the gene – but only in a controlled access programme with medical teams that know how to detect and treat ARIA. Patients must also start at a lower dose. The EMA said that with those measures in place, its advisory group 'concluded that Kisunla's benefits outweigh its risks in noncarriers and people with just one copy' of the gene. The European Commission has the final say on whether a new drug or vaccine is approved, but it usually adopts the EMA evaluators' recommendations. That's why drugmaker Lilly had asked the EMA group to reconsider its negative opinion on Kisunla. It argued that ARIA is usually temporary and does not cause symptoms in most cases. Alzheimer's groups were also disappointed by the initial decision. At the time, Alzheimer Europe said that while patient safety is important, strict prescribing rules and safety monitoring could help ensure dementia patients have access to the new drug while keeping it away from those at higher risk of serious side effects. Notably, the EMA and the Commission recently greenlit another Alzheimer's drug, Leqembi, that comes with similar side effects for people with the gene. In that case, the EMA group had also first refused the drug, but later recommended that it be offered to people with only one or no copies of the gene – making it the first medicine of its kind authorised in the EU. The Commission is expected to make a final decision on Kisunla in the coming months.
