One nicotine pouch: heart rate 62 to 70, HRV 85 to 66 in 15 minutes

The Resilient Engine with Dr. Jay Wiles · Oct 29, 2026 · 41m

Nicotine has not gone away. It has moved from cigarettes to vapes and pouches, and athletes and high performers now use it for focus, energy and calm. Dr. Jay Wiles used it that way too, until he noticed what it was doing to his nervous system.

This episode follows nicotine from Native American ceremony to the cigarette rolling machine, the 1964 Surgeon General's report, the vaping wave and the pouch era. Then it goes inside the body. Nicotine is shaped enough like acetylcholine, one of your own neurotransmitters, to fit its receptors, and those receptors sit in the relay stations of both…