Determination of Nicotine abuse as a Stimulating Agent.

Nicotine has a stimulating effect, increasing the pulse rate and blood pressure, but also the release of sugar in blood and the release of adrenaline. Nicotine also induces relaxing effects, reducing stress, increasing alertness and improving cognitive function. 

Thus, the consumption of nicotine as in smokeless tobacco products can benefit the practice of sport, without the health problems generally associated with smoke. Indeed, the use of snus and chewing tobacco is increasing, especially among winter sports such as ice hockey and skiing, but also in other sports like football or basketball and even fencing or shooting. 

However, only vague estimates of these nicotine consumption patterns are reported and this potential problem is underestimated, as it is not on the WADA Prohibited List or in the Monitoring Program.

As a first step, this study should help to establish the prevalence of nicotine use amongst a population of athletes and to evaluate the intervariability of this consumption. Then a source inference model will be developped in order to distinguish the metabolism of nicotine between smoke and smokeless tobacco.