I suggest you do some research that is outside of what Ardis says and come up to your own conclusion on the subject. There are a lot of great resources on this thread, so please check them out. I have recommended the use of the patches to a family friend and several loved ones. All have improved, and in one case, a healthy athletic male with no medical issues other than early Alzheimer's in his early sixties, he was able to return to normal brain function with daily nicotine patch use. His wife is a naturopath so he is very well taken care of and they tried everything they could to heal his brain, but his cognition continued to decline over the past two years. They were both stunned by the positive effects the nicotine had on his cognitive function, as he is now functioning normally.