mert@mert
zyns finally caught up to me
had a scary close call, so sharing here in case it helps for anyone else
it's obviously no secret that I take a lot of zyns (nicotine pouches)
they help me stay mentally focused and alert, which is especially helpful when you're in crypto
they also help suppress appetite, so I feel less of an urge to randomly snack throughout the day
I've been taking them for about 1.5y now and get regular blood checkups and do the usual 8 sleep / oura ring / whoop band tech bro monitoring
but for the past month, I started feeling a small tightness in my chest, and sometimes the left side of my neck
I went to the ER a few times, and they did all the tests, but found pretty much nothing other than exhaustion
I even did an echocardiogram, several X-rays, and wore a heart device for 4-5 days. they couldn't find anything so I figured it must be in my head from stress
last week, it happened again, but I decided to go to a different ER instead of the one near my house, and the ER doctor looked pretty worried
he told me he was very glad that I came because otherwise I might've had an aneurysm from my untreated condition
it turns out that nicotine works by constricting (making smaller) your blood vessels
which can make it such that blood flow to certain organs is reduced, causing long-term damage
he gave me a few pills that are apparently "vasodilators" and I started feeling better after about 20 minutes
he said that I had a severe reduction in bandwidth (of my arteries) and thus greatly increased latency of blood flow (to my organs)
he told me that increasing bandwidth and reducing latency saved my life
