LONGECITY

I know this is probably a long shot but the keywords throw up that much noise that I cannot find anything to prove or disprove it so I'm going to ask.

I quit smoking in July last year. I had been a casual smoker for 30 years mostly when drinking. Towards the end I found that I was smoking more, including a few when not drinking which is why I quit. Shortly afterwards I began to notice that I would have memory blackouts when drinking. This has been present now for around 10 months. FWIW, I have always been able to hold my drink and rarely have issues remembering things. Nowadays, anything after 4 or so pints and the memory starts to diminish. After 6 I have little recall from that point onwards. It is not drink specific or food related. The only thing I can identify is stopping smoking. I am aware that nicotine is neuroprotective which made me wonder if it could be a [the] factor.

I'd appreciate pointing towards any thing related to this or other causes of sudden onset recall issues related to alcohol consumption - other than the generalised avoid alcohol rhetoric. 

TYIA

The only thing I can think of atm is that memory is reliant on acetylcholine, and nicotine affects acetylcholine receptors in the hippocampus. Your decreased tolerance to alcohol could also be due to loss of the stimulant effect of smoking. I find that I have an easier time remembering nights where I was consuming both caffeine and alcohol, but that's just my experience. Even if you're just a casual smoker I'm sure it will take a while for your body to adjust. Give it a couple of months.

Alkondon, M., Pereira, E. F., Almeida, L. E., Randall, W. R., & Albuquerque, E. X. (2000). Nicotine at concentrations found in cigarette smokers activates and desensitizes nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in CA1 interneurons of rat hippocampus. Neuropharmacology, 39(13), 2726-2739.

This makes some sense and could well be the answer. It certainly fits with the timeline of onset. I will aim to try a patch next time I go out to test the theory.

However, it has been almost a year since I quit and things have not gotten better which begs different questions.  Just how long should it take for the system to adapt after quitting? I guess a daily choline supplement regime is not the answer? Would a large dose prior to drinking be useful? IIRC lt has a 30 hour half life anyway and it is merely a precursor to acetylcholine. Would I be better to take a racetam or maybe nicotine patches?

Congrats you manage to quit smoking, for some addiction has an effect on them if your stop taking or using them. So eventually you are on the stage of body adjustment or rebooting. As Styrling says just wait for a couple of months for your total body rehabilitation, if symptoms persist consult to your doctor.

simple solution: stop drinking. if you stopped smoking, you can do it too.

In my own experience of smoking then vaping I'm convinced that particularly high dose nicotine affects memory and emotional stability.  Other thoughts are a) are you drinking more?  , b) is someone spiking your drinks 'for a laugh'?