Implication of Nicotine Not Working

For the first two days I was high, energetic and clear-headed. Then the effect faded in subsequent days as my body got used to nicotine. But I'm not using nicotine patch to get high; I'm using it to get me through the weather after heavy exercises. So, the question is: has it been effective in tempering my exercise-hypersensitivity while I'm under the weather? I haven't accumulated enough data for the analysis, but, frankly, I don't seem to need one. A glance at my activity log tells me that nicotine patch didn't make difference on my exertion-hypersensitivity when I'm under the weather. 

So, what does that mean to my dopamine theory? The theory is that dopamine tempers down the inflammation-hypersensitivity and, therefore, prevents PEM. Therefore, it necessarily predicts that nicotine will prevent, or, at least, alleviate the PEM. Was the theory disproven?

One could suspect that nicotine does not sufficiently raise the dopamine level. But it does. I know that because my cheeks get flushed and warm when I'm on nicotine patch, whether or not I'm under the weather. And I'm more energetic when I'm not under the weather. It's just that nicotine does not have the desired effect when I'm under the weather. It works when I'm healthy, but it does not when I'm under the weather, in other words. That makes nicotine patch useless for my purpose.

Another possibility: Novelty Effect may not be mediated by dopamine. I did search for brain chemicals for Novelty Effect ("response to novel stimuli") and found this paper that mentions 3 chemicals: dopamine, acetylcholine and GABA. Then a search for acetylcholine and microglia lead to this paper: Acetylcholine suppresses microglial inflammatory response via α7nAChR to protect hippocampal neurons. But a7nAchR is a nicotinic receptor that nicotine binds. Which means nicotine patch, in addition to raising dopamine level, should have similar effect as acetylcholine. 

So, I'm back to square one. It's still possible that dopamine/acetylcholine work to suppress the hypersensitivity in ways that nicotine cannot induce. Maybe pharmaceutical intervention is not a substitution for the natural response to novel stimuli. Or combination of 3 chemicals somehow temper town the hypersensitivity in a way that nicotine cannot. I have no idea. All I can say for now is that novel stimuli work, and nicotine doesn't.