addiction

Research Proving You Can Quit Smoking Without Gaining Weight: A team of scientists who were led by the Yale School of Medicine reported a study that supplied evidence that shows how nicotine suppresses appetite. They state that smokers tend to die at a younger age while being skinnier than non-smokers. With this new discovery, scientists believe that a drug can be developed that will help smokers non-smokers alike, stay thin.

This is how it works. Cigarettes are full of nicotine, the very thing that keeps many people addicted to them. When nicotine inserts the body, it activates a small set of neurons in a section of the hypothalamus in which signals that the body has had all it can as far as food is concerned. Nicotine activates a different set of receptors on the surface of neurons then the ones that are triggered when it comes to the craving of tobacco.

Marina Picciotto, the Charles B.G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry, professor of neurobiology and pharmacology states, “Unfortunately, smoking does keep weight off. Many people say they won’t quit smoking because they’ll gain weight. Ultimately, we would like to help people maintain their body weight when they kick the habit and perhaps help non-smokers who are struggling with obesity.”

Picciotto is an expert when it comes to the function of nicotine receptors, which are located on the surface of neurons. These receptors, called nicotinic acetylcholine receptors have several functions and in the brain, they are primary targets of nicotine. An associate research scientist named Yann Mineur was investigating a drug for depression. The drug was used on mice, which Mineur soon noticed started to eat less than those who were not on the drug. Soon researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa and the University of Hawaii, came together to help find out the reason behind this new discovery.

Using different experiments, researchers found that the drug activated the nicotine receptor, which also activated the neurons in the hypothalamus, which are called POMC cells or pro-opionelanocortin cells. Through research, it was discovered that the mice lacking the POMC cells did not lose weight like those who had the cells and it also seen that the receptors being activated were much different than the ones that trigger a craving for tobacco.
Picciotto said. “This suggests it is possible to get the effect of appetite suppression without also triggering the brain’s reward centers.”