Smoking changes brain the same way as drugs: study

F

fruitfly

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
Messages
8,071
Smoking causes long-lasting changes in the brain similar to changes seen in animals when they are given cocaine, heroin and other addictive drugs, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

A study of the brain tissue of smokers and nonsmokers who had died showed that smokers had the changes, even if they had quit years before, the team at the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported.

"The data show that there are long-lasting chemical changes in the brains of humans," said Michael Kuhar of Emory University in Atlanta, who was not involved in the study.

"The chemical changes alone suggest a physiological basis for nicotine addiction."

A team led by Bruce Hope of NIDA, one of the National Institutes of Health, analyzed levels of two enzymes found inside brain cells known as neurons.

These enzymes help the neurons use chemical signals such as those made by the message-carrying compound dopamine.

Smokers and former smokers had high levels of these enzymes, the researchers reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Hope said other studies had seen the same thing in animals given cocaine and heroin -- and it was clear that the drugs were causing the effects.

"This strongly suggests that the similar changes observed in smokers and former smokers contributed to their addiction," he added in a statement.

Experts on smoking have long said that nicotine is at least as addictive as heroin.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20.9 percent of all adults smoke in the United States, which adds up to 45 million people. And 23 percent of high school students smoke.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Smoking changes brain the same way as drugs: study
Reuters
Tue Feb 20, 2007

Link
 
so does that mean that smoking when your young can make you fucked up in the head when your older?
 
no way, nicotine isn't a drug! *gasp*
"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20.9 percent of all adults smoke in the United States, which adds up to 45 million people. And 23 percent of high school students smoke."
-this means that over 21 percent of American adults are druggies.
 
no way, nicotine isn't a drug! *gasp*
Click to expand...

No, it's an insecticide & a highly toxic poison, but god forbid that tobacco smokers are seen in the same light as drug addicts (that makes governmemts 'drug pimps' and we can't have that, can we).

In Skinner boxes appropriately wired, there are only two of the common drugs of abuse that animals will self administer until they OD and die... cocaine & nicotine. How about things like that as a warning on cigarette packets (that's what I told my folks when they were giving up so they didn't think they were weak if they relapsed, but got straight back to abstinance - both non-smokers now!)

I mean if you're going to sear the lining of your lungs for a drug, at least make it a worthwhile one! =D
 
we need to wake the world the fuck up and show them their horribly distorted perception of reality. Mind opening drugs remain illegal while highly toxic chemicals such as nicotene and alcohol are not only acceptable but pushed onto us by every facet of our culture. They take beautiful substances away that can help our society heal, and feed us life threatening poison.

ALL drugs, when used responsibly, are safer than alcohol (or nicotene...that shit is extremely potent and can flat out kill you dead at obscenely small dosage ranges). But alas we live in a world where we throw responsibility onto those in power above us, and assume they will just blindly lead us into utopia.
 
Hmm nicotine??

How should they treat smokers then when doing samplings and studies for research??
for example
“Because these discrepancies could reflect differences in medication or drug-abuse histories among subjects, we designed the current study to investigate dopamine transporter levels in ADHD subjects and control subjects while excluding these potentially confounding factors,” Wang said.
The researchers measured dopamine transporter levels in 20 adult ADHD subjects who had never received medication, never abused drugs (except nicotine), and had no past or present history of mental or neurological disease or other medical conditions that could affect cerebral function. They also asked subjects to respond to a questionnaire to gauge levels of inattention. The scientists ran the same tests in 25 healthy control subjects with the same exclusion criteria.
Click to expand...
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=06-124
 
fastandbulbous said:
No, it's an insecticide & a highly toxic poison, but god forbid that tobacco smokers are seen in the same light as drug addicts (that makes governmemts 'drug pimps' and we can't have that, can we).
Click to expand...
considering the way opinion on it has been changing in the media and the middle class, i think tobacco is on the road to illegalization
 
i just sent this article and the quote "Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined." made by the American Cancer Society in an email to my extremely anti-drug BF.

i wonder what he'll say to this...
 
Well it's not surprising to me. I should donate my brain to science. After all the different drugs I've run through it, it should at least be good for a laugh......
or a don't do drugs poster:)
 
I smoked approximately fifteen or so cartons in the year and a half I smoked before I quit a year and a half ago. Do I have the same level of damage as somebody who's currently smoking and on his fifteenth carton? What somebody who's smoked two cartons? Or two hundred cartons? How's that work?
 
It doesnt suprise me - Nicotine is in the top3 most addictive drugs in my opinion. Its a horrible nasty, disgusting drug that has hurt and cost more than any before and after it!
 
so you people who bash nicotine.... what drugs are you doing that actually good for you?
 
I once met a guy who was forced to quit smoking because he was a heavy 1-3 pack a day smoker. He was an older guy, approximately his mid-40s, maybe 50. I`m not too good with age but thats my guess.

Just to live, he needed three or four different innhalers. The inhalers contained some sorts of steroids and other stuff, but I believe he had several diseases from the smoking as well. He claimed to "love it" and it was "all he did". Enough about his background, here we go.

He said that there will be less and less smokers as time goes on. He said there are less smokers today than there were in his day. I`m only 19, but is this true? We have less smokers today than we did in the past? I thought figures may have gone up even with these Truth and other anti-smoking ads. Maybe someone could explain it to me. Thanks. Kinda off-topic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top