People have long turned to smoking to help curb weight. I know: I was one of them. I didn't know it was the nicotine that did the trick, I just knew I ate less when I smoked. The scientific community now understands how nicotine does this. The discovery may open the flood gates to successful new weight-loss drugs in the future.
Science, the weekly journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) published Friday the results of research into the mechanism of nicotine in the brain, written by Yann S. Mineur, et al.
NPR reports that the insight into the effect of nicotine on appetite happened by accident. Mineur was performing a research study on chemicals for the treatment of depression, part of which was to give mice a chemical similar to nicotine. Mineur noted that the mice who were receiving the nicotine-like chemical ate less than the mice who were not receiving it. Mineur shared this observation with other scientists and the quest was on to determine how nicotine affected appetite.
It's fair to note that only experiments with mice and nicotine as an effective appetite suppressant have been done to date, but it is only a matter of time before clinical studies are conducted on humans.
Researchers explain that nicotine latches onto to certain brain cells that influence appetite. By developing a drug or drugs in the future that perform in the same manner, a new weight-loss method may be available.
With the epidemic of obesity in Western cultures and related chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, a safe and effective weight-loss aid can come none too soon.
Marina R. Picciotto, lead author of the nicotine study and professor of psychiatry at Yale University, told Bloomberg News via a telephone interview that one of her concerns is that a survey revealed that curbing appetite is the top reason teen females give for smoking.
Smoking is the top cause of preventable disability, disease and death in the United States, report the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emphysema, a chronic pulmonary disease, is caused almost exclusively by smoking. Still, nearly 50 million Americans smoke cigarettes. Whatever fraction of these millions who smoke to control weight, perhaps their smoking will be curbed or will stop when a safe and effective appetite suppressant can be developed.
Smack dab in the middle of the baby boomer generation, L.L. Woodard is a proud resident of "The Red Man" state. With what he hopes is an everyman's view of life's concerns both in his state and throughout the nation, Woodard presents facts and opinions based on common-sense solutions.
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