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Past research shows that more than 85 percent of US adults who are dependent on alcohol are also dependent on nicotine, but why do the two go hand in hand?
Now, a new study with rats finds that nicotine cancels out the sleep-inducing effects of alcohol.
"We know that many people who drink alcohol also use nicotine, but we don't know why exactly that is," says Mahesh Thakkar, associate professor and director of research in the University of Missouri School of Medicine's neurology department and lead author of the study.
"We have found that nicotine weakens the sleep-inducing effects of alcohol by stimulating a response in an area of the brain known as the basal forebrain. By identifying the reactions that take place when people smoke and drink, we may be able to use this knowledge to help curb alcohol and nicotine addiction."
http://www.futurity.org/smoking-drinking-1036052-2/
[Abstract]: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jnc.13219/abstract
[Source]: http://medicine.missouri.edu/news/0305.php
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday November 01 2015, @11:24PM
how in the world is the use of drugs in any way natural?
Humans are animals and a part of nature. There you have it.
But who really cares if something can be considered "natural" or not? It's irrelevant.
(Score: 2) by cykros on Wednesday November 04 2015, @04:29AM
But who really cares if something can be considered "natural" or not? It's irrelevant.
Bingo. This was day one of undergraduate environmental ethics. Regardless of how you care to define natural, nature simply is not something that there is much justification for using as normative.
Ducks are known to gang rape as part of their breeding rituals, but for some reason, this isn't the part of the natural word that people tend to use as part of their nature-as-normative arguments...