Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have discovered a circuit in rats that links cigarette smoking and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study featured on the cover of the October 17 issue of Nature.
Diabetes is far more prevalent in smokers than non-smokers, but the reasons why have remained unknown until now. The researchers showed that consumption of nicotine is linked, through a brain circuit, to the activity of the pancreas. Nicotine use leads the pancreas to release less insulin, which raises the level of blood sugar; higher levels of blood sugar are associated with a higher risk of diabetes.
Specifically, the researchers found that a protein encoded by a diabetes-related gene called transcription factor 7 like 2 (Tcf7l2) mediates a signaling circuit that connects neurons in the brain activated by nicotine to blood-glucose regulation by the pancreas. The nicotine activates nicotine acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) proteins expressed on neurons in the medial habenula (a brain area that regulates aversive reactions to nicotine), leading to adverse responses to nicotine that limit both intake and the release of glucagon and insulin by the pancreas. This, in turn, raises the levels of blood sugar, and the raised levels of blood sugar create a feedback loop by inhibiting the nAChR-expressing neurons, blocking adverse responses to smoking and so helping to establish nicotine dependence. Tcf7l2 modulates the entire signaling circuit, thereby linking nicotine addiction with an increased risk of diabetes.
"Our findings are important because they describe a mechanism that controls the addictive properties of nicotine and, surprisingly, show that the same addiction-related brain circuits also contribute to smoking-related diseases previously thought to be related to the actions of tobacco outside the brain," says Paul J. Kenny, PhD, Ward-Coleman Professor and Chair of the Nash Family Department of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and senior author of the paper. "These unexpected findings suggest that at least some of the disease-causing actions of nicotine arise in the brain by the very same circuits that control the addictive properties of the drug. This means that the addictive and disease-causing actions of tobacco may, in some cases, share the very same underlying mechanisms."
Journal Reference:
Alexander Duncan, Mary P. Heyer, et al. Habenular TCF7L2 links nicotine addiction to diabetes. Nature, 2019; 574 (7778): 372 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1653-x
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @05:20AM (1 child)
Nicotine spikes your blood sugar, it is addictive in the exact same way as carbs. They want you to cut down on nicotine so you eat more wheat and corn products.
Sugar has only been considered food for like 200 years. In the middle ages you could eat all you want and still be considered fasting. It should be treated with the same suspicion as cocaine.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday October 18 2019, @06:28AM
Putting extra weight is quite a common effect in those that try to quit smoking.
Most of the time, having a hit of nicotine reduces one's hunger sensation.
Not only the sugar, but all the food.
Proof: try to go without for a couple of days and you'll get withdrawal symptoms like you wouldn't believe. (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @06:56AM (5 children)
What is so hard about quitting using nicotine, other than a lack of interest in doing so?
Everything I read says that you get all sorts of symptoms and insatiable cravings after a half hour to an hour. Why don't people who want to quit just quit?
I'll often go through periods of using 12 to 20mg of nicotine every day for a few weeks straight, then go with nothing for a few weeks straight. Should I be having symptoms of withdrawal, or is nicotine just not that hard to kick. Seems to me a lot of people say they want to quit to make others around them happy, but really have no desire to do so and make up excuses why they can't stop.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 18 2019, @07:11AM (4 children)
Be happy then (and stop boasting).
There's no absolute unique response to nicotine addiction. As there's no absolute unique response to X addiction, where X stands for almost anything addictive.
For instance, I can't get a caffeine addiction - it will make feel absolutely sick if I'd try to increase my intake over the double shot espresso in the morning (which I can even skip entirely, will take me only 1hour more to become equally alert); I don't have any coffee in weekends and holidays. But I know heaps of others who would be absolutely wrecked if they skip their caffeine intake any morning (some even in the afternoon): with headaches and cold sweats and upset stomach and all that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:02PM (2 children)
Mod parent up.
Addiction response is quite varied.
I have been on and off opioids for years for chronic pain, and never felt the least hint of addiction to them. I simply cannot understand people who destroy their lives in their longing for them. I have a drawer full of them that I have no trouble ignoring. My response to alcohol and cannabis is similar. I don't find any of these agents enjoyable or alluring.
OTOH, I have been a partaker of tobacco for nigh on fifty years, excepting one three month stint after the gave me a stent. If I am without nicotine for more than three hours, I lose all ability to suffer fools, to ponder abstractions and to disregard unlikely threats. The three month interval I spent tobacco-free threw me into the darkest of depressions, and represents the least productive period of my life. At the end of the day, it is easier for me to endure the heart surgeries, the respiratory difficulties and cancer treatments than to dispense with the moderate use of tobacco. I console myself by remembering that even Einstein found himself unable to escape his addiction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @04:18PM (1 child)
How much nicotine do you use a day?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @07:23PM
Currently, I take a few puffs on unfiltered cigarettes about a dozen times a day, consuming (on average) 3-1/2 cigarettes daily. I seem to be unable to reduce intake further than this.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday October 18 2019, @09:42PM
Be happy then (and stop boasting :-).