Need help to quit smoking? A known drug might help reduce nicotine cravings (Available liraglutide)

Medical Xpress / University of Copenhagen / Cell Reports ^ | May 31, 2023 | Sarah Falk et al

[ConservativeMind]

A drug that was originally developed to treat diabetes and severe overweight might also help people with nicotine dependence, concludes new research.

Smoking is one of the greatest threats to public health.

And 75% of smokers want to quit.

So why don't they? The answer is: nicotine. It is one of the most addictive known substances.

Unfortunately, there is no treatment for nicotine cravings.

But new research might be able to change that.

"In connection with a mouse study focusing on overweight, we discovered, more or less by accident, that a well-known drug, liraglutide, used to treat diabetes and overweight, affects the impact of nicotine on the brain. Liraglutide inhibits the effect that nicotine has on the brain's reward system," says Associate Professor Christoffer Clemmensen.

He explains that GLP-1 and nicotine are the two substances that affect the brain's reward system. Nicotine from tobacco, for example, releases a large amount of dopamine in the brain, which acts as a kind of reward. This is one of the reasons why it is so hard to quit nicotine products.

In the study, the researchers studied two known appetite inhibitors: GLP-1 and nicotine. GLP-1 is used in various diabetes and weight loss drugs.

The researchers already knew that nicotine increases energy expenditure, and many who quit nicotine products subsequently gain weight.

Together, the two substances appear to promote weight loss, while GLP-1 alone seems to reduce nicotine cravings. And, according to the international database of clinical trials, many researchers are currently testing whether GLP-1-based drugs can help people quit smoking.

Christoffer Clemmensen explains that it was only recently discovered that a combination of GLP-1 and nicotine has a greater effect on the body than either of the two substances alone.

The two substances affect the same neurons in specific parts of the brain.

[imardmd1]

Nope. Tested IQ = 140 ===========

If your idea of freedom from the obsessive nicotine dependency state (which is a consequence of inhaling the fumes from burning tobacco) by replacing it with vaping (inhaling the fumes of electronically heated nicotime-bearing solution), that's no significant change in the delivery system, is it? Both result in overdosing every time one uses the method.

That would seem to me to be an illogical, idiotic, andunworkable approach, eh?

Absorption of the toxin from the nicotine polyacrylex cud at the interface with the flesh of the mouth causes a much slower controllable rise of concentration of nicotine in the blood, promoting a continuous lessening of the amount of residual nicotine the body wants to maintain, diminishing to zero the desire of the user and lengthening the interval between doses such that it can be abandoned without discomfort.

That makes sense and is easily performed by anyone except the idiot that wants to keep on inhaling poison into his/her lungs.