Where did he get the Helen Thomas doll?
Posted on 06/12/2011 12:02:11 AM PDT by neverdem
Craving an afternoon snack? Take a drag on a cigarette, and your hunger will likely disappear. Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the Unites States and other developed countries, causing lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic bronchitis. But smokers are, on average, skinnier than nonsmokers. New research reveals how nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarettes, works in the brain to suppress smokers' appetites. The finding also pinpoints a new drug target for nicotine withdrawal—and weight loss.
The nicotine receptor in the brain has 15 subunits; they can combine in a multitude of ways to form different receptors with different jobs. Nicotine can bind to each combination and spur a cascade of distinct events; some lead to the addictive properties of cigarettes, others to an increase in blood pressure or a feeling of relaxation. It's long been known that nicotine causes a slump in appetite, and scientists suspected that this worked through receptors associated with reward and behavior reinforcement. After all, the brain considers both cigarettes and food to be rewards. But the new finding suggests that appetite has its own pathway.
Behavioral neuroscientist Marina Picciotto of Yale University set out to study whether activating one particular nicotine receptor, dubbed α3β4, had antidepressant effects on mice. But as postdoctoral researcher Yann Mineur was caring for the mice, which had received drugs engineered to stimulate only α3β4 receptors, he noticed a side effect: the mice were eating less.
"Before this study, we really didn't think that this type of receptor would have such a big role in the brain in food intake," Picciotto says. She and Mineur went on to show that nicotine does, in fact, bind to α3β4 receptors, which then send a signal throughout the rest of the brain, signaling satiety. It's indistinguishable from the signal the brain propagates after eating a large meal. Mice that received the drug binding to the α3β4 receptor ate half the amount of food as untreated mice in the 2 hours following administration of the drug. Their body fat dropped 15% to 20% over 30 days, the team reports online today in Science.
Since the weight gain that comes with stopping smoking is often one deterrent for smokers to quit, Picciotto suggests that the new pathway could be targeted by pharmaceuticals to suppress appetite during the initial stages of smoking cessation. In addition, such a drug could have wider reach as an appetite suppressant to aid in weight loss, without the health hazards tied to cigarette smoke.
Neil Grunberg, a behavioral neuroscientist at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, was the first to prove, through rat studies in 1982, that nicotine causes a decrease in appetite. He says the new study is a step forward in understanding the phenomenon he first observed.
"Most people had accepted that the decrease in appetite was caused through a dopamine-reward pathway and left it at that," Grunberg says. "So I think the most important contribution of this paper is to prove that there is another whole pathway that nicotine is working through."
Grunberg notes, however, that the study looks only at male mice. In his previous work, he has found differences in the effects of nicotine on weight between males and females. Females, he says, experience larger weight loss when they start smoking and a larger weight gain if they quit. Whether this means nicotine is working through an additional, hormone-regulated pathway in the female brain is yet to be determined.
Picciotto says her group is repeating the experiments on female mice. "We're also still trying to get back to that original question we had," she says: "Does this also have antidepressant actions?"
Back when I smoked, I was unable to lose weight. It was bizarre and kind of scary. Then I quit and dropped the 10lbs I had wanted to lose.
One of the biggest lies I told myself when I smoked was that, on some level, smoking was okay for me to do. That it wasn’t “that bad” for me, that I had a right to smoke, and, oh gosh, it would be impossible to quit, so just keep doing it. Once I did quit, I realized what I liar I was.
Back when I smoked, I was unable to lose weight. It was bizarre and kind of scary. Then I quit and dropped the 10lbs I had wanted to lose.
One of the biggest lies I told myself when I smoked was that, on some level, smoking was okay for me to do. That it wasn’t “that bad” for me, that I had a right to smoke, and, oh gosh, it would be impossible to quit, so just keep doing it. Once I did quit, I realized what I liar I was.
I agree. The idea of painless weight loss has appeal, but one should be wary of any drug that affects one’s freewill - even if it’s intent is positive.
When you quit smoking, you were finally able to taste your ex-wife’s cooking. It alsways tasted bad.
At some point, I started inhaling a little here and there. Fast forward a few more years and I had a cigar habit just as bad as cigs. I would smoke a 3rd of a cigar, put it out smoke some more later, etc. I was basically dosing myself with tobacco just like a cig smoker.
I tried cutting down to 3 or 4 a day, couldn't do it. So I finally decided I had to give em up. They were giving my bronchitis. They were giving me problems with my gums. Anxiety about cancer. I believe they were aging me too--skin and hair, etc. I quit 7 months ago.
I'm like you--a junkie. Don't ever forget you've got a monkey on your back. And don't compare yourself to people you see who somehow manage to have an occasional smoke. We're not like them. It's all or none. If we could regulate it, we wouldn't have quit. But we can't, so we did, and you don't want the hassle of having to quit again. My two cents.
I believe it.
I actually know women who chew nicotine gum to stay skinny.
I guess it’s better than doing coke which some of my sorority sister used to stay skinny back in the day.
“Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths “
I had no idea that death was ‘preventable’
I have smoked for over 60 years and i do not think it is going to keep me from dieing, and it don,t squelch my appetite.
However it does keep me from getting too fat because with all of the extortion taxes on tobacco i can not retire and keep on smoking, so i have to keep on working.
The so called experts can argue all day about all of this but like i said i have smoked for more than 60 years and i still can not answer the question ( is it a habit or is it an addiction? ) so i really don,t know how smart these experts really are, but if they think that death is preventable then maybe they are not too smart.
The problem is that any fool can put professer or doctor in front of their name and have all kinds of clout when it comes to government rules and regulations and all of these fools stick together for the love of power.
so i would just like to remind them of one thing this country is all about.
Just a bit of the constitution of the united states.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Some people will question how some people could be happy by chewing gum, other people would question how any one could be happy by going to church, etc.
If every one was exactly the same i think it would be a sad situation, if every one was exactly like me i would want to get the hell out of here.
>>But we can’t, so we did, and you don’t want the hassle of having to quit again. My two cents.<<
Your two cents are like 2 million dollars if we get even one person to see that not only must one quit smoking but one must quit smoking forever — there are no half way measures.
Now, to be fair, I know nothing about the eCigs and it seems they are a successful way to eventually quit. But once done, one must be DONE!
I guess I am too old school and my fear, which I have been quite honest about, is that the distance between eCig and rCig (Real — get it?) is too short.
But if it works as a quitting mechanism (I used Nicotrol inhalers like a crazy man (+Xyban) for a few months!) then all the best to all!
But quitting AGAIN??? *shudder* I just don’t think I could do it!
It is THAT thought that keeps my fingers in check.
All the smokers I know are over weight. They over eat and smoke and don’t do any exercise. Don’t know one skinny smoker.
First off, my deep sympathies to yuo and your family for the passing of your sister. I have yet to lose a sibling but I am sure I will be devastated. I will add you and your family in my evening prayers for comfort.
I think we are talking about the observed physiological effects on our metabolism after quitting smoking. The anecdotes are certainly trending in the same direction -- weight gain AFTER quitting.
I had a friend who passed (also too young: in his early 60s) who was already overweight and a heavy smoker. His doctor told him to not even try to quit -- said doctor feared the additional weight gain sure to follow (and stress, etc.). I lost a mentor and a true friend when he passed.
My mother also smoked and it led to her early demise (well, that and 7 kids to be brought up alone: she was married when all were borne -- another story for another thread)
Sometimes the sum total of the abuses one heaps on the body eventually catch up :(
God gave us a lot of resilience mechanisms but they can only be stretched so far.
I guess the news is they have found the exact mechanism. But Nicotine as a weight loss aid has been known for decades. I have known people who used nicotine gum as an appetite suppressant.
Thanks for the succinct diet advice, LOL. Some people do "nourish" themselves this way, hard as it is to believe.
Why are smoker’s skinny? Because while they’re smoking, they’re not eating a Snicker bar. At least I’ve never seen a smoker eating one while smoking.
I once did business with a very caustic and witty older woman, tops in her field, who resided in Manhattan, and smoked like a freight train, never being without one if she was awake.
I’ve had dinner with her many times, with a cigarette in her left hand and a fork in her right, alternating bites of food with a drag on the cigarette. She was thin, very elegant, looked quite a bit older than she was and had a voice like gravel.
She died about ten years ago and it was a real loss. To my knowledge, the cause of her death was unrelated to her truly epic smoking excess. She was in her late sixties and died in her sleep.
“if every one was exactly like me i would want to get the hell out of here.”
That is the funniest thing I have read in days. I can relate,
Where did he get the Helen Thomas doll?
I hesitate to post this - I do not wish to encourage anyone to smoke.
But when I quit smoking, I completely lost my ability to FOCUS on my work.
I think that I am self-medicating for ADHD. I don’t know, all a doctor will tell you is to quit smoking, blah blah blah.
When I work, I get absorbed in a problem, I walk around, I juggle variables in my head, smoke, and eventually, I return to my computer and write down the answer.
When I quit smoking, I lost the ability to do this. Eventually, I could not live with myself, and decided brain power was better than lung power.
Yes, smoking is going to kill me. If the Melanoma doesn’t get me first.
But at least I can THINK.
Well, this is fascinating - as it turns out, I am not the only one to notice the effect.
http://adhd-treatment-options.blogspot.com/2009/02/nicotine-withdrawal-effects-differ-in.html
It is not so simple, or there would not be so many people struggling to lose weight. The more one loses, the more the body compensates by burning fewer calories. There is a set point of weight that is difficult to defeat, although it can be manipulated somewhat.
“The Dieter’s Dilemma: Eating Less and Weighing More” - probably out of print, but a good read.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.