Health

Gene hooks smokers at first puff

by Sanjay Jha | August 8, 2008 at 10:08 pm

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Long held view is that a person's decision to smoke for the first time is always compelled by his peer group but whether he wants to carry on smoking is not determined by himself or his peer group. A latest research says that this decision is determined by by his or her genes, a mixture of genes, environmental factors and other social pressures.

Scientists are working to crack the genetic secrets of of a gene, CHRNA5 long considered as source of nicotine additiction, that will help them to kicking the stubbs.

Puffing on a first cigarette is a rite of passage for many teenagers, but whether it is enjoyable may be partly down to genetics, researchers suggest.
University of Michigan scientists have identified a gene variant found more often in people who said their first cigarette produced a "buzz".
These people were much more likely to go on to become regular smokers, the journal Addiction reports.
The researchers say the finding may help development of anti-smoking drugs.

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Paschen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 00:04 on August 9th, 2008

Sanjay Jha, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Interesting! I read something similar concerning alcoholics and hard drugs, that some are addicted right from the start whereas other cannot or only if heavily used become addicted!

If so, we should be able to cure the addiction as this post says!