Nicotine - A Modest High?
It's said that cigarettes are more addicting than heroin - ask any smoker and he or she will probably agree without hesitation.
If you're a smoker, then you know that trying to quit smoking is tough.
Nicotine (along with some other properties designed in to the cigarette) is so addicting because it performs so well in each of the three areas that determine the addictive potential of a substance.
Those areas are:
This is one of many reasons why it's so difficult to stop smoking.
This article explores nicotine's performance in the first measure.
A modest high: Nicotine is very similar to a naturally occurring neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
Nicotine has the ability to bind to and "unlock" the same receptors in your brain that acetylcholine opens.
And this releases another neurotransmitter called dopamine, which controls the feelings of motivation and reward.
Dopamine pushes you into action and then provides a jolt of pleasure that rewards that action.
Sex, eating food, drinking water all trigger the release of dopamine.
Unfortunately, this usually isn't enough so people turn to nicotine (or painkillers, alcohol, gambling, etc.
) for stronger and faster gratification - and so begins the addiction.
Because the pleasure that dopamine triggers is generally the same no matter what stimulated it, we don't really know why some people are "seduced" more easily than others or why some get hooked on cigarettes and others on gambling or alcohol - the brain makes no distinctions.
Brain scans have revealed that the parts of the brain that "light up" when you take a hit of nicotine or crystal meth are the same ones that are triggered by hitting the jackpot at the casino.
If you're a smoker, then you know that trying to quit smoking is tough.
Nicotine (along with some other properties designed in to the cigarette) is so addicting because it performs so well in each of the three areas that determine the addictive potential of a substance.
Those areas are:
- The ability to trigger a high
- How fast that high hits you
- The level of pain you feel when you try to quit
This is one of many reasons why it's so difficult to stop smoking.
This article explores nicotine's performance in the first measure.
A modest high: Nicotine is very similar to a naturally occurring neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
Nicotine has the ability to bind to and "unlock" the same receptors in your brain that acetylcholine opens.
And this releases another neurotransmitter called dopamine, which controls the feelings of motivation and reward.
Dopamine pushes you into action and then provides a jolt of pleasure that rewards that action.
Sex, eating food, drinking water all trigger the release of dopamine.
Unfortunately, this usually isn't enough so people turn to nicotine (or painkillers, alcohol, gambling, etc.
) for stronger and faster gratification - and so begins the addiction.
Because the pleasure that dopamine triggers is generally the same no matter what stimulated it, we don't really know why some people are "seduced" more easily than others or why some get hooked on cigarettes and others on gambling or alcohol - the brain makes no distinctions.
Brain scans have revealed that the parts of the brain that "light up" when you take a hit of nicotine or crystal meth are the same ones that are triggered by hitting the jackpot at the casino.
Source...