Alcohol and cigarettes work together to spur addiction

If you’re a smoker, you already know how hard it is to try to kick the habit. But if you also drink alcohol quite regularly, the odds are stacked even higher against you. That’s because when these two habits are combined they appear to have effects on the human brain that prove hard to resist.

“We know that many people who drink alcohol also use nicotine, but we don’t know why exactly that is,” said Mahesh Thakkar, Ph.D., associate professor and director of research in the University of Missouri School of Medicine’s Department of Neurology and lead author of a recent study ^[1] that examined why more than 85 percent of U.S. adults who are alcohol-dependent are also nicotine-dependent.

“We have found that nicotine weakens the sleep-inducing effects of alcohol by stimulating a response in an area of the brain known as the basal forebrain. By identifying the reactions that take place when people smoke and drink, we may be able to use this knowledge to help curb alcohol and nicotine addiction.”

Thakkar’s previous research into alcohol and nicotine dependency revealed that, when used in conjunction, nicotine and alcohol increase pleasurable side effects by activating an area of the brain known as the reward center, which can lead to increased alcohol consumption.

“One of the adverse effects of drinking alcohol is sleepiness,” Thakkar said. “However, when used in conjunction with alcohol, nicotine acts as a stimulant to ward off sleep. If an individual smokes, then he or she is much more likely to consume more alcohol, and vice-versa. They feed off one another.”

Smoking is a major contributing factor to the development of alcoholism. According to the World Health Organization, more than 7 million deaths each year are attributed to alcohol and nicotine use.

One step to quitting these two dangerous habits may be to first stop doing them together. That way the pleasurable sensation may decrease somewhat, allowing you to focus on stopping one habit at a time.  For tips from Dr. Mark Wiley on giving up smoking through detoxing, click here.

[1] http://medicine.missouri.edu/news/0305.php