Alcohol-dependent people quickly process nicotine in their bodies and that may make it more difficult to quit smoking, suggests a small study of Polish men.
“We didn’t measure what was happening when people were drinking, but after they stopped, their elevated rate of nicotine metabolism slowly subsided,” said lead author Noah R. Gubner of the Center for tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco.
When nicotine metabolism is higher, people tend to have a harder time quitting smoking, Gubner told Reuters Health by phone.
If two people are trying to quit smoking and using a nicotine patch, the person with a faster nicotine metabolism will clear the chemical from their body faster and feel the desire to smoke again sooner, he said.
In 2011 and 2012, the researchers studied 22 white male smokers at an inpatient alcohol addiction treatment center in Poland. They analyzed participants’ urine samples to gauge nicotine levels and metabolism at one, four and seven weeks after detoxing from alcohol.
I – Word Understanding
Metabolism – the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.
Elevated – raised,
Nicotine – a toxic colorless or yellowish oily liquid that is the chief active constituent of tobacco
II – Have Your Say
1. What are the effect of heavy driking?
2. Do you really thing that smoking can help your metabolism?
3. What are the usual reason why people are smoking and drinking?
4. Do you think smoking is addictive?
5. What do you think the advantage of drinking?
