Smoking retards the brain's ability to recover from alcoholism

SAN FRANCISCO - Those who are trying to quit the bottle must not resort to puffing, a study published in the March 2006 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research has said. The study found that giving in to smoking while trying to sober up might actually retard the brain's ability to recover from the effects of alcoholism.
Posted : Sat, 18 Mar 2006 20:02:01 GMT
By : Ravi Chopra
Category : Health
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SAN FRANCISCO - Those who are trying to quit the bottle must not resort to puffing, a study published in the March 2006 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research has said. The study found that giving in to smoking while trying to sober up might actually retard the brain's ability to recover from the effects of alcoholism.

Researchers at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco found that people who were trying to give up alcoholism were more likely to succeed if they kept away from smoking. On the other hand those who turned to tobacco within a month of trying to stop drinking were more likely to fail in their attempts.

The study tracked the progress of 25 recovering alcoholics among whom 14 were smokers and the rest were non-smokers. "It is pretty well established that long-term chronic drinking of the amount that alcoholics do, leads to abnormalities of brain structure, chemistry, and blood flow as well as cognition," said Timothy Durazzo.

The researchers tracked the patients using spectroscopic imaging, which is a form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the levels of N-acetylaspartate, a chemical that is an indicator for the health of neurons and choline, which is a marker for a healthy cell membrane.

It was found that the levels of these chemical markers increased in non-smokers, while they decreased in smokers after 30 days of abstinence. The study said that for faster recovery from alcohol abuse patients should give up smoking, "This may be a lot to ask from an alcoholic individual going through drastic brain chemical imbalances in early recovery," Dr. Durazzo admitted.

He added that more often than not cigarettes and alcohol went hand in hand, "One may elicit cravings for the other. So if you are able to give up both at the same time, it may increase your chances of staying sober, because you don't have one substance serving as a trigger for use of the other," he stressed.

However, researchers cautioned that the results of the study are strictly preliminary and larger studies are needed to assess the impact of smoking on alcoholism.

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Smoking and Sobering up
By: Jeff , Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:20:27 GMT

As a smoker for 34 years and a drinker for approx 28 years I recognize a lot of substance to what has been discussed here.
When I was 25 I quit smoking for 6 months and believe it or not, I felt much smarter and my clarity of thought was amazing.
I was coughing up shiney black pieces of plastic, "lung or throat tissue?"
At the time I had not drank for approx 2 years. Stupid me! i went back smoking but didn;t drink for an additional 4 years.
Since then I've smoked like heck, took up drinking and have tried to lick my smoking quite a few times. I usually have some success when i stop drinking at the same time. Usually I start smoking first, then follow up with getting drunk with disasterous results I might add. Two of my impaired driving convictions imediately resulted after a moderate success at keeping away from smokes and booze...10 weeks or so.

Give these people a break, they're right on track


Smoking while trying to sober up
By: Bil Wilson , Tue, 21 Mar 2006 05:16:26 GMT

The best way to ensure someone who smokes DOESN'T sober up is to try and make them stop smoking at the same time you are trying to get them to stop drinking.

What kind of fucking stupid science is this?

You people are idiots!



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