People who drink to excess also tend to be chronic smokers

December 17, 2004 10:35 AM

Speaking Of weight loss and exercise... Those who like their booze also like their nicotine. People who drink to excess also tend to be chronic smokers, and a new report suggests the combination of the two might prove more toxic than either one alone. a small study found chronic smoking + alcohol dependence = increased severity of brain damage. The frontal lobes (short-term storage sites) turn out to be the most damaged. A separate study used rats to show that alcoholism and excessive food intake may share the same chemical pathways in the brain. Forbes has the HealthDayNews report that focuses mainly on the smokes, MSNBC looks more at the eats. They also have an interesting Addictions Sections. Could it be that some folks are just prone to addictions and everyone settles on something different?
posted by Blake (21 comments total)

What was this post about again?
posted by Oddly at 10:48 AM on December 17, 2004

Why don't you just destroy all my happiness in one fell swoop? I would appreciate that.
posted by quasistoic at 10:48 AM on December 17, 2004

This makes me want to smoke. No, seriously.
posted by Captaintripps at 10:49 AM on December 17, 2004

Me, too, captaintripps. Makes me want to drink, too.
posted by jonmc at 10:50 AM on December 17, 2004

Eh, you only live once.

*cracks a beer, lights a cigarette*
posted by cmonkey at 10:53 AM on December 17, 2004

The frontal lobes (short-term storage sites)

What? No.
posted by metaculpa at 10:54 AM on December 17, 2004

So.. what you're saying is.. is that heavy use of one of the two is ok? right? Whew.

(I like the wine.)
posted by purephase at 10:56 AM on December 17, 2004

Then I'll take the cigarrettes. What cooperation!
posted by metaculpa at 10:57 AM on December 17, 2004

There is research that suggests that the effect of acting on an addiction serves to fulfill a lack of beta-endorphin in the brain. Low levels of seratonin lower the ability to have impulse control, which leads to what appears to "normal" people as a lack of backbone or will power.

People who suffer from problems with alcohol have several different options available to them, my links only naming a few.

Yeah, I'm guessing that it should come as no surprise that adding one carcinogen to another gives us a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.
posted by PossumCowboy at 10:59 AM on December 17, 2004

Could it be that some folks are just prone to addictions and everyone settles on something different?

Yes.
posted by soyjoy at 11:10 AM on December 17, 2004

I like to drink & smoke, but I control my diet. Does the dietary control compensate for the two addictions? Or does this mean that I can only have one addiction? Does my undyling love for Vitali Klitchko count as an addiction? How may addictions can I have before my frontal lobe caves in on itself?
posted by Juicylicious at 11:12 AM on December 17, 2004

Anything in excess that feels good will kill you...is what your implying.

Anything that is excessively painful will save your life...is what I deduce.

I've been done with cigs for 8 months now. Yeah for me, tough shit for this research!

I'll go now.
posted by mic stand at 11:17 AM on December 17, 2004

So, um, what happens when my shot 'n' a beer mixes with my tuna melt and my Camel Lights? Triple negative reality inversion? Please?
oh, damnit. OK, fine. New Year's Resolution here I come...
posted by chandy72 at 11:18 AM on December 17, 2004

I think you're safe with the tuna melt....... oh wait - mercury.
posted by Juicylicious at 11:19 AM on December 17, 2004

So, is this a post about the fact that living causes death?
posted by fenriq at 11:25 AM on December 17, 2004

I figure I might as well throw in a link to Princeton's press release.
posted by oaf at 11:25 AM on December 17, 2004

I think some people can have some addictions and not others. I quit smoking cold-turkey after almost 20 years of what ended up being nearly a 4 pack-a-day habit. I was close to being drunk more often than not not long after high school and controlled that -- however, I'm still fat. Put a Marlboro, a glass of Boone's Farm and a Hershey bar in front of me, and that chocolate's history.
posted by jim-of-oz at 11:48 AM on December 17, 2004

See, this is why GHB needs to be legal, that way people will be able to feel 'drunk' without (both GHB and ethenol inhibit (IIRC) GABA receptors in the brain, which causes drunkness, while ethenol has many other effects as well)
posted by delmoi at 2:04 PM on December 17, 2004

I think I'm addicted to not being addicted to anything.

*settles back to enjoy watching addicts try to justify their bad choices yet again*
posted by rushmc at 5:01 PM on December 17, 2004

See, this is why GHB needs to be legal...

Ack, you really scared me there, delmoi. I read that as "why GWB needs to be legal..."
posted by rushmc at 5:02 PM on December 17, 2004

I was even more frightened, parsing GHB as Great Highland Bagpipes.
posted by cairnish at 9:44 AM on December 20, 2004