14 DAY TRIAL // Even if not all smokers drink and not all drinkers smoke, the two bad habits usually go together, hand in had. But why do people who smoke feel the need to drink and, when drinking, feel the urging need to heavy smoke between two sips from the alcoholic liquors?
Searching for a logical answer based on biological evidence, researchers at the Texas A&M University have studied how the two substances often seen as drugs - alcohol and nicotine - interact in rats' bodies. The effect is applied on humans, too.
The researcher performed two experiments. Firstly, they sent a certain amount of alcohol directly into the rats' stomachs and then they sent the same amount of alcohol in the animals' abdominal cavity. Tests then showed that when being injected alcohol into the stomachs, the rats had lower blood alcohol levels if this was mixed with nicotine. On the other hand, when injected into the abdominal cavity, alcohol blood levels were not at all diminished by nicotine.
The results showed that nicotine lowers the effects the booze has on an individual; therefore this one will drink even more to get to the "buzz" state.
Therefore, if a person drinks and smokes a lot at the same time, the nicotine in the cigarettes will cut in half the effect the alcoholic drinks have on his state. This is why the more one smokes while drinking, the more booze he will consume.
"Since the desired effect of alcohol is significantly diminished by nicotine, particularly among heavy or binge drinkers such as college students, this may encourage drinkers to drink more to achieve the pleasurable or expected effect. In other words, cigarette smoking appears to promote the consumption of alcohol," Wei-Jung Chen, associate professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at Texas Health Science Centre College of Medicine explained. She and other two colleagues formed the medical team that carried out the experiments in rats.
The professor also draw attention that "the current findings should be a warning to the general public regarding the danger of abusing multiple drugs, since the pharmacokinetic interactions among these substances are often unpredictable and injurious."
The fact that nicotine has a lowering effect on stomach emptying may lead to other associated negative effects of nicotine. For instance, the nicotine could affect and diminish the rate at which other prescriptions or medicines are absorbed into the stomach and their overall impact upon our condition. Consequently, a smoker may benefit less from taking all kinds of medical treatment to heal his health disorders.
"These findings are important in that they highlight the effects of 'polydrug' interactions, which has implications for other drugs, not necessarily illicit drugs, which may be co-used with alcohol, such as aspirin," Susan Maier from the National Institutes of Health warned.