The brain makes less dopamine, a chemical involved in both pleasure and addiction, when people smoke but this temporary deficit may be reversed when smokers kick the habit, a small experiment suggests. Researchers say it is assumed that the brain adapts to the repeated nicotine-induced release of dopamine by producing less dopamine. It’s still not clear if dopamine production reduced by long-term smoking bounces back in ex-smokers, so the researchers did brain scans of 15 never-smokers and 30 smokers. Then, they offered cessation treatment to the smokers and did another set of brain scans three months later on the subset of 15 people in this group who had quit. On the first set of scans, smokers had a 15 percent to 20 percent lower capacity for dopamine production than the nonsmokers, researchers report. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-dopamine-smoking-idUSKCN10L2LQ
Bah! Eight full years after quitting, I still can't write two consecutive pages. Concentration shot to hell.
Maybe that has more to with those eight more candles on your birthday cake, than smoking. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
