If quitting smoking is one of your resolutions for 2019, you might also want to consider reducing your alcohol consumption. Because according to research conducted by Oregon State University (United States), this would help to make smokers give up their daily cigarettes.
Previous studies had previously suggested that people with a higher rate of the nicotine metabolite – a marker that indicates how quickly the body absorbs the molecule – likely smoke more and have more difficulty quitting. However, according to this new report, among heavy drinkers, this famous rate is reduced as they reduce their alcohol consumption.
Tobacco and alcohol treated better together
According to the study, published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research on December 17, nearly one in 5 adults would consume both alcohol and cigarettes. “Alcohol consumption is a well established risk factor for smoking and smoking is a well established risk factor for alcohol consumption”, note its authors. To better understand the links between the two, a group of 22 daily smokers, treated for a disorder related to their alcohol use, were followed for several weeks. The researchers studied their participants’ nicotine metabolite rate.
And they found that the people in the study group who reduced their alcohol intake from an average of 29 drinks per week to 7, also reduced their nicotine metabolite levels. “It takes a lot of determination to quit smoking, often repeatedly, Explain in a press release lead author of the study, Sarah Dermody. This research suggests that alcohol consumption alters nicotine metabolism as indicated by the nicotine metabolite rate, and that daily smoking and heavy drinking may be best treated together. ” More research is now needed to determine if these changes in metabolite rate are related to the results of quitting smoking.
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