France holds a sad record in Europe: it has the highest number of teenage smokers. The explanation must be found in the privacy of the brain.
Why is it so difficult for some to quit smoking? It is to this question a thousand times debated, where the will is not alone in question, that research tries to answer. The first results make it possible to explain this difficulty. Also understand, the poor results of smoking cessation trials with 80% relapses at one year despite gum patch and other drugs.
First of all, it is not only nicotine that creates addiction: in smoke, thousands of other flavoring agents such as liquorice, sugars, menthol or ammonia would promote the installation and maintenance of the addiction. Worse, for some scientists, these pleasant smokes would increase tenfold the potential of nicotine addiction. And this property would be more marked in some than in others where tobacco would then become as attractive as heroin, cocaine or alcohol.
The reward circuit
To understand how this is possible, we have to go into the privacy of our skull. And what the researchers discovered is surprising: there is a sort of reward circuit in our brain that activates as soon as something pleases us: a candy, a purchase, or even making love …
By activating this center releases substances which induce this sensation of pleasure. But these substances are destroyed quickly. On the other hand, nicotine and all the other components of tobacco will keep the secretion of these substances constant for satisfaction and therefore lead us to constantly seek this state. This explains the antidepressant side of cigarettes that many did not want to recognize, but also the failures of nicotine substitutes which alone are not enough at weaning.
As for young people, these satisfaction mechanisms are embedded even more deeply in their brain because they correspond to the first pleasant experiences. Indeed, it is between 15 and 25 years that the reward circuit is the most alert, the most sensitive and therefore the most fragile. So the earlier you start, the more dependent the brain will be. Specialists make the sad observation: 2 cigarettes a day at 15 years of age for a few months are enough to switch into addiction.
Proust told us so. But he only spoke of madeleine.
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