Smoking and appetite
Why when you smoke, you don't want to eat
Dasha Ovsyannikova, scientific observer of the portal "Neuronovosti"
The good news is that the body has a great ability to self–regulate, and after a while the brutal appetite will go away due to the fact that the brain itself will learn to produce more acetylcholine in the right places. Quit smoking – get up on skis!
It's not news that those who quit smoking start eating more, and when you smoke, you want to eat less. Everyone can offer a banal everyday explanation: "a wedge knocks out a wedge" (and yes, this is a true, albeit very simplified explanation from the point of view of neurobiology). But an explanation of exactly where and what exactly this "wedge" knocks out should be sought in the latest issue of Nature thanks to the work of researchers from the University of Texas (Herman et al., A cholinergic basal forebrain feeding circuit modulates appetite suppression).
Where the main brain center of appetite regulation is located was discovered in the middle of the XX century in a series of rather tough experiments. Different areas of the brain were surgically damaged in rats and they looked to see if appetite would disappear. Damage to the lateral region of the hypothalamus (LHA) led to the fact that the rats died of hunger, despite the fact that there was enough food. It was also known that patients with tumors in the hypothalamus were constantly hungry, which led to their significant obesity. After these fundamental experiments, studies of the mechanisms of appetite regulation by the brain revolved (and are spinning) around the hypothalamus (at the level of instincts), as well as around the cerebral cortex (a situation when "thoughts about food do not leave").
Nevertheless, the neurons of the hypothalamus, responsible for regulating hunger, have synaptic connections with the underlying areas of the brain (that is, they receive signals from there). One of these zones is the diagonal Broca's stripe in the anterior part of the brain. The researchers traced that the neurons of Broca's diagonal stripe were activated in response to food intake. To show that these neurons are really needed to regulate food intake, they were damaged by genetic manipulation. As a result, two weeks later, the experimental mice began bulimia and, as a result, obesity. On the contrary, if these neurons were activated, then after 48 hours the mice began to eat 25 percent less food compared to the control group. Thus, a signaling pathway in the brain responsible for appetite suppression was found.
What does nicotine have to do with it, the reader will ask, the mice didn't smoke? And despite the fact that the activation of neurons in the Broca's strip was due to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (remember the experience of Otto Levy?). And nicotine is a well–known "competitor" of acetylcholine; it can bind to acetylcholine receptors and activate them, thereby sending a false signal further to the brain: "It's okay, I'm not hungry." The body gets used to this deception, but when there is less nicotine in the body, then fewer receptors are activated. The brain interprets it like this: "Oh, the body wants to eat, you have to eat, eat a lot."
The good news is that the body has a great ability to self–regulate, and after a while the brutal appetite will go away due to the fact that the brain itself will learn to produce more acetylcholine in the right places. Quit smoking – get up on skis!
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
21.10.2016