Everyone knows the horrors of cigarettes. We’ve all seen the commercials of the premature aging, the inevitable lung cancer, the life draining chemicals that come with cigarettes. We’ve heard the threats of chewing tobacco—seen the story of the man who lost half of his jaw to mouth cancer.
(From: http://designbump.com/anti-smoking-advertisements/)
We’re all aware and rightfully afraid of the power of addictive nicotine and the cocktails of chemicals it is mixed up with.
But what about ethanol?
We love ethanol—beer, wine, cocktails, happy hour. We can’t seem to fathom a party or holiday without it. We idolize a good time in the media by complete loss of control and the endless flow of ethanol.
However, the two drugs share commonalities we never seem to give them credit for. The brain chemistry alterations of both nicotine and ethanol are very likely the same in many ways, and addiction of both can be extremely detrimental to our health. It’s time we reexamine the ways we look at ethanol.
The Relationship
Ethanol and nicotine act on the same receptors in the brain, the neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs).
Nicotine activates these receptors and leads to receptor desensitization—meaning the tolerance for nicotine increases with each dose. This results in more receptors present, leading to a dependence upon nicotine to continue to simulate them—this is a major proponent in nicotine’s addictive properties.
Ethanol also is linked to these receptors. It potentiates these receptors leading them to be active more often. This increased activation then leads into the cycle that is observed with nicotine addiction. Ethanol does not activate the receptors in the same manner as nicotine does, however, and this is likely a reason it is considered less addictive.
Along with this this receptor commonality, the patterns of addiction are the same and the areas of the brain the two drugs effect overlap tremendously. These brain structures include: the ventral tegmental area, the nucleus accumbens, the prefrontal cortex, the striatum, the amygdala, and the hippocampus.
All of these major brain regions are affected by both drugs and may explain the cross-sensitization observed between the two—meaning that once a person is addicted to one they are more likely to get addicted to the other.
Ethanol begins to look a lot like nicotine in the brain. Why then do we paint such a black and white picture of the two drugs?
(#artstracts)
Time for Reexamination
We can argue that anti-alcohol rhetoric is in the media, too. We have seen a dramatic increase in campaigns against drunk driving in recent decades. But, there is little knowledge or publicity about the effects of ethanol on our overall health and brain chemistry.
There are surely no shrunken, deteriorated brain posters displaying ethanol dangers next to the smoking lungs harmed by chronic cigarette usage.
Granted, the lines of alcohol addiction are blurrier, and the fact of the matter remains that alcohol is less addictive than nicotine. But this should not be our scapegoat for research into the effects of ethanol abuse.
It is notably easier to drink one beer per week than to simply smoke one cigarette. But why is that? Because these two drugs are so linked in their brain chemistry—affecting the same neuronal receptors, displaying the same development pathways of addiction, targeting the same brain structures—there is need for further research into these connections.
In the research our class conducted on this topic in the past week we learned a lot about the effects of nicotine, and learned very inconclusive results about the effects of ethanol—simply because there is significantly less research done on this drug.
It’s time we stop saying cheers, and start investigating the links. While it may be true that ethanol is less of a threat to health, it is extremely hypocritical to raise one drug up so highly above the other while scientific links continue to emerge.
