Smoking while drinking? This is the most common scenario in bars and pubs. Despite the fact that the number of tobacco users already decreased, we can still count the number social smokers increasing especially for young men and women. The question is, what is it about drinking that changes the health conscious to become smokers overnight? According to Medical Daily, a recent study found that many drinkers want the stimulant effects of nicotine which helps them not to feel sleepy while drinking alcohol.
An estimated 90 percent of alcoholics also smoke tobacco this is according to the National Institute of Health. They said that even people who are not alcohol dependent are also known to smoke only when they start drinking. The connection between drinking and smoking has been acknowledged, scientists are still unsure what really makes them crave to start smoking.
To investigate the theory of what really makes people smoke when they are drinking, a team of researchers from the University of Missouri, gave rats fitted with sleep-recording electrodes nicotine and alcohol. After observing the effects of the two drugs on the rats' brains, the team came to an interesting conclusion: Nicotine's stimulant effect helps to ward off the sleepiness caused by alcohol consumption.
It affected the rat's basal forebrain, it is the area of the brain associated with reflexes, learning and attention. On the other hand, alcohol which is a depressant inhibits the nervous system. Therefore, it is proven that it would help counteract the sleeping effects and increase alertness. In a past research it has been found that nicotine helps enhance the effects of alcohol. It actually adds to the "high" that alcohol gives and in turn increases the desire to drink more.
However, as we all know along with being two of the most widely used drugs, these are also some of the deadliest drugs. An average of about 6 million deaths each year is caused by smoking and about 3 million is because of excessive use of alcohol according to the World Health Organization.