Weight Gain Genes

It is found that overeating is related to the same gene involved in alcoholism and drug addiction. People who carried a certain variant of the gene and who used food to motivate themselves were the highest at risk for eating too many snacks when compared to people who had only one or neither of these traits. People with this gene variant could have a lack in reward-signaling in the brain and have to participate in more of the behavior to get as much pleasure as people with normal signaling. Exercising is something more positive that can release the same reward chemicals in the brain.

Scientists Find Genetic Link to Smoking Addiction

Scientists have found genetic variations that make people more likely to get hooked on cigarettes and more likely to develop lung cancer. This new finding could lead to screening tests and customized treatments being developed for smokers that want to quit smoking. It also gives more insight on how genetics and lifestyle habits work together to cause cancer.

A person that smokes that inherits the genetic variations from both parents has an 80 percent greater chance of lung cancer than a smoker without the variations. The same smoker would light two extra cigarettes a day on average and have a harder time quitting than smokers that don’t have the variations.

New Vaccine for Cocaine Addicts

Scientists are currently working on a vaccine that could prevent cocaine addicts from getting a high from the drug. The vaccine contains inactivated cocaine molecules that are attached to pieces of the inactivated cholera virus. When the vaccine is injected into the body, it trains the body’s immune system to see the drug as an invader. If the vaccinated cocaine addict takes cocaine, antibodies surround and attack themselves to the cocaine molecules and prevent them from reaching the brain to create that sense of feeling high. For people that want to stop using cocaine and kick the habit, the vaccine could be very useful.

Pills that Kills Addiction

There is an amino acid supplement called N-acetyl cysteine that works by easing compulsive gambling and might cure other addictive behaviors. The pill works by normalizing the levels of glutamate, which is a chemical that could be out of balance in specific areas of an addict’s brain. Sixteen out of 27 gamblers say that they had very few urges after taking doses of NAC for 8 week at the University Of Minnesota School Of Medicine. Almost everybody that continued to take the compound stopped gambling and most people that stopped taking it went back to their gambling habit.