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Research already shows the genetic makeup of some people can increase their risk of addiction. But a new study of almost 3000 smokers just released by scientists in Utah and Wisconsin is even more sobering.
This new discovery shows a specific genetic variation, which can express itself in up to 40 percent of European-American populations, increases their risk of becoming lifelong heavy smokers if they begin smoking before the age 17.
The latest study is an eye-opener because as Dr. Mark Leppert, with University of Utah Human Genetics, says this specific genetic variation affecting nicotine receptors in the nervous system appears to play no significant role in adulthood.
What about in the adolescent years? "This increased risk could only be seen if those individuals actually initiated daily smoking before the age of 17," Leppert says.
In fact, people who had two copies of this genetic variation, and who began smoking before they were seventeen, had from a 1.6- to five-fold increased risk of becoming a heavy smoker as an adult.
The findings strongly support other studies in humans and animals that show nicotine sensors in the brain of even an adolescent rat are so susceptible that a rat in its cage will favor pressing the nicotine bar over the food bar.
Dr. Glen Hanson, with the University of Utah Pharmacology and Toxicology Research, says if you don't treat smokers until they are adults, the likelihood of kicking addiction is extremely slim.
He says, "Ninety-five percent of these people will not respond to treatment. I mean, they may come off for a few months, but if something happens in their life, stress, whatever, they'll go right back to smoking."
This latest discovery by University of Utah and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is only the first step. Hanson says scientists will now focus on the biology, the chemistry in teenagers, searching for treatments that might help them get past that window of vulnerability.
Though this study involved only smokers, researchers believe these genetic variations might play a role in other forms of addiction such as street drugs, pain killers, alcohol and perhaps even food that leads to obesity.
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