How smoking decreases your appetite

The wrong signals of nicotine

The down side to smoking youll probably die younger than a non-smoker. The upside youll probably be thinner than a non-smoker. A team of scientists led by Yale School of Medicine has discovered exactly how nicotine suppresses appetite ndings that suggest that it might be possible to develop a drug that would help smokers, and non-smokers, stay thin.
In their research to nd whether the activation of a receptor for nicotine had any antidepressant e ects in mice, researchers found that they ate less. But does it act the same in humans? Nicotine Neuron POMC

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7 seconds after lighting a cigarette, the rst molecules of nicotine reach the neurons in the hypothalamus (a portion of the brain that governs hunger and thirst).

Hypothalamus Core receiver

a-MSH

The molecules bind to receptors ( ) on the POMC neurons which are known to trigger the nicotine craving in smokers.

The neurons secrete a chemical messenger (a-MSH) which has the same e ect as one sent by the brain after a heavy meal.

5 They then

inform the brain of being full and moderate your appetite.

Appetite suppressant signal a-MSH To brain

Control centres of the nervous appetite (MC4-R) receptors receive the messages.

MC4-R receptor

Putting on pounds
When you quit smoking you are likely to put on weight. Normal weight gain is on average:

Experimenting with mice

REMEMBER...
You are not necessarily overweight if your BMI is less than 25.

3 kg for men 4 kg for women

Sources: Science; PasseportSant.net