In my last post, I talked about the possibility of getting mouth cancer from alcohol based mouthwash. Upon reading the comments about it; it was a pretty bad post. I couldn’t keep focused, and I must admit I had a bit of a Texas Sharpshooter issue when I went out to look for studies. At the conclusion of my study, I made a comment about alcohol and smoking, which didn’t relate to mouthwash at all, but will relate to this post.
We’ve all seen it; you’re at a party and all the guys head outside for a cigarette. You know from your sc200 class that smoking is bad for you, and can lead to shortened life and cancer. The question I’m going to address is why people like smoking so much more when they’re intoxicated. Doctors at Men’s Health suggest a chemical reaction in the brain. “Alcohol and nicotine stimulate the reward part of the brain” the article suggests. This leads to a mechanism by which we could create an association between drinking and smoking. As described in the article, “Drinking is like priming the pump, then you remember how nice the last time you smoked a cigarette was”. Both drinking and smoking can generate rewarding feelings, so one leads to the other. Another study to support our claim is this one; which describes the relationship correlation between smoking and drinking. Unlisted studies claim that a decrease in smoking leads to a decrease in drinking. As more bars go to no smoking rules, people are forced to step outside for their smoke. This directly leads to less drinking, because when you’re outside you can’t have a drink with you. Thinking the reverse affect, the more you smoke, the thirstier you get; so the more you drink.
So the next time you’re out drinking, think about whether or not you’re really unhappy without that cigarette. Also glance at this article which suggests a correlation between smoking cigarettes and having a bad hangover.
I found this really interesting. We all know people make stupid mistakes when they are drunk, but I wasn’t aware that specifically people were drawn to cigarettes. this link explains why people make stupid mistakes when they are drunk. The brain doesn’t send alarm signals saying they are doing anything wrong! Nice blog!
You made me think about how some of my family members say they don’t smoke, but instead they call it social smoking. They only smoke when they drink and I always thought it was because drinking caused cloudiness in a persons thought process. I wonder if the misjudgment and loss of morals while drinking can have and effect just like your argument. I never knew that alcohol and nicotine released a reward feeling. This is quite interesting because both products do so much damage to the body, why would they release a rewarding feeling? Below is a link that explains how alcohol can cloud a persons judgement and aid in making mistakes.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/moderate-alcohol-consumpt/
You did a really good job shedding some light on an issue that affects many people our age. “Social” drinking and possibly smoking are a big part of college and often come hand in hand with meeting new people. I think your blog did a great job scratching the surface on the issue of drinking and smoking. However, it would be interesting to see you go a little deeper on how alcohol and nicotine when consumed together effect our body. I’m no expert on drugs or how they can affect our body but something tells me there may be a similarity between consuming caffeine and alcohol together and consuming nicotine and alcohol together.
I find this very interesting due to the fact that any time I go out I hear people saying how they can/want a cigarette because they are drunk. They use this as an excuse and claim that “social smoking” will do no harm. “Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine found that stress hormones and the brain’s pleasure centre could be responsible.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2373458/Drinking-smoking-hand-hand-recent-research-suggests-Nicotine-dampens-feel-good-chemicals-brain-making-crave-alcohol.html.
One still has control over their decisions and it is ultimately their own decisions that can drastically effect their life.
This is such an interesting post because of how directly it relates to many of us, college students, lives. It is easy to rationalize, “I only smoke when I’m drunk, therefore I am not a smoker and not at risk.” However the combination of alcohol and smoking is clearly not a desired one. As you mentioned in your last sentence, hangovers are one way that smoking while under the influence of alcohol has a negative affect on a person. In an article I found nicotine from smoking releases a chemical called Cytokines that causes nausea and headaches. This with the typical morning after feelings from alcohol alone create and extreme hangover worse then any other. So next time you want to rationalize smoking while drinking, maybe think twice.