Link between genes and smoking addiction

An Interesting Breakthrough

Researches have shown that there is asignificant connection between smoking and genes. Namely, people whohave these certain genes are more likely to become smokers. Thesegenes tend to be connected with a person's nicotine receptorsenabling him or her to become a passionate, even heavy smoker. Whatis more, for people with this gene, smoking usually comes at an earlyage and stays throughout their lives. They become smokers somewherebefore the age of 17, increasing their cigarette capacity, evolvinginto an extremely unhealthy habit until they become a full grownadults. However, these same researches came to another interestingconclusion claiming that people who start smoking after the age of 17have smaller chances of developing an addiction.

How Does This Happen?

As mentioned above, these genesinfluence the cell activity in our organism. Of course, this impactsthose cells which are nicotine receptors. Thus, once nicotine gets tothe organism of a person with this gene, his or her cells experiencechanges, sending different signals to the brain, triggering anaddiction. Therefore, people who possess this gene are more likely todevelop this kind of an addiction, and are far less likely to beable to stop it. Nevertheless, this genetic situation does not makeone more prone to become a smoker. Rather, as long as this persondoes not start smoking, he or she will not develop an addiction.Later, if the person does start smoking, his or her proneness tovarious diseases connected with smoking is increased.

A Shocking Fact

During this research, which encompassedaround 3000 people, there were children involved as well. Shockingly,there were many of them who started smoking before they reached the8th grade, while, until the 10th grade therewas a frighteningly large number of children indulging in thisactivity. Subsequently, these tests have shown that these youngsmokers, if they happen to have the gene in question, will surelybecome adult smokers as well, and will, most likely, never stopsmoking. Until a way of bypassing this genetic phenomenon has beenfound, the best cure is not smoking at the first place. So, keep yourchildren away from cigarettes by setting up a right example yourself.This addiction has already taken too many lives. Therefore, we shouldnot simply ignore it further on. Instead, we should rise above theaddictive poison and choose a healthy and long life instead.