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Neuroscience

Weight loss through smoking

Nature volume 475, pages 176–177 (2011)Cite this article

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Many people smoke to keep their weight down. The identification of the molecular target in the brain for the appetite-suppressant effects of nicotine is a first step towards finding healthy alternatives to smoking for weight management.

Anyone who has tried to stop smoking knows that quitting is frequently followed by a rapid weight gain1 of some 4 or 5 kilograms, and as much as 13 kilograms. It isn't surprising, therefore, that despite a general decrease in the rates of smoking within the past decade2, it remains prevalent in professions such as acting and modelling, in which being thin is often a job requirement. Indeed, the prospect of a gain in weight is a major deterrent to many smokers who want to quit but who see it either as a threat to their appearance or, wrongly3, as a greater threat to their health than smoking. Writing in Science, Mineur et al.4 shed light on the molecular targets of nicotine in the brain that are responsible for the compound's ability to suppress appetite. Their data may lead to alternative — healthy — ways of maintaining reduced body weight.

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Figure 1: Appetite-suppressant effects of nicotine in the brain.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Randy J. Seeley and Darleen A. Sandoval are at the Metabolic Diseases Institute, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45237, USA.,

    Randy J. Seeley & Darleen A. Sandoval

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  1. Randy J. Seeley
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  2. Darleen A. Sandoval
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Correspondence to Randy J. Seeley.

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Seeley, R., Sandoval, D. Weight loss through smoking. Nature 475, 176–177 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/475176a

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