• Question: why is nicotine addictive???

    Asked by to Kevin, Fiona on 27 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Kevin O'Dell

      Kevin O'Dell answered on 27 Jun 2014:

      Good question (and something worth avoiding!).

      When your body is exposed to certain chemical, such as nicotine, it responds by making more receptors that recognise that molecule. So people who smoke have more nicotine receptors. In act there bodes are adapting to receiving a dose of nicotine on a regular basis, and get to the point where they expect to receive nicotine. If that stops the body kinds of responds with a bit of a panic which encourages the person to take more nicotine as that is the only way to stop the panic. It’s this loop that is the addiction.

      I’m a fairly sure that chemical additions like nicotine can only occur if the chemical itself changes the biochemistry of your cells (in this case making the body make more nicotine receptors).

    • Photo: Fiona McLean

      Fiona McLean answered on 27 Jun 2014:

      Great question!

      So nicotine can be addictive because it increases the activity of a chemical in the brain called dopamine. Dopamine is chemical which is involved in the “reward system” in our brains. It makes you feel happy. So when dopamine is released, your brain learns what happened to make it be released and you will want to do whatever it was that released the dopamine again to have that happy feeling again!

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