|
Cigarette smoking for weight loss is a practice dating to early knowledge of nicotine as an appetite suppressant. Tobacco use was associated with appetite suppression among pre-Columbian indigenous Americans and old world Europeans.〔Gatley, I. 2003. Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization. New York: Grove Press, p.38〕 For decades, tobacco companies have employed these connections between slimness and smoking in their advertisements, mainly in brands and advertisements targeting women. Culturally, the links between smoking cigarettes and controlling weight run deep. While it is unclear how many people begin or continue smoking because of weight concerns, research reveals that white female adolescents with established weight-related anxieties are particularly prone to initiate smoking. Although knowledge of nicotine’s effects upon the appetite can contribute to people smoking for weight control purposes, studies have not shown that people smoke exclusively to maintain or lose weight. ==Science of nicotine-related appetite suppression and weight control== Though smoking is widely discouraged by public health professionals for its countless negative health consequences, nicotine may be an appetite suppressant. Nicotine could reduce appetite and influence an individual’s eating habits. A study on nicotine’s effects on appetite demonstrated that “net effects of nicotine include elevated blood pressure, heart rate, and gastric motility while eliciting a sustained decrease in food intake. Autonomic, sensory, and enteric neurons each constitute potentially important loci for nicotine-mediated changes in feeding behavior.”〔Young-Hwan, Jo, David A. Talmage, and Lorna W. Role,“Nicotinic Receptor-Mediated Effects on Appetite and Food Intake,” Journal of Neurobiology 53.4 (2002), p.622.〕 Thus the cultural associations between smoking and weight control in part reflect the body’s physiological reactions to nicotine. Nicotine gum has similar effects to cigarettes in terms of appetite suppression, and there are some people who do not smoke, but use nicotine gum for the purpose of weight control or weight loss. Nicotine can also lower insulin levels in a person’s bloodstream, which can reduce cravings for sugary foods.〔Kluger, Richard Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1996), p.418.〕 Furthermore, “nicotine-triggered effects of adrenaline on the stomach’s musculature” lead to temporary feelings of subsided hunger.〔Kluger, Richard, Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1996)〕 Other studies have shown that smokers expend more calories while engaged in activity, which echo conclusions that smokers experience heightened metabolic rates.〔Kluger, Richard Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1996)〕 Also worth noting are the diuretic properties of nicotine, which causes lower calcium levels in the blood. There is much controversy concerning whether smokers are actually thinner than nonsmokers.〔 Some studies have shown that smokers—including long term and current smokers—weigh less than nonsmokers, and gain less weight over time.〔Albanes, Demetrius, D. Yvonne Jones, Marc Micozzi, and Margaret E. Mattson, “Associations between Smoking and Body Weight in the US Population: Analysis of NHANES II,” American Journal of Public Health 77.4 (1987)〕 Conversely, certain longitudinal studies have not shown correlation between weight loss and smoking at least among young persons.〔Nichter, Mimi, Mark Nichter, Nancy Vuckovic, laura Tesler, Shelly Adrian, and Cheryl Ritenbaugh, “Smoking as a Weight-Control Strategy among Adolescent Girls and Young Women: A Reconsideration,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 18.3 (2004): 307〕 Accordingly, while the connection between nicotine and appetite suppression, as well as other physiological responses to nicotine consumption, has been established, whether these chemical and biological reactions translate to smokers being thinner than nonsmokers (at least concerning certain age groups), is still debated. Age may act as a compounding factor in some of these studies. Essentially, a causal relationship has not been explicitly established between physiological effects of nicotine and epidemiological findings about weight among smokers and nonsmokers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cigarette smoking for weight loss」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|