HEalth Issue: Why boozers enjoy a drag

Why boozers enjoy 

a drag with drinks

London: People who drink are often those who smoke because the centre in the brain that derives pleasure from both these actions is the same, claim researchers.

        Traute Flatscher-Bader at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Australia, ad colleagues did a post -mortem analysis of gene expression in the brains of smokers. alcoholics and those who had done both during their lives/

       "They observed that a group of genes in the nucleus accumbens-an area involved in creating pleasurable feelings - were expressed most strongly in their group of alcoholic smokers.

          According to Flatscher Bader, these genes play a role in rewiring the neurons in the nucleus accumbens. That means people who both smoke and drink might get a greater reward, making it harder for them to quit," reports New Scientist. The study has been published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.