South Beach Diet

People who become addicted to drugs and those who eat compulsively mayexperience similar changes in brain chemistry that keep them coming back formore.

This theory is just one put forth at a conference on the relationshipbetween substance abuse and eating disorders.

While it is well known that people who suffer from bulimia and anorexianervosa are more likely to abuse drugs, alcohol or nicotine, the reasons whyremain unclear.

The factors that motivate a person to abuse drugs or eat compulsively mayshare circuits in the brain. For example, studies have shown that restrictingfood changes levels of dopamine — a brain chemical associated with feelings ofpleasure — in the brains of mice. It is also known that cocaine makes aperson’s brain more sensitive to heroin via changes in dopamine levels.

So, food restriction might sensitize the brain to drugs.

People who have certain eating disorders are more likely to smoke, drinkand abuse drugs. For example, students who have dieted by the sixth grade aremore than 20% more likely to drink alcohol by the ninth grade. And the morefrequently an incoming college female diets, the more likely she is to usedrugsand abuse alcohol.

Further, 12% to 18% of individuals with anorexia and 30% to 70% of peoplewith bulimia abuse tobacco, alcohol, pills and over-the-counter drugs.

Previous studies have shown that heavy smokers may use nicotine to managepsychiatric problems including bulimia and binge eating.

Nicotine, according to one study, can quickly alter brain chemicalsincluding dopamine, and can either sedate or stimulate depending on the timingand dosage of the drug.

And many women use smoking as a weight-control tool. Girls who smoke tosuppress their appetites are among the largest group of new nicotine addicts,and women who smoke are more than two-times as likely as men to cite weightcontrol as a reason not to quit smoking.

The tobacco companies understood the relationship between smoking andweight control long before the public health experts, as a 1920s advertisementfor Lucky Strike cigarettes told women to “reach for a Lucky Strike instead ofasweet.”

The latest slogan for Capri cigarettes is “there’s no slimmer way tosmoke.”

“There is no question that relationships (with parents) are a major,majorissue in the development of a child’s personality, emotional makeup andchemicalsystem.