Women Find Difficult To Quit Smoking More Than Men, Here's Why

Women find it more difficult to quit smoking than men, a recent study suggests. Researchers observed in a mouse study that this effect is due to the difference of the effect of smoking on how nicotine impacts the brain-gut relationship. When a person smokes a cigarette and takes tobacco, nicotine gets delivered to the lungs. But when a person chews tobacco and with skin patches, nicotine tends to cross the gastrointestinal tract and the skin.

For this, a 13-week experiment was conducted by researchers where they gave nicotine-infused water to mice. The animal's fecal samples were then checked and they showed a huge amount of difference in the microbiome composition in both male and female mice.

It was observed that the levels of compounds and bacterial genes which were associated with the nervous systems of the body and its weight showed different changes in both male and female mice. In male mice, concentration of glycine, serine, and aspartic acid were lower. This could weaken the effect of nicotine addiction.

Nicotine-treated female mice, however, showed reduced levels of the bacteria Christensenellaceae, where male mice showed increased levels of the same. It is associated with lower BMI. The team of researchers revealed that their future efforts will be focused more on exploring the relationship between nicotine-gut-brain bacteria relationship and their communication to understand the path involved.

The study appeared in the ACS' journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Here's a list of basic tips to quit smoking:

1. To begin with, clear your home of all the cigarettes available and start exercising regularly. Exercising clears your lungs of all the tar it accumulated while smoking and within a year of quitting, you will be good as before.

2. Cut down on your caffeine intake.

3. Drink plenty of water every day and start meditating.

4. Smoking involves inhaling and exhaling of smoke. So whenever you feel an urge to smoke again and feel a strange sense of craving, start deep breathing in order to avoid the temptation. 

With inputs from ANI