Am I Wired To Be a Smoker?

I am a failed ex-smoker. Why, when quitting smoking is the single most important thing I could do for my health, do I not do it? I have no idea. But maybe, just maybe, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania do. “For the first time we’ve identified a mechanism that explains why people with a particular genetic background may be more prone to relapse when they try to quit smoking,” says study author Caryn Lerman.

A lot of my friends are writers and actors. Which means a lot of my friends are, or have at one time been, smokers. And most smokers I know have myriad stories about all the times they’ve tried to kick the habit. Bouts of quitting. Relapses. Just one night of social smoking at the bar with friends … which leads to just one new pack purchased … and then a full-blown smoking habit again before they know it. Some never even get that far. I’ve watched a few people quit entirely and successfully, and many more fail again and again. Some say it’s the nicotine craving that gets them. Some say it’s the social aspects of smoking they dig.

Me? I’ve rarely had what some smokers describe as nicotine cravings. I’ve just always really liked smoking. Liked almost everything about it: the way it tastes, drawing the smoke in, inhaling; the way a cigarette occupies my fidgety hands, the way it perfectly occupies the time needed for a sufficient break from work; the way it brings people together. “You take drags on your cigarettes like you really enjoy it,” people have often told me. And I do.

Of course I know I should quit. Of course I know how bad it is for me, know all the problems it can and likely will cause if I don’t quit soon (at least in the way it’s possible for anyone young and healthy to really fathom anything about aging and disease). And it’s not like I’m someone with a general laissez-faire attitude toward health, and potential cancer-causing agents (I buy organic produce! I buy my mascara paraben-free!). So why can’t or don’t I quit?

According to the U-Penn study, some of the difficulties people have with quitting smoking may be due to the quantity of “mu opioid” receptors a smoker has in his or her brain. Lerman says:

[Some smokers] have a greater number of mu opioid receptors that respond to brain chemicals such as beta-endorphin which are released by nicotine. And having more available receptors of this type appears to be related to finding nicotine more rewarding. We’ve connected the dots between the genes, the brain, and the behavior.

Ah, those rascally mu opioids; it seems those who have two “wild-type” receptors (how apropos) reported greater satisfaction from smoking, whether the cigarette contained nicotine or not.

“Although opioid medications have been tested for use for smoking cessation, the results have been mixed,” Lerman says. “However, if we know more about their brain mu opioid receptor availability, we may be able to predict who will respond to this type of drug.”

So (like many neuroscience studies these days): Interesting potential for long-run solutions, but means nothing for me, my friends or any other would-be ex-smokers in the now. Some of us may be wired to get more pleasure from cigarettes than others and, yeah, I’m gonna take just a little bit of comfort in this genetic scapegoat. But we’ve also been wired with self-direction and alas—wild-type receptors or not—looks like that’s gonna have to be the quit-smoking aid I rely on most.