Considering the way that glp-1 agonists curb alcohol cravings, and how various forms of cravings can increase others (like a smoker craving coffee more when they can’t smoke temporarily, or vice versa), it makes sense that there’s thing to be some underlying connections.
I wouldn’t have pointed to norepinephrine as a layman, but after reading the article and thinking a bit, then doing a quick refresh on the less obvious effects of that, damn if it doesn’t make sense.
And, with the mechanism being through an equivalent neurotransmitter in for fruit flies, I’m wondering if this isn’t a very fundamental function of having a nervous system of any kind. I mean, we already know that other mammals and some birds exhibit behaviors aligning with alcohol addiction. Maybe addiction is so bloody universal that anything can be addicted to something, even if it isn’t alcohol.
That may seem obvious, that it would work that way, but insects are vastly different in a lot of ways. And if it’s that universal, it could revolutionize addiction treatment for humans. Assuming, of course that it both pans out andreaches a level of acceptance what with the way people reject new information
What if addiction is just a negatively associated instance of normal psychological processes?
Intuition is kind of like addition, in the sense that I didn’t ask for it; it simply seems to invade the mind. Intuition can help you get home in the dark — good. Alcohol can make you feel like you feel to drink to be normal — bad. Both cases are invasive thoughts, in a sense, no?
8 years alcohol free as of tomorrow
Good job! I’m at 10… months…
Nice job Hule, you got this!! Once I started knocking months behind me they soon became a year, then years. Knowing you can never get that time back helped me continue forward, after a few years they just start flying by.
Keep it rolling buddy, wont be long befoe you look back at 10 years sober
Congratulations!!
hungry
angry
lonely
tired
You mean “life?”
The halt method! For those that don’t know of it, before you pick up a drink, ask yourself if you’re any of those four things. If you are you address those first. They could be contributing to your desire consume alcohol (or other drugs for that matter) I first heard of this in one of my many attempts at recovery.
Broke
It’s caloric, IIRC low effort to break down and numbs feeling. No wonder the lizard brain will be dancing and singing if it has been lacking fuel for a bit
That makes sense for beer and wine since theres usually still unconverted sugars in those but the body cant really get energy from ethanol, so it makes significantly less sense for addictions to hard liquors.
In drosophila, a.k.a. fruit flies. They have a whole different relationship to alcohol, since their lives revolves around rotting fruit where yeast thrives. Drosophila eats yeast.
I mean, you are not wrong, but this is research on the neuronal pathways underlying this behaviour, not research comparing the daily life of fruit flies and men.
You may not be aware but fruitflies are used for many developmental and neuronal research topics since their signalling pathways are pretty similar to the ones found in humans. They are also the origin of some of the quirkiest gene names researchers made up, like the hedgehog gene.
I don’t crave it, but lite beer definitely helps to dull hunger. Less calories than eating solid food.
