Sugar Really Can be Addictive Substance
Princeton Study Finds Addiction Symptoms Links to Sweet Treat
Dec 24, 2008
Sugar and the relationship of the sweet substance has addictive qualities, which have been demonstrated in a recent Princeton University study. Addiction in people is a serious problem with consequences that can be deadly, so research is important in learning how to help the medical profession to treat addictions in people.
Sugar can be addictive, according to a new study by Princeton University. The study of sugar addiction in rats may help the medical profession to find new ways to diagnose and treat addictions in people.
Princeton Sugar Addiction Study
Professor Bart Hoebel and his team at the Department of Psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute have studied the signs of sugar addiction in rats for years. Previous research has shown two of the three elements of addiction including a behavioral pattern of increased intake and then showed signs of withdrawal. The current experiments found cravings and relapse, the third element of addiction.
Sugar bingeing rats became dependent on high doses of sugar, showed symptoms of withdrawal when they did not get sugar and showed symptoms of craving and relapse.
When sugar was withheld, the rats drank more alcohol than normal. This showed that bingeing behavior had become part of their brain function.
Hoebel has shown that rats that eat a lot of sugar when hungry undergo changes in the brain that appear to mimic substance abuse. Sugar abuse mimics abuse of cocaine, morphine and nicotine. Sugar bingeing may increase the inclination to take other drugs or alcohol..
Sugar Withdrawal
Researchers were able to induce signs of withdrawal in the lab animals by taking away their sugar supply. The rats' brain levels of dopamine dropped and, as a result, they exhibited anxiety as a sign of withdrawal. The rats' teeth chattered, and the creatures were unwilling to venture forth into the open arm of their maze, preferring to stay in a tunnel area. Normally rats like to explore their environment, but the rats in sugar withdrawal were too anxious to explore.
Researcher Statements
The findings are exciting, Hoebel said, but more research is needed to understand the implications for people. The most obvious application for humans would be in the field of eating disorders.
"It seems possible that the brain adaptations and behavioral signs seen in rats may occur in some individuals with binge-eating disorder or bulimia," Hoebel said. "Our work provides links between the traditionally defined substance-use disorders, such as drug addiction, and the development of abnormal desires for natural substances. This knowledge might help us to devise new ways of diagnosing and treating addictions in people."
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