It could all be traced back to that first puff. The physical and emotional reaction to the first attempt at smoking a cigarette might be linked to a gene that dictates the likelihood and level of addiction, smoking frequency, and chances of it resulting in lung cancer. While the gene is not an excuse, it could certainly explain quite a few things, not to mention lead to programs that keep people from ever experimenting with that first drag.

It is estimated that approximately 40 million Americans smoke cigarettes, a habit that is attributed to nearly 500,000 deaths per year. Cigarettes are consistently named in studies and medical research as the number one preventable cause of death each year in the United States. Those are some statistics that can take a moment to process, especially for smokers themselves.

A new study has been released by the Nicotine Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan's Department of Psychiatry. As part of the smoking genetics project, which was researched previously by Ovide and Cynthia Pomerleau over a ten year period, the new authors have combined those studies to produce the current research that specifically links smoking addictions to a particular genetic variation.

The study was conducted with 435 volunteers who were categorized as nonsmokers and smokers, nonsmokers being those who had only tried between one and one hundred cigarettes in their lives, and smokers being those who have smoked at least five per day for the last five years or more. After analyzing the data from those interviews, it was determined that smokers were eight times more likely than nonsmokers to confirm that their first experience with cigarettes were pleasurable. And those in the smoker category were much more likely to posses the variant of the CHRNA5 gene linked to nicotine addiction.

Professor Ovide Pomerleau, who served as the study's senior author and project leader, noted, "It appears that for people who have a certain genetic makeup, the initial physical reaction to smoking can play a significant role in determining what happens next. If cigarette smoking is sustained, nicotine addiction can occur in a few days to a few months. The finding of a genetic association with pleasurable early smoking experiences may help explain how people get addicted-and, of course, once addicted, many will keep smoking for the rest of their lives."

This study concurs on the notion that this particular gene is inherently connected to a person's initial reaction to smoking, likelihood of becoming addicted and greater possibility of suffering from lung cancer. Even so, the researchers are careful to note that the gene and its variants are only part of comprehensive smoking behavior, as social influences, environmental factors, and other dynamics are quite important to the overall picture.

Pomerleau and his associates intend to conduct further research, citing the key traits of the genetics involved in something as complex as cigarette smoking. He added, "Things are moving really fast in this field. We are making new discoveries all the time."

In the end, the hope of the study's authors is to identify the key factors that lead to and sustain cigarette smoking addictions. In proving that the process is much more than a personal choice in most cases, that conclusion has the potential to lead to drugs and other positive treatments that will help with smoking prevention and assistance for those who have succumbed to the addiction.

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