According to a study conducted by scientists, the first puff of a cigarette could be the way to a lifetime of smoking. People, who get pleasure from that first puff, are expected to have a certain gene which gets them addicted. The study is recently published in the journal, Addiction, and has considered the correlation between a variant in the CHRNA5 nicotine receptor gene and smoking experiences. During the study, 435 volunteers were examined including the ones who have never smoked and people who have given a try but never made it a habit.

 

Habitual smokers were far more probable to have the less common form of the CHRNA5 gene. In fact, they were eight times liable to report that their first cigarettes gave them a pleasurable rush. Ovide Pomerleau, the founder of the U-M Nicotine Research Laboratory, said that genes certainly play an important role in determining what will happen next. Continuous smoking of cigarette can lead to nicotine addiction in a few days to a few months. As further determined, two in five people have ‘high-risk’ versions of the gene that affects the brain’s sensitivity to nicotine.