A way to stop smoking
Posted by SpikeJan 26
This article in the NY Times instantly caught my attention this morning:
In Clue to Addictive Behavior, a Brain Injury Halts Smoking
Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting today that an injury to a specific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanently break a smoking habit. People with the injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as one man put it, “forgot the urge to smoke.”
“This is the first time we’ve shown anything like this, that damage to a specific brain area could remove the problem of addiction entirely,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which financed the study, along with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “It’s absolutely mind-boggling.”
I know what’s gonna happen next. There’s going to be a massive outbreak of attacks on cigarette smokers and the attackers will use this as their defense, saying “I wasn’t trying to hurt the guy, I was trying to help him” and lawyers will wave this article around and the attackers will not just get acquitted, they will get medals.
True Story: I played piano from the time I was about 5 years old till I was around 20. I wasn’t brilliant but I didn’t suck. When I was 18, I was in a car accident, smashed my head on the steering wheel and had a severe concussion. When I recovered, I found I’d lost my ability to play different things with each hand simultaneously – e.g. playing rhythm or bass lines with the left hand while playing melody or soloing with the right hand. It never really came back and it’s one reason why I quit playing. So I believe this whack-on-the-head thing to quit smoking could be for real. However, please do not attempt to try it out on me. If you don’t kill me with the first blow, I will hurt you. A lot. No, I won’t hit you, I don’t do that. I’ll just get my ex-wife to marry you.
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