Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Why does Nicotine bind in the brain but not muscle?

Nicotine should kills us quicker than smoking a pack a day for 20 years. The fact is, it binds to receptors in the brain but not to those same receptors in muscle tissue which would cause immediate and lethal muscle contractions. Caltech has found that there is a small change in the acetylene receptor in our muscle tissue that doesn't allow this to happen.