Eating glucose tablets could help smokers to quit, according to research presented at a European conference of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, held in London on November 25.
Researchers at St George's hospital medical school, London, have found that the desire to smoke decreases significantly after eating glucose tablets and that just one dose has a rapid effect.
Professor Robert West (professor of psychology, St George's hospital medical school) said: "The theory is that heavy smoking changes the way that carbohydrate intake is regulated in the body, so during periods of abstinence there is an increased need for carbohydrates which smokers will normally relieve by smoking a cigarette. Glucose could be helpful because it satisfies the carbohydrate craving and reduces the desire for a cigarette."
The latest study forms part of a programme of research based on the hypothesis that cigarette craving may be similar to the sensation normally associated with hunger, as hunger pains have repeatedly been shown to be relieved by smoking.
In an earlier study it was found that if glucose tablets were chewed between the first and second week of stopping smoking, the urge to smoke was lower than if tablets containing sorbitol were chewed. Commenting on this, Professor West said that the "finding was backed up with another study that found that if glucose was chewed over four weeks, the trial participants were more likely to stay off the cigarettes than the group given a placebo during the four weeks". This research is still in its early stages and a larger trial is currently under way.