theconversation | Could a diet high in refined sugars make children and adults more
susceptible to opioid addiction and overdose? New research, from our
laboratory of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Guelph,
suggests it could.
Approximately 20,000 people died of fentanyl-related overdoses in the United States last year and in Canada there were at least 2,816 opioid-related deaths. During 2017 so far, over 1,000 people have died of illicit drug overdoses in British Columbia. High schools are stocking up on the overdose-reversing drug naloxone and universities are training staff to administer the drug.
Nobody is talking about sugar.
And yet there is substantial experimental evidence that refined sugar can promote addictive behaviours by activating the brain’s rewards centres in much the same way as addictive drugs. Opioid abuse is also associated with poor dietary habits,
including preferences for sugar-rich foods, as well as malnutrition.
These connections have led to questions of whether excessive consumption
of refined sugar may affect vulnerability to opioid addiction.
To explore the possible role of a sugar-rich diet in opioid
addiction, we investigated whether unlimited access to high fructose
corn syrup (HFCS) altered rats’ neural and behavioural responses to the
semi-synthetic opioid, oxycodone.
Our findings suggest that a diet high in corn syrup may dampen the
reward associated with oxycodone and may therefore encourage consumption
of higher quantities of the drug. Fist tap Dale.
