Matt Scanlin '08 was awarded a $2,600 grant to support a research project that started over the summer and will continue through this academic year to examine the impact of nicotine, in combination with stress, on heart and kidney function.  His study was the continuation of the research started by Scanlin’s research advisor, Assistant Professor Melissa VanderKaay, in her doctoral dissertation. 

The fall study will assess and compare the effects of nicotine administration on cardiovascular reactivity (heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, cardiac output, stroke volume, and total peripheral resistance) and kidney function (urine volume and specific gravity). Habitual cigarette smokers and chippers will be assigned to wear a nicotine patch overnight for 12 hours while non-smokers will not. Each participant will attend two testing sessions, a pre-test and a laboratory test that will take place after the nicotine administration. The laboratory testing session will assess cardiovascular reactivity and kidney function during a 10-minute baseline period, a 6-minute psychological stress test (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task) and a 10-minute recovery period. By comparing chippers to both habitual smokers and non-smokers, the study will be able to determine if these groups respond differently to psychological stress and thus further explore the physiological mechanisms (cardiovascular reactivity and kidney function) by which these differences may occur.

Cigarette smoking is the number one modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has also been implicated in the development of disorders and diseases of the kidney. Recent epidemiological studies have reported that smoking one to four cigarettes per day is associated with an almost three-fold increased risk for ischemic heart disease (Bjartveit & Tverdal, 2006) as compared to a group of participants who had never smoked. The physiological mechanisms by which the increased risks occur however, is not completely understood by researchers.  Research investigating chippers is beginning to emerge, although to date, no research has examined kidney function within this group. 

“Evidence already shows that chippers are more reactive to stress when they’re on a nicotine patch,” Professor VanderKaay said. “This is paradoxical,” she explained, “because physiologically they are shown to be more reactive, but at the same time, they feel calmed by smoking.” She says light smokers are often overlooked in research, but the implications are that even light smoking can have detrimental health effects over time, similar to that in daily cigarette smokers. More study is needed, therefore Scanlin’s project is very important, she said.

“I’m especially interested in the connection between medicine and psychology,” Scanlin said, “and this behavioral-medicine study is a combination of both.”