How A Stomach Acid Could Help Cure Cocaine Addiction

(Credit: Sebastian Kaulitzki/Shutterstock)When it comes to studying cocaine addiction, one group of researchers has stomach acid on their brains. In a paper published Thursday in PLOS Biology, researchers find that a surgery that diverts some bile acid into the bloodstream seems to cut back cravings among mice with a cocaine habit. It’s a nifty angle on a pernicious problem, but it’s also another piece of evidence that bile acid, a compound produced by our digestive systems to help break down fats, also plays an important, though little-researched, role in the way we think. That’s because when I said the researchers have bile acid on the brain, I meant it literally. Most bile acid remains within the digestive system, cycling from liver to gall bladder to small intestine. But, a small amount will make it into the bloodstream, and eventually, to the brain. Research in recent years has shown that bile ...