Health Update: Exercise Your Way to a Cigarette Free Healthy Life

For those who smoke it is well known to them that to get rid of the urge to smoke is a very tough job. It is the Nicotine in the smoke which is extremely addictive. Its addictiveness is comparableto opium, cocaine, and amphetamines. Various studies have shown that even among those who use heroin cigarettes are rated as their most needed drug.

Is quitting possible?

Quitting sure ispossible. It has been seen that statistically, about a 50% of smokers have quit for at leastsome time in the whole period they smoke. And in the people who quit it has been seen that they have reduced rates of diseases like heart diseaseand cancer, even if they quit in the late part of their lives, though the benefits ofquitting late in life are less than quitting at younger age. These people also have a decreased rate of death among them as expected. But the rates of quitting are very low. Most of the smokers have shown willingness to quit but only 5-10% eventually are successful.

How to help people quit smoking?

Helpingpatients quit has been found to work. Assisting patients is twice more successful in quitting than if the patient tried by himself. This means people who want to quit should look for a medical advice. On an average a person needs 5-7 attempts to quit while under a quitting program. Most of the relapses (getting back to fag) occur withinthree months of quitting, and half within the first two days. Thus rate of relapses are quite high. The main reason is the inability to face the craving and subsequent giving in. Thus typically patients need follow up within days, not weeks, of startingtreatment.

Hence a drug or a lifestyle measure which can help these people take care of craving would be expected to be the most effective. In a recent study, exercise (physical activity) has been found especially useful.

It is also important to warn patients about what they are likelyto experience when they try to quit. Commonly they canexpect a weight gain of 10-13 pounds (5-6 kg)-and dietingseems to interfere with quitting smoking successfully. People who quitalso describe anxiety, decreased sleep, depressed mood, and inabilityto concentrate, in addition to severe cravings for cigarettes.

How is exercise useful in quitting?

In a study reported in a recent issue of the journal Addiction (reference 1), it was convincingly shown that one session of exercise reduced the craving. They studied all previous trials done on the effect of exercise on cigarette craving (14 previous studies). It was seen that a brisk 1-mile walk had the largest and longest-lasting post-exercise effect, reducing cravings for as long as 50 minutes. This confirms the positive role of exercise although the underlying mechanism is not clear as to how.

References:

1) Adrian H. Taylor, Michael H. Ussher, Guy Faulkner (2007) The acute effects of exercise on cigarette cravings, withdrawal symptoms, affect and smoking behaviour: a systematic review . Addiction 102 (4), 534-543.