Everything for People Concerned About
Smoking & Nonsmokers' Rights
on
the Internet for Smoking News and Documents
 |
Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization
Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
|
Wash. Post: Craving Cigarettes? Take a Walk [04/26-5]
Excerpts from: Craving Cigarettes? Take a Walk
By John Briley The Washington Post [04/26/05]
Anyone who has tried to quit smoking -- and I've never been a smoker so I can only empathize -- knows there are no easy outs. But, sometimes a series of little nudges can add up and help push a puffer shake the addiction. So what's the Crew's contribution? Need you even ask?
New research out of Great Britain shows that smokers who took a moderate-intensity 15-minute walk when they craved a cigarette lessened their desire for a smoke compared with a control group, and waited an average of 83.7 minutes for their next cigarette, compared with 26.6 minutes for non-walkers. (Participants walked on a treadmill under observation, so we trust the researchers' claim that the walkers did not light up during their strolls.) All study participants, who smoked an average of 15 cigarettes daily, abstained from smoking for two hours before testing.
The study has been accepted for publication at a peer-reviewed journal.
Adrian Taylor, an exercise and health psychology teacher at England's University of Exeter and the study's lead investigator, said nicotine and exercise both send feel-good messages to the brain.
"The dopamine pathway triggered by exercise appears to mimic [the effect of] smoking on the brain," Taylor said. The drug Zyban (bupropian HCL), prescribed to help people quit smoking, is designed to imitate that effect. Significantly, that same drug is sold under the name Wellbutrin to treat depression.
His study also showed that exercise helps dampen numerous nicotine withdrawal symptoms, including depression, irritability, stress, restlessness and lapses in concentration. "We are looking at using exercise as a mood enhancer," he added. "Instead of turning to nicotine or sugar or some other substance when you're down, why not exercise?"
While Taylor studied the impact of brisk walking, he said any exercise that sustains an elevated heart rate would have the same effect. In fact, a few studies published in the past five years have shown similar results.
Taylor said he chose walking because it is more accessible to a wider range of people than are cycling and other aerobic activities."Cravings reach a peak, and you must be able to manage that [period]. For example, if you've got a job interview coming up and you're feeling stressed, you could go for a walk instead of smoking," Taylor noted.
He also mentioned emerging research showing that children who are more active are less likely to become smokers later in life than are less-active kids. "If kids aren't getting the dopamine effect from exercise, they will look to other substances."
Predictably, for both kids and adults, we vote for exercise over other substances.
footer
Presented as a public service by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH),
2013 H Street, N.W., Wash., DC 20006, USA, (202) 659-4310.
ASH is a 36-year-old national legal-action antismoking and
nonsmokers' rights organization which is entirely supported by
tax-deductible contributions.
Please credit ASH, and include ASH's web address: http://ash.org