Brisk walks helped me quit smoking
Doctors have found out that attempts to quit smoking are seriously facilitated if a person takes regular walks. However, the walks should not be quite ordinary.
Smoking is one of the main preventable causes of disease and death in the world. According to the WHO, although tobacco use is steadily declining worldwide, in 2020 about 20% of people over 15 years old were still smoking.
According to VTsIOM calculations, the proportion of smokers in Russia has remained unchanged for the past five years. The typical avid smoker is a man (32% vs. 10% of women), 35-44 years old (in this group, men smoke a pack a day 42%), living in the countryside (39%), and having a poor financial situation (43%).
Despite an abundance of all sorts of products like a special patch, as well as higher cigarette prices and advertising campaigns, many still fail to quit smoking. Now scientists from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) have tested whether active walking can help. The results are published in the journal Psychopharmacology.
Through leaflets, social media and the university's mail service, the scientists selected 16 smokers. All had smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day for the past two years.
The participants were asked to abstain from smoking for at least 10 hours before the study. They were divided into three groups. In the first, volunteers took a ten-minute brisk walk in the fresh air, while in the second, they exercised on a treadmill indoors. Participants in the control group simply sat for 10 minutes. Before, during, and after exercise, everyone was asked about cravings, withdrawal symptoms, and mood.
It turned out that cravings decreased in the indoor and outdoor groups during the entire workout. It remained unchanged in the control group.
The same was true for withdrawal syndrome and general well-being. After 10 minutes, thirst was slightly lower in the outdoor group than in the indoor group.
Another, albeit minor, difference between indoor and outdoor training was the time that elapsed before the next cigarette was smoked. It was 17 minutes for the indoor group and 26 minutes for the outdoor exercisers.
Note that the people walking outdoors did not run, but simply walked: they were encouraged to walk at a brisk pace, as if they were late for a meeting, but not to the point of breathlessness. Despite this, their results were as good as, and in some ways even better than, those who ran in the gym. Thus, walking at a brisk pace (but without shortness of breath) made it possible to combat smoking with relatively little energy and time expenditure.
The authors emphasized that exercise is a cost-effective and affordable way to quit a bad habit. During exercise, attention is mainly focused on the sport and smokers can be distracted from the craving for a cigarette. In addition, sports have a positive effect on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and can also improve mood, well-being, and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety. Finally, exercise generally improves self-esteem and self-confidence, two positive qualities that can contribute to quitting smoking.