Walking helps in Smoking cessation

A recent study has proved that walking is an effective way to quit smoking. Research published in the international medical journal, Addiction has showed that a minimum of five minutes of quick walk can help you to quit smoking.

Walking reduces edginess and improves circulation. It also releases dopamine, mood enhancing hormones after which a person doesn’t feel like smoking any more. So whenever an urge for smoking strikes, a person should go out for a walk.

There are umpteen number of ways through which a person can quit smoking but nowadays people are finding walking the best and the easiest.

Dr. Adrian Taylor, study’s lead author and professor of exercise and health psychology at the University of Exeter said that, “If we found the same effects in a drug, it would immediately be sold as an aid to help people quit smoking”.

Taylor and his colleagues reviewed 12 papers having a look at the link between exercise and nicotine deprivation. They basically stressed upon the outdoor exercises such as walking, stretching of muscles etc. and concluded that 5 minutes of exercise was sufficient enough to stop the desire of smoking.

The people involved were the ones who smoked daily but didn’t exercise daily. They were asked not to smoke ranging from few hours to maximum of 17 hours. It was found that the people who went for walk daily had gained some control over smoking habit than the people who didn’t went for walk at all.

Dr. Robert West, Professor of Health psychology at the University College London said that, “ What’s surprising is the strength of the effect”. A little bit of walking or outdoor exercise is as effective as any other way used to quit smoking like nicotine patches or nicotine gums, nicotine fading etc.

The researchers were though not able to show how exercise exactly helped in reducing craving, except distracting the person for a while.

Still few experts are not satisfied with the findings of the study. Dr. Peter Hajek, professor of clinical psychology at Queen Mary University Hospital in London said, “Doctors can tell patients to do things until they're blue in the face, but the limiting factor may be getting people to actually take up exercise." He was not involved in the study.

Another study conducted last year also showed that regular exercise combined with nicotine replacement therapy could help people who want to quit smoking. The common element found in both studies is physical exercise.

"Exercise training is an effective therapy without side effects and aids in smoking cessation," Scientist Ralf H. Zwick and colleagues at the Otto Wagner Hospital in Vienna reported at the CHEST 2006 meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Salt Lake City from Oct 21-26.

Walking makes you physically fit, as well as helps you, to not have a craving for smoking. So why not go with the famous adage, "To kill two birds with one stone".