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Daily Walks Might Help People Cut Down on Smoking, Even Quit

Study focusing on teenagers shows that smokers have a lot to benefit from regular exercise

Apr 9, 2013 20:11 GMT  ·  By
Regular exercise now argued to help teenage smokers cut down, even quit
   Regular exercise now argued to help teenage smokers cut down, even quit

On April 9, the Journal of Adolescent Health witnessed the publication of a new study stating that teenagers who have taken up smoking have high chances of either cutting down or quitting altogether should they agree to taking short walks on a daily basis.

More precisely, the study claims that a mere 20 minutes of daily physical exercise, together with an intensive smoking cessation intervention, does the trick when it comes to compelling teenage smokers to light up less often than they normally would.

Furthermore, the researchers who studied this link between regular physical activity and a decrease in one's desire to smoke maintain that a 30-minute-long daily fitness routine, coupled with a smoking cessation program, is bound to translate into an individual's completely letting go of smoking.

EurekAlert! says that these conclusions were reached after several teenage smokers studying at 19 different high schools in West Virginia were asked to take up regular physical exercise and their smoking patterns were closely monitored.

“We don't fully understand the clinical relevance of ramping up daily activity to 20 or 30 minutes a day with these teens. But we do know that even modest improvements in exercise may have health benefits,” study lead author Kimberly Horn commented with respect to the findings of these experiments.

“Our study supports the idea that encouraging one healthy behavior can serve to promote another, and it shows that teens, often viewed as resistant to behavior change, can tackle two health behaviors at once,” specialist Kimberly Horn further elaborated on the matter at hand.

Despite their being unable to say why it is that regular physical exercise ups one's chances of cutting down on smoking and even quitting, the researchers speculate that it may have something to do with the fact that a fitness routine increases the endorphin levels in one’s body.

This in turn is believed to make it easier for the smoker to deal with the pangs of withdrawal.

It is expected that further research meant to confirm the findings of these experiments and to check whether or not they are also true for other smokers will shortly follow.