at exercise improves our mood, combats chronic diseases, helps us manage our weight, boosts our energy level, and promotes better sleep.Exercise can also put the spark back into our sex life.1
A new study from the
Kate Janse Van Rensburg et al2 using the latest eye-tracking technology confirmed that exercise can lessen the power of cigarettes and smoking-related images to grab the attention of smokers.
20 moderately heavy smokers, who had abstained from cigarettes for 15 hours before the trial, were recruited for this study. On two separate occasions, participants were shown smoking-related and neutral images, and then spent 15 minutes either sitting or exercising on a stationary bike at a moderate intensity. Afterwards, they were again shown the images.
The eye tracking computer was able to show not only the length of time people looked at smoking-related images but also how quickly pictures of cigarettes could grab their attention, compared with non-smoking matched images.
The study showed an 11% difference between the time the participants spent looking at the smoking-related images after exercise, compared with after sitting. Also, after exercise, participants took longer to look at smoking-related images.
Exercise, therefore, appears to reduce interest in and salience of smoking cues.
Smoking-related images can be powerful triggers for smokers who are abstaining. While we are no longer faced with advertisements for cigarettes, smokers are still faced with seeing people smoking on television, in photographs or in person which makes it more difficult for them to quit.
Come in and ask our pharmacists about the new medication for smoking cessation.
1. www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/HQ01676
2. Van Rensburg K. J., Taylor A., and Hodgson T. The effects of acute exercise on attentional bias towards smoking-related stimuli during temporary abstinence from smoking. Addiction 2009; 104: 1910–17.
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