About 4 million people in England smoke regularly and nearly 85,000 are expected to take steps towards quitting smoking but the only problem smokers face is withdrawal symptoms. New studies find that small amount of exercise not only help prevent weight gain but also help restrict the cravings and withdrawal symptoms that often lead to relapse.
Dr. Adrian Taylor, the study's lead author and professor of exercise and health psychology at the University of Exeter reviewed 12 papers looking at the connection between exercise and nicotine deprivation and came to a conclusion that just five-minutes of exercise was often enough to help smokers to curb the cravings to smoke.
However, scientists have cautioned that it is still not clear how long the effects of exercise would last. They have advised to combine exercise with other anti-smoking techniques that would help smokers quit in the long run.
The study, which is published in the international journal 'Addiction', says exercise could produce the mood-enhancing hormone dopamine, which could, in turn, reduce smokers' cravings and also curb its nicotine dependence.
