A short walk is all it could take to stop smokers from picking up that next cigarette, according to a recent study review. The study review, published in the April edition of the journal Addiction, was written by scientists at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.
Lead author and professor at the University of Exeter’s School of Sport and Health Sciences, Adrian Taylor, and his co-authors looked at a dozen studies on the relationship between light to moderate exercise and cigarette cravings, smoking behavior and withdrawal symptoms.
However, Taylor and his colleagues found that light exercise – as little as a quick five-minute walk – could reduce immediate cigarette cravings. Some studies showed the reduced urge to smoke could last up to an hour.
Robert Thayer, a psychology professor at Cal State Long Beach, wrote one of the 12 papers studied by Taylor and colleagues. Thayer, along with CSULB students, conducted a similar study 14 years ago that still holds relevance today.
Thayer’s study dealt purely with the effects a five-minute brisk walk had on the urge to smoke, as well as the changes in mood, energy and tension.
“People smoke to regulate mood,” Thayer said. “Since exercise can increase energy and reduce tension, maybe it can give people an alternative way to regulate mood.”
In the experiment, Thayer and the students did exercise and smoking. They tested 16 smokers by having all of them answer questions about energy, stress and their urge to smoke after 45 minutes of inactivity. Afterward, some of them exercised for five minutes, while the others remained sedentary. All of them answered questions again about their energy and tension levels and whether they had a craving to smoke.
Special attention was given to note how much time it took before a person smoked a cigarette after a bout of exercise, versus how much time it took if a person remained inactive.
Thayer’s study showed that those who exercised clearly had more energy afterward, but also showed that they had less of an urge to smoke when compared to those who had not exercised. For the people who took a brisk walk, the time until their next cigarette was almost 20 minutes versus a little less than 10 minutes for the inactive smokers.
Although Thayer’s study only pertained to the immediate effects of exercise on the mood of cigarette smokers, he speculated from other studies that in general, a 10-minute walk would increase energy and curb cravings for up to two hours.
Other studies similar to Thayer’s gave the same results, according to Taylor’s review.
None of the studies Taylor and his colleagues reviewed said that exercise would be a quick fix to quit smoking entirely, but that a short and quick-paced walk is a good alternative when someone craves a cigarette.
Thayer stated that most everyone can use exercise as a method to curb smoking, but warned against it for the few people with certain medical conditions or those who are very frail.
