If you’re trying to stop smoking, get down to the gym. A new study has shown that people who exercise are 55 per cent more likely to quit — and 43 per cent less likely to relapse into smoking, too.
The study, carried out in Taiwan, examined healthcare data from 434,190 people in order to reach the finding. The study also showed that, for those smokers who didn’t quit, exercising increased life expectancy by 3.7 years. Those that exercised and did manage to quit saw an increase in life expectancy of 5.6 years. The results were presented at this week’s World Congress of Cardiology. Dr. C.P. Wen, one of the researchers, explains:
“Exercise can help smokers to quit and quitting smoking has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of developing CVD and that must be the goal of all smokers. If smokers can continue to exercise, not only they can increase the quit rate, but also they can reduce their mortality for all cause and for CVD in the long run.”
If you’re wondering how much exercise you need to improve your chances of quitting, the answer is 30 minutes per day. That sounds like a pretty good deal for 5.6 extra years of life. [EurekAlert]
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