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Exercise makes cigarettes less attractive to smokers
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According to a published study by the University of Exeter, exercise can help smokers quit because it makes cigarettes less attractive. The study, from PhD student Kate Janse Van Rensburg, shows that exercise can lessen the power of cigarettes and smoking-related images to grab the attention of smokers.
Published in the journal, Addiction, the study involved 20 moderately heavy smokers, who had abstained from cigarettes for 15 hours before the trial. During their two visits to the lab, they were shown smoking-related and neutral images, and then spent either 15 minutes sitting or exercising on a stationary bike at a moderate intensity. They were shown the images again, following the exercise.
Using eye tracking technology to measure and record their precise eye movements, they were 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.
Exercise appeared to reduce the power of the smoking-related images to grab the participants' visual attention. The results displayed an 11% difference between the time the participants spent looking at the smoking-related images after exercise, compared with the after sitting. Additionally, after the exercise, participants took longer to look at smoking-related images. Hopefully, more studies will follow to further illustrate that exercise can reduce cravings and responses to smoking cues.
Source: Science Daily
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