A Canadian study says exercise may remove the craving to smoke in pregnant women. According to previous research, the craving to smoke may be potentially removed by exercise in both men and women.
According to researchers who reported in the journal Addictive Behaviours, exercise can derail nicotine cravings though the research indicated that since the metabolism of pregnant women increases, the desire for a cigarette may also increase. As little as 15 to 20 minutes of exercise may reduce nicotine cravings the study concluded.
“This was the first time we have been able to replicate the findings with pregnant smokers,” said Harry Prapavessis, director of the Exercise and Health Psychology Laboratory at Western University in Ontario, Canada.
The study looked at 30 pregnant women in their second trimester from Canada and the UK. These women all smoked more than five cigarettes a day and did not exercise regularly. The women were then asked to walk on a treadmill while other women were asked to watch a gardening video for twenty minutes and not exercise. Both groups of women did not smoke between 15 to 19 hrs. before entering the lab.
Those who exercised reported a 30% reduction in a desire to smoke based on a seven point scale, the researchers said. However, the cravings returned. The women were asked to exercise again and reported a decrease of only seventeen percent.
However, the women said that they were also less restless, irritable and tense and reported fewer withdrawal symptoms according to the report.
“This translates not as a cure for quitting, but it can be part of a strategy,” said Dr. Sharon Phelan, who was not involved in the study. The challenge is that there is not any one reason why women have an addiction”. Dr. Phelan is a fellow with the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG) and professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque.
Other than exercise, women who are pregnant have the option to try nicotine patches and other therapies but Phelan said more evidence was needed to determine if these were safe for use by pregnant women. Prapavessis said that the research team’s results are only applicable in a study group of 25 years old, the average age in the study.
