RNS: Smoking/Weight Gain, November 2007
TIME: 2:48
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URL: www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2007/hmsmoking.htm
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
Is fear of gaining weight keeping many women from trying to quit smoking? U-M research suggests so
Smokers are more likely to have unrealistic body image & eating problems, and women who had weight problems as girls are more likely to start smoking early
But tips and tricks can help contain weight while kicking the habit, expert says
Suggested lead: Many women would like to quit smoking, but fear the weight gain that often accompanies smoking cessation, U-M research suggests. Here’s Andi Mcdonnell with more.
Is a fear of getting fatter partly to blame for the fact that nearly one in five American women still smokes, and many don’t try to quit?
Although there are many possible reasons for the stubborn persistence of smoking, fear of weight gain is high on the list for many women, says a University of Michigan Health System researcher who has devoted much of her career to studying this issue.
Dr. Cindy Pomerleau (Ph.D.), director of the U-M Nicotine Research Laboratory, tells us…
“A lot women never make that quit attempt because they’re so concerned about gaining weight.”
“In a study we recently did here at the University of Michigan we found that women smokers actually preferred a thinner body shape then non-smokers, and expressed a greater degree of dissatisfaction with their body. When these women stop smoking they’re going to get even further from their preferred body image.”
But once they make a serious attempt to quit, evidence suggests that most weight-concerned smokers can be just as successful in kicking the habit as others.
Pomerleau says the problem, however, is getting women who are concerned about their weight to try to make a quit attempt – and then helping them gain a sense of control over their weight.
She explains…
“What we would like to work for is kind of a compromise strategy where the focus is on the smoking cessation but women could also take some active and passive measures to control their weight. Passive measures would include things like using nicotine replacement or brupopion, which tend to help suppress weight, or starting your quit attempt in the early part of the menstrual cycle so that you don’t have the effects of quitting smoking compounded by the effects of perimenstrual bloating. More active measures women could take are to start trying to rebalance the energy in/energy out equation since nicotine has acted on both sides of that equation, so pay some attention to matters of eating and nutrition.”
And remember, quitting smoking is one of the most important things a person can do to improve their health now and in the future. Once a smoker has quit, the harm that smoking has done to their body will stop and even start to reverse. In fact, within 15 years of quitting smoking, death rates for ex-smokers are the same as for people of the same age who have never smoked.
Andi Mcdonnell, U-M Health System News.
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