Chicago, November 21: Attention ladies, if you want a perfect figure, quit smoking as a new study claims that women can control their weight better by shunning cigarettes.
Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, found that women who quit smoking while receiving treatment for weight control were better able to shed their flab.
The finding disproves current clinical guidelines that trying to diet and quit smoking at the same time will sabotage efforts to ditch cigarettes.
“Women who smoke often feel caught between a rock and hard place, because they are concerned about their health but also concerned about their appearance,” lead author Bonnie Spring said, adding “now they don’t have to choose between the two.”
A new meta-analysis (results of several studies) shows that women who quit smoking while receiving treatment for weight control are more successful at quitting cigarettes.
Previously, it was assumed that a person could only change one health risk behaviour at a time. “But these findings show that, at least in the case of smoking and eating, you actually get an added benefit when you try to change a couple of behaviours at once,” Spring said.
Recently published in the journal Addiction, Spring’s paper examined the results from 2,233 smokers in 10 studies from 1991 to 2007.
–Agencies