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Smoking is Also Bad for Your Mental Health

Published: 2010-12-25    Views:106 reads

IT'S A common idea that smoking helps to relieve stress and depression.

But research suggests the opposite may be true and that smoking could be detrimental to your mental health.

As people are preparing to make a new set of new year resolutions, Ash Wales today said the new US research adds further evidence to the health benefits of stopping smoking.

Tanya Buchanan, chief executive of Ash Wales, said: "This new research suggests that giving up smoking actually relieves symptoms of depression and pours cold water on the claim that smoking eases anxiety and depression.

"We already know that quitting smoking results in significant health benefits, but this study suggests there are also mental health benefits as well.

"There has never been a better time to quit smoking. Smoking kills around 5,650 people in Wales every year and it is the single most preventable cause of premature death.

"Smoking is an addiction and I know how hard it can be for some people to give up, but there is help and support available from Stop Smoking Wales so you don't have to go it alone."

Research by scientists at Brown University in the USA, suggests a clear link between quitting smoking and an enhanced mood.

The study, published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, measured smokers' moods during their first six months of attempting to quit.

It found that those who were successful in quitting were the happiest, while those who gave up their quit attempt were the unhappiest of all the groups.

The study involved 236 heavy-drinking male and female smokers who wanted to give up smoking and looked for symptoms of depression at different stages over a 28-week period.

The researchers concluded: "During the first six months following a planned quit attempt, being abstinent in a particular week appears to be associated with lower levels of concurrent depressive symptoms.

"These results are not concordant with the view that intentional smoking abstinence exacerbates depressive symptoms.

"Efforts to promote smoking cessation should highlight that individuals are likely to feel more rather than less psychologically healthy when they successfully quit smoking."

Previous research has linked smoking to depression - a Spanish study found that smokers are 41% more likely to suffer from depression.

The scientists, from the University of Navarra, found the direct link between tobacco and depression when monitoring 8,556 people over six years.

During the course of the study , 190 smokers who did not initially have depression were diagnosed with the common mental health problem by a doctor.

As well as being linked to depression, smoking is associated with a raft of physical health problems, which are estimated to cost the NHS in Wales £386m a year.

Wales' chief medical officer Dr Tony Jewell said: "There are encouraging signs that attitudes towards smoking are changing and thanks to the smoking ban less people are subjected to second-hand smoke, but one in four people in Wales continue to be smokers.

"Quitting smoking can almost immediately improve your health. Within 20 minutes of your last cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse return to normal. After 24 hours, carbon monoxide is out of your body and your lungs start to clear themselves.

"After three days, you will have more energy and you will find breathing will become easier. And after one year of giving up, your risk of suffering a heart attack is reduced by half," he added.

Source from: Wales Online
http://act.tobaccochina.net/englishnew/content.aspx?id=45279