Cancerous lung. Picture is in the public domain
Think smokers are doomed to a shorter life span due to lung cancer, emphysema, or heart disease? Well, you are right, generally speaking.
Nevertheless, even smokers can lower their disease risk if they exercise. It appears to lower the lung cancer risk of smokers according to our friends at the American Association for Cancer Research:
PHILADELPHIA – In a study of more than 36,000 women, researchers observed that smokers can reduce their risk of developing lung cancer by being physically active. However, they strongly caution that any relative benefit is dwarfed by the benefits gained from quitting smoking.
(Emphasis mine)
This is good news, though the researchers behind this study can’t emphasize enough(and I can’t emphasize enough) that smokers should make every effort to quit smoking. That is vastly more beneficial than exercising while continuing to smoke. So if you do smoke, exercise more, exercise as much as possible, but do this while also trying to quit. Who knows, the exercise may even help you quit by helping you to rewire your brain. In my personal experience, smokers who were the most physically active were more likely to quit than sedentary smokers.
If your last effort to quit failed, try something new. Try juggling, try swimming, try aversion therapy, try yoga(but not “Smoga”, look it up on Youtube, it’s sick and ridiculous).
Good luck to you if you’re a smoker or are close to someone who is.
AcroTrekker 