Running as a cure for smoking

Press, 5 March 1980, Page 10

Running as a cure for smoking

RUNNERS’" DIARY

By

John Drew

Dr Peteir/ Woods, an American .‘marathon, athlete and waiter on running and tobacco addiction, has come to' Sight with some astonishing disclosures about the. damage cigarette smoking can do.

He says: “The smoker constantly exposes many parts ofi'his body to the 4000 Known compounds created in the tubular chemical factory, the burning cigarette.”

One; of the most dangerous of these is never mentioned in warning notiaes..

Thiis is carbon monoxide, a gas which is emitted in motor-car exhaust fumes, a lethal poison./ . /<>

Dr Woods points out that this gas is an especially insideous danger because it can’t be seen, or detected by its smell. He also says that cigarette smoke entering the system releases epinephrine and norepinephrine which in turn raises blood pressure and heart rate and increases the level of free fatty acids in the blood. One of the fell functions of carbon monoxide when inhaled with air is to damage the red cells of the blood, which transport oxygen, in the body. Dr Woods says that loss of oxygen Capacity is even suffered by non-smokers who inhale “secondhand” cigarette smoke from ciga-

rette smokers in enclosed spaces like offices and in bars and at social gatherings. “Runners usually choose not to sit next to smokers,” said Dr Woods. He pointed out that carbon monoxide gas was taken up much more readily by the red cells of the blood than oxygen — 200 times more readily, he said.

A moderately heavy smoker could have as much as 15 per cent of the red cells in his blood occupied by carbon monoxide — which were therefore not available to carry, oxygen. What can’t be seen is the vapour, which is mainly carbon monoxide •and nicotine, which goes into the blood stream in exactly the same way as if it had been injected into a vein with a hypodermic syringe. Dr Woods says that “the black ingrained gunk” accumulated in the smoke polluted lungs of a cigarette smoker robs the individual of lung surface and prevents gaseous interchange in the lungs.

“It’s as if the smoker is running at high altitude.. As his activity level increases he becomes increasingly breathless although he is actually at sea level.”

Denis Lucas, a Christchurch runner, is a former heavy .smoker.' I remember running on the New Brighton beach with Denis when he first began training after he stopped smoking about the age of 36.

He continued training with inflexible determination and ahs now several 26.2-mile marathon events to his credit, some of them with his brother Terry, a former heavyweight boxing champion, who also stopped smoking and took to distance running.

Dr Woods says that, largely due to extensive national advertising by anti-smoking organisations, the level of smoking among males is falling in

the United States, but about 33 per cent (or about 70M) of American adult population each smoked about 9000 “little chemical factories” each year. : Some observers in New Zealand note that the smoking rate among males is also falling, partly because more have become runners,, 'R.

After the last Sedley Wells marathon and half marathon, in which about 800 took part, I could see only one smoker at .the big social gathering at Queen Elizabeth II Park.

I know of no -regular distance-runner in Canterbury who smokes. A temporary exception ,has been the 100-mile runner Harry Mafquet (St Martins), who went back to cigarettes for a while. He noticed such a fall off in his running performance that he quicxly stopped.

But it’s easy to see in. large offices or at social gatherings and in hotels, that smoking among young women is increasing in New Zealand.

Some observers consider this is a signal of sexual sophistication.

It also coincides with an ; increase in heart troubles among women smokers:/ especially among women ? smokers‘who use the pilh -> 1

Many runners, like ; . Denis Lucas, have started to train after stopping' smoking and have dis-; covered that one addiction has replaced another.Dr Woods says surveys in the United States chow that niany want to stop smoking but don’t know how to do it.-

A point to consider in your plan to quit smoking 1 is gain of weight. Many, jwho have kicked the I smoke habit say they have put on weight. Fear of ; putting on weight is some- v times offered as an excuse for continuing smoking.

But the best and easiest way of stopping amdking is to start running regu- flarly — and that goes for losing weight, also. So the smoker who stars running stands to win bo th ways> < i