Despite additional kilos on the scales smoking stop is always worthwhile

Stop smoking: Do not let it stop you from gaining weight

Anyone who intends to stop smoking should not be discouraged from gaining weight. Because even though overweight is unhealthy, the health benefits of smoking cessation outweighs significantly.

Smoking puts your health at risk

Smoking is a major health risk and, according to experts, the leading cause of premature mortality. Consumption of the Glimmerstängel favors, among other things, twelve types of cancer such as lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and colon cancer, cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, heart attack and stroke, arteriosclerosis (arteriosclerosis), chronic bronchitis or the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD (smoker's lung). So there are many good reasons for smoking cessation. And although in spite of a few kilos too much, which one often increases, if one lets the fingers of cigarettes.

Who wants to quit smoking, should not be deterred by a possible weight gain. Because the health benefits of abstaining from nicotine outweigh the risks of being overweight. (Image: SENTELLO / fotolia)

Health benefits through nicotine abstinence

Like the German Society of Internal Medicine e. V. (DGIM) notes that people who are considering quitting smoking should not be discouraged from gaining weight.

Although obesity is associated with health risks, the health benefits of abstaining from nicotine still predominate.

This is the result of a large US study recently published in the journal New England Journal of Medicine.

The DGIM takes the research report as an opportunity to point once more to the risks of tobacco consumption.

Ex-smokers put on average four to five kilos

As the experts explain, nicotine curbs appetite and increases metabolic rate - two effects that help reduce body weight. Conversely, an increased appetite is one of the typical symptoms of tobacco deprivation.

Ex-smokers therefore put on average four to five kilos, if they consistently do without the cigarette.

"For a long time, it was unclear whether this effect partially canceled out the gain in lifetime achieved by smoking cessation", says Professor Dr. med. med. Claus Vogelmeier, pulmonologist and director at the Department of Internal Medicine of the University Hospital Marburg.

However, the current study can dispel these concerns.

Rising diabetes risk

To reach their conclusions, US researchers drew on data from three major long-term studies, identifying more than 160,000 participants for whom consistent weight, smoke status and health information was available.

According to DGIM, an average of almost 20, sometimes even 30 years of follow-up revealed a complete picture of the changes that smoking cessation brings compared to a continued smoking routine.

But the downside first: A gain in weight during the nicotine withdrawal was not without health consequences according to the experts.

The risk of developing Type 2 diabetes initially increased during the first five to seven years after quitting, but then dropped again.

"The risk of diabetes increased all the more, the more weight the participants increased," explains Vogelmeier, chairman of the DGIM.

Thus, persons who gained less than five kilos, were almost excluded from the increase. However, those who gained over ten kilos had a diabetes risk that was 60 percent higher than that of continued smokers.

Positive effects of smoking cessation increase with age

However, the main goal of smoking cessation was unaffected: Regardless of weight gain, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was significantly lower among all ex-smokers than those who continued to use the cigarette.

The general risk of death, in the calculation of all other causes of death, was also significantly reduced by the smoking waiver.

"This effect sets in very quickly after smoking cessation and is getting bigger in the first ten to fifteen years," explains Vogelmeier.

Significant gain in lifetime

As the US scientists emphasize, the significant drop in the mortality risk - or in other words, the significant gain in lifetime - can be observed for all weight groups.

Only a very small number of participants who had a very strong weight gain of more than 18 kilograms six years after quitting smoking were gradually approaching the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease Smokers.

"In conclusion, it should be noted: smoking cessation is always worthwhile", says DGIM General Secretary Professor Dr. med. med. Ulrich R. Fölsch from Kiel.

This also applies to other internal diseases such as rheumatism and gastrointestinal distress, which are often much more pronounced in smoking patients.

In order to really make the most of the health gain, however, it is advisable to discuss strategies for stopping smoking without massive weight gain beforehand with the attending physician.

Basically smokers need a firm will to get out of their addiction. Many experts say cold withdrawal is the best way to quit smoking. (Ad)