Can we smoke and play sports?

During the month without tobacco, we take stock of sport and cigarettes: health, performance, breathing capacity ...

Hello everyone! I hardly ever talk to you about cigarettes here, not out of disinterest, but because ultimately for me to be in good shape, it is better not to smoke. .

But it seemed important to me to speak upon this subject, and in particular to discuss sports and smoking. I approached Dr. Alice Picard, a pulmonologist in Bordeaux, to bring you as much medical data as possible.

DISCLAIM

Be careful, I will not pose as a lesson giver! Already because I too have smoked a little in the past. The idea of ​​this article is mainly to inform you, to motivate you to quit smoking if you are in a process of overall fitness.

Sport does not protect smokers

It was long believed that playing sports for smokers would limit health damage ... Unfortunately, this is not true! Sport does not have an "anti-smoking" effect and does not protect smokers from associated diseases. It is of course always better to play sports when you smoke, both for muscle mass and associated well-being, and especially to be aware of the cardiovascular limitations that tobacco consumption inflicts ...

Smoking right after sport = CATASTROPHE!

We have all seen an athlete light up a cigarette 10 minutes after his sport. I remember in the 2000s; I had a sports coach I adored; he gave us sick step lessons and between two lessons; he was toasting a quick cigarette on the sidewalk… I thought it was crazy, but I did not know it was so serious!

Smoking after sport: the disaster!

Because in reality, this is THE thing to avoid. Why? Because when you play sports, you teach your lungs to increase their breathing capacity, and therefore to open the bronchi to their depths. Results, up to 3 hours after exercise, the toxic substances from cigarettes (tar, nicotine, etc.) will infiltrate even further deep into the bronchi ...

You may have noticed it already while running. If an old diesel car passes you, you are super embarrassed at the time! Dr. Alice Picard made a rather poignant comparison: smoking after exercise is like an asthmatic in crisis smoking a cigarette after inhaling 10 puffs of Ventolin!! Do you imagine?!

And in the long term, the risk is to cause cancers that are more difficult to detect and treat because they involve deeper airways. Cancers are very often already metastasized everywhere in the body once I diagnosed them ...

Besides, I take the opportunity here to give a big rant at the guy by the pool where I swim and who spends his time smoking by the garden gate! I FEEL FULL LUNGS its smoke every 50 meters! Super enjoyable! I already told him. We have already spoken to the lifeguards among acolytes of Wednesday swim… Nothing to do.

I felt directly the slightest cigarette less

This is truly a sentiment shared by former smokers. As soon as you reduce your cigarette consumption, and especially when you stop, you quickly observe the first benefits: the cessation of the morning cough, the nose, and throat less congested, a finer sense of smell ... This allows even more to appreciate the sport and therefore to get back to it thoroughly!

I observed the first positive feelings of quitting smoking in sport within 1 month. I called this respiratory rehabilitation. It is essential to get back to sport slowly when you stop smoking. It's part of the protocol and speeds up rebuilding the lungs. The diaphragm regains power, and exercise performance increases faster.

You can also download the Fletcher curve, which shows how lung capacity recovers from smoking. Even if you never fully recover your original lungs, by quitting smoking at age 45, lung capacity returns to a reasonable and fairly flat curve in 10 years. It's crazy!

Sport decreases weight gain when you stop smoking

It's a fact that quitting smoking makes you gain an average of 10 kg (men and women alike). It is often a brake on stopping smoking, especially for women. Except that sport can help burn more calories every day and avoid revenge on sugar, which becomes the new addiction after quitting smoking.

A change in the gut microbiota can also explain weight gain when you quit smoking. This is what some studies have shown.

To avoid this weight gain, the solution is really to adopt a healthier lifestyle, by playing regular sports, consuming as much fiber as possible, combining probiotics for the microbiota ...

Do you find that silly and cliché? Perhaps. But it's still crazy to think that in just 1 month of quitting smoking your body can get better. And even if you have already tried and have relapsed into cigarettes: it does not matter!! Every day you go without smoking is a good thing. Often it takes several tries to stop permanently. Do not abandon!

How to resume sport when you stop smoking?

It all depends on how sensitive you are to tobacco, but anyway you should talk to a doctor. Dr. Picard often sees people aged 38-40 who have smoked 1 pack per day for 20 years and who require specialized medical follow-up to resume sport.. 

Because even with all the goodwill in the world, take it slow and respect your cardiorespiratory capacities. After 20 years of smoking, the arteries are clogged and often very damaged, so we don't go like that for free. I tell you about all my programs: a little doctor's appointment before you start is good. Even more so when you stop smoking!

Your doctor will give you examples of sensations, of which heartbeats to keep, while your lungs and arteries recover.

And the electronic cigarette, is it better?

Especially not the electronic cigarette!! Welcome to the future great health scandal of the 21st century! The electronic cigarette, or vaping, after having been validated as a third-line smoking cessation aid, is now becoming the new enemy number 1 of pulmonologist!

There has been a report of 450 severe lung injuries in the United States following vaping of liquid with taste. Not to mention cannabinoid vaping, which is said to be a new form of consumption and above all a new form of smoking for young people. 50% of young people enter tobacco with vaping!! Considered being “healthier”!! A new consumption that we hadn't seen coming at all ...

1 joint = 5 cigarettes in toxicity

I'm sorry but it doesn't end there! Oh yes, because I also often hear "I don't smoke cigarettes, I just smoke a joint once in a while." it proved Cannabis to be 5 times more harmful than cigarettes in terms of toxicity. 

With larger damage to the pulmonary alveoli and an increase in emphysemas (small air bubbles that form in the lungs causing difficulty in breathing). Regular cannabis smokers are therefore much more quickly out of breath, and candidates for a lung transplant very young, sometimes around 45 years old.

I too just quit

I know the finding is not great ... Because no matter how hard we try to see the problem in all directions: nothing is right!! The cigarette, even barely. Cannabis, worse. Vaping: a new big problem.

I completely quit last August!

And of course, you will always have around you an example of someone who has smoked for 30 years and is fresh as a roach. Yes, it does, but it is rare and it is not in most cases. Statistically, smoking kills. Even a mini cigarette here and there. And .

I'm concerned about saying it, I used to smoke a cigarette here and there again a few months ago with a glass of wine. But I quit for good in August 2019, drunk from coughing to death the next morning. And then I intend to do a 10 km at 80 in less than an hour and a half, so I have to protect myself!!

Give all the smokers you know a kiss. Don't judge them. Help them, that's all. Thanks for reading this to the end, promise next week we're talking about something funkier!