Can Exercise Offset the Damage From Smoking?

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Everybody knows that smoking isn't exactly the healthiest decision you can make, but can exercise reduce some of the damage your lungs suffer from lighting up? Say you smoke a pack of cigarettes every few days, but still run a few miles before work every morning. Does that make you a healthy smoker, or an athlete who's making unhealthy decisions? According to a few recent studies, it's actually a little bit of both.

The medical journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention published a study in 2006 that looked at the health differences between women who smoked, and women who smoked and exercised. The results pointed to the possibility that the women in the second category, the ones who smoked but still kept up with their exercise, had a significantly lower risk of developing lung cancer.

According to Dr. Stanton Glantz, who is a professor at the UCSF department of cardiology, exercise is just good for you in general, no matter what other lifestyle choices you make. If your diet is 100% fast food and you exercise, you'll still be healthier than if you lived a sedentary lifestyle. If you smoke and exercise, you'll still be just that much healthier. It makes a lot of sense.

But in the end he still comes back to the ultimate truth: "I can tell you unequivocally that people would be better marathoners if they didn't smoke." So yes, you can still get some benefit from exercise if you smoke, but quitting smoking is always going to be the healthier option, no matter who you are.

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