« Groundhog Day tally: Block Island population takes dip | Today | Seabees donate $50,000 for new museum at Quonset »

February 4, 2008

Can yoga can help women quit smoking?

PROVIDENCE -- Miriam Hospital researchers say they want to find out if yoga can help women stop smoking.

The hospital said in a news release today that in one of the first such studies, researchers at the hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine are including yoga in a smoking-stopping program to determine effectiveness.

The eight-week “Quitting in Balance," paid for by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, includes counseling and "complimentary health and wellness treatments" to help participants. All get smoking cessation counseling, but they will also be divided into one group enrolled in yoga and another group receiving "video-based health information."

The hospital said those eligible to participate must be:

* Women smokers, 18 to 65 years old, who want to quit

* Not regular exercisers

* In general good health

"As a form of exercise, yoga shares many of the same properties as traditional aerobic exercise, which past research has shown to be an effective addition to smoking cessation," the hospital news release said. "In addition, yoga’s emphasis on meditation may be of particular benefit in combating the negative effects and emotional stress that accompanies smokers during nicotine withdrawal."

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 2:52 PM | Permalink

Comments

linda sparfven | February 11, 2008 3:07 PM link

Post a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)