Quitting smoking may stub out stress

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37729824/ns/health-addictions/

updated 11:06 a.m. ET, Wed., June 16, 2010

Smokers often say they need a cigarette to calm their nerves, but a new study suggests that after a person kicks the habit, chronic stress levels may go down.

The findings, say researchers, should give smokers reassurance that quitting will not deprive them of a valuable stress reliever.

In a study of 469 smokers who tried to quit after being hospitalized for heart disease, the researchers found that those who remained abstinent for a year showed a reduction in their perceived stress levels. In contrast, stress levels were essentially unchanged among heart patients who went back to smoking.

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The findings, according to the researchers, support the idea that dependency on cigarettes is itself a chronic source of stress.

"When dependent smokers cannot smoke, as the period without cigarettes lengthens they tend to feel more and more edgy, irritable and uncomfortable," Hajek explained. "A cigarette relieves this stressful state, and this is probably the main reason smokers think that smoking relieves stress."

So someone who smokes 20 cigarettes per day, for example, essentially goes through 20 bouts of stress each day, as the levels of nicotine in the body decline. Once that person quits -- and gets over the initial period of withdrawal — he will have 20 fewer periods of stress each day, Hajek said.

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