Video Story
Watch VideoExercise can help us kick bad habits
Story By: Dr. John
Source: KOAA
We all know the exercise is good for us, but can it also help us kick bad habits? And the short answer is yes.
It seems that regular, and I'll re-emphasize the word regular, exercise changes our brains a little bit and that helps us quit bad addictions like smoking, drugs and alcohol. And I'm not talking about becoming an elite athlete in order to get a "runners high" but instead about the average one of us just getting in some regular exercise.
Researchers are trying to answer this big question, what turns us from the playful child who loves nothing more than running around like crazy into the teenager you can't get off the couch that grows into the adult too busy to exercise. They haven't quite cracked that nut yet, but have found that regular exercise slightly changes the way are brains work. And believe it or not, even though other parts of our bodies might not like exercise when we start out, our brains do! Exercise seems to invigorate neurochemicals that sense and reinforce pleasure, making it something you do end up looking forward to.
But along the way, this same exercise can also help you in a different way. In recent studies, researchers have found that exercise not only helps you shed pounds and keeps your heart in good shape, but can also help you drop those bad habits you just can't seem to kick. As a matter of fact, in one study, researchers found smokers already enrolled in a treatment program and added some exercise. The ones exercising not only doubled their chances of quitting smoking, but also only gained half as much weight as the other women who didn't exercise.
So one key to kick the habit, no matter what it is, is to get out and work out.
