Women can quit smoking, lose weight

CHICAGO, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Women who quit smoking while receiving treatment for weight control are better able to control weight and quit cigarettes, U.S. researchers say.

Lead author Bonnie Spring, a professor of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and colleagues say many women don't quit smoking because they are afraid of gaining weight because nicotine suppresses the appetite and boosts a smoker's metabolism.

"Women who smoke often feel caught between a rock and hard place, because they're concerned about their health but also concerned about their appearance," Spring says in a statement. "Now they don't have to choose between the two."

Spring examined the results from 2,233 smokers in 10 studies from 1991-2007.

The review, published in the journal Addiction, showed that women whose treatment addressed both smoking and weight control were 29 percent more likely to quit smoking in the short term, three months, and 23 percent more likely to quit in the long term, from six to 14 months, than those whose treatment addressed only smoking.