Ten thousand steps and more. When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, quitting smoking is often at the top of the list. The City of Paris and the National Cancer Institute (INCa) announced at the end of December 2023, the introduction of a physical activity-based cessation support program (AP).
The numbers are overwhelming: “Tobacco is by far the number one enemy of public health.”, emphasizes Thierry Breton, General Director of INCa. With 75,000 deaths per year in France, including 46,000 from cancer, smoking is the most common preventable cause of death. “Every second smoker dies from a tobacco-related illness”, says the press release from INCa and the city of Paris. It is the cause of more than 80% of lung cancers, but is also involved in seventeen other locations of malignant tumors.
Quitting smoking often seems insurmountable. Every second smoker wants to quit smoking, but less than half manage to quit. The cause is a strong addiction to nicotine, which can cause a withdrawal syndrome, but also the craving, that irrepressible desire for a cigarette, which can last for weeks or even months after stopping the substance. This compulsive desire to consume is part of addictions.
A program financed by INCa with 120,000 euros will be offered in the coming weeks at the Curial Sports-Health Center (MSS) in its 19th yeare district of Paris, to around sixty people.
In an initial interview, participants’ motivation to quit and their physical abilities are assessed in order to suggest the most appropriate activities. You benefit from three free sessions per week of 45 minutes to an hour for six months. An initial assessment takes place at the end of the program and another six months later. Additional activities such as tobacco counseling may also be offered. The goal is then to make the subject autonomous so that he can have access to free spaces in the city of Paris, in the MSS Curial or other places. In the event of a relapse, the person may be offered other options.
Help reduce “craving.”
“If experience proves conclusive, the idea is to reject this program so that it can be offered to all communitiesexplains Thierry Breton. This type of initiative is aimed more at the less privileged public, whose consumption is higher and the risk of returning to smoking is greater. »
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