SMOKING and exercise are just not compatible. But lets be honest - smoking and life are just not compatible either.

In this day and age it still astounds me how many people smoke.

But perhaps what is more shocking is given the harsh facts about the impact of smoking on a person’s health that smokers are so defensive about their dirty habit.

Just last week I wrote a story in the Liverpool Echo about parents and family members smoking at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

Doctors were outraged that parents who were there to see their sick children were lighting up on the no-smoking site sending toxic fumes through hospital windows and on to intensive care wards.

Just as the weary medics received abuse and intimidation from the smokers who they asked to move off site, I too received abusive emails from irate smokers accusing me of victimising them as the only minority group left that it is still politically correct to stigmatise.

But I am afraid the facts - and there are plenty of nasty ones - speak for themselves. And the problem is that most smokers know this to be true or they wouldn’t always be so angry about hearing them.

A recent study found that smoking hampers physical fitness - even in young, fit people. And smokers seem to have lower physical endurance than nonsmokers.

Even when smokers want to get fit, the task isn’t always easy. Cigarettes push blood pressure up, increase the heart rate and make coughing and choking a real problem.

In essence, cigarettes are poisoning the body yet the same stressed organs are then expected to work hard during exercise. This puts a double strain on the heart, blood vessels, pulse, and blood pressure, as well as diminishes the oxygen levels in the blood.

Both exercise and smoking affect the same organ systems, but in opposite ways.

While smoking decreases lung capacity, exercise increases it.

In addition, as smoking increases the risk of having a heart attack, exercise decreases it. And then there’s the issue of phlegm - smoking produces phlegm which congests the lungs, (attractive) while exercise breaks it up and rebuilds the lungs.

However research shows that smokers who take up a regular exercise program have a much higher quit-smoking success rate.

The higher the level of activity, the higher the success rate.

Exercise is an excellent stress reliever and can replace the dependence on cigarettes for stress relief. It can also help combat weight gain often associated with stopping smoking.

The many positive effects of exercise are too numerous to mention or explain here but being smoke free, fit and healthy are surely better than being a coughing and wheezing smoking addict.

Smoking is unattractive, smells, costs a lot of money and may even cost smokers their lives.

So all you smokers out there who are thinking about ranting on about the above just shut up, take a reality check, stub out that cigarette and start living your life.

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