Smokers' sporting chance
SMOKERS are being prescribed exercise to help them kick the habit.
Health chiefs are offering patients cut-price classes in a bid to slash high smoking rates in the city.
There are more smoking-related deaths in Portsmouth than anywhere else across the south, at 331 per 100,000.
Currently 32 per cent of adults in Portsmouth smoke regularly – compared to the national average of 26 per cent.
GPs can now refer quitters to the Mountbatten Centre, Twyford Avenue, Stamshaw, or Victoria Swimming Centre, Anglesea Road, Landport, as part of their stop smoking programme.
Pam Recknell, the Stop Smoking Service co-ordinator at the Portsmouth Primary Care Trust, an ex-smoker herself, said: 'One of the main deterrents for stopping smoking is that people fear they will put on weight.
'By offering this service we can at least give people some kind of incentive to give up. We can't guarantee people won't put on weight when they stop smoking because the likelihood is they will, but this will help.
'Exercising for as little as five minutes reduces the cravings for cigarettes among smokers.'
Patients are offered an initial assessment followed by either 16 sessions at Kinetica gym or 16 hydrotherapy swimming classes.
Sessions cost 1.75 each and 25 for the full course – saving quitters up to 43 in fees.
Patients can also take a friend or relative along free of charge.
Mountbatten Centre GP referral manager Lisa Millson said: 'We give each patient referred to us a half-hour assessment and a mini medical. We check their blood pressure and lung capacity. Then we exercise them 16 times and give an end result as well.
We set them up with a gym programme or 16 45-minute hydrotherapy swim sessions which help patients tone up their muscles.
'A lot of people that make the big step to stop smoking become more health conscious and want something to replace their habit. The referral programme makes a huge difference. The heart and lungs adapt very quickly.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
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