Smoking cessation changes basic metabolism, body weight, leptin and insulin levels, adipose tissue percentage, index of insulin resistance and index of insulin secretion

Background It is known that nicotine increases energy expenditure, basic metabolism and has appetite-suppressing properties, which likely explains why smokers tend to have lower body weight than non-smokers and why smoking cessation is followed by weight gain up to 12 kgr (7 kgr in median). Thus smoking cessation often has the disadvantage of increasing the risk of metabolic syndrome; fact that both decreases the benefits of smoking cessation and can discourage smokers (mostly women) from quitting. On the top of that, weight gain has been found to increase the risk of relapse, particularly among normalweight or underweight women who report chronic dieting, but also among men. Varenicline is a nicotiniccholinergic receptor partial agonist and therefore should share nicotine’s properties. Thus we believe that during its intake for three months in the process of smoking cessation basic metabolism will be sustained in levels comparable to these while smoking. During this period ex-smokers are also protected from withdrawal syndromes and thus capable of following psychological and physical activity counselling in order to sustain stable body weight. Quitting smoking is a process of changing life habits and is extremely difficult due to the addictive properties of nicotine. Post cessation weight gain decreases the benefits and leads to increased relaption rates. Varenicline improves succession and decrease relaption rates. Materials and methods During the three months period of varenicline intake, we enrolled 15 smokers that visited our smoking cessation clinic and succeeded in quitting smoking. Eight used varenicline. Basic metabolism and body weight were measured before (BSC) and one month after smoking cessation (ASC).