Chronic Effects of Long Term Cigarette Smoke Inhalation upon the Development of Oxygen Debt Capacity in Albino Mice

Abstract

It is a generally accepted tenet of athletics that smoking is not only deleterious to health, but is specifically contraindicated for athletes because it diminishes cardiorespiratory efficiency. Such deleterious effects as theoretically should develop are posited to develop chronically rather than acutely. They include gradual lung tissue destruction and coronary arteriosclerosis. While there is an extensive body of literature relating to such deteriorative effects of tobacco smoke inhalation, there are few well-controlled studies. What well-controlled studies have been done are almost exclusively of an acute nature or related to various retrospective studies of disease and not helpful in determining desirable athletic training philosophy. This study utilized techniques of control, randomization, and chronicity as related to the effects of cigarette smoke inhalation upon the development of oxygen debt capacity. It was performed on 50 pairs of male, heterozygotically bred albino mice forced to swim against resistance for increasing exercise session times for a period of 6 months with the experimental animals inhaling cigarette smoke. ANCOVA indicated significantly poorer oxygen debt capacity development in the experimental (smoking) group for the 3-6 month and 0-9 month periods, but not for the 0-3 month or 6-9 month periods. These analyses suggest that smoking does, in fact, diminish oxygen debt capacity development on a long term basis, and that this diminution does not appear to be reversible.