The effects of 12-week exercise program on physical fitness and plasma lipids in addicted persons who have quitted drugs for two months

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of weight gain, blood lipids, WHR, BMI, fat
percentage and some physical fitness factors in addicted persons after quitting drugs. Methods: Subjects were 62
persons (20-35 years old) who had only 30-60 days quitting history. Participants at approximately 1:1 ratio under
the supervision of a project investigator were randomly assigned either to training (n=32) or control group (n=30).
38 individuals completed the study protocol (20 from exercise group and 18 from control group). The training
group performed 12 weeks of a training program encompassed playing badminton, walking and jogging. Exercise
duration progressed from 20 minutes per session to 45 minutes at the end of 12 weeks, and intensity of training
increased from 50% of baseline heart rate reserve to 70 % at the end of training. Body fat percent was determined
using the sum of three skin-fold measurements (chest, abdomen, and tight). Total cholesterol (TC), HDL-C, (LDLC)
and triglyceride (TG) were measured using diagnostic kits. Results: There were significant increases in pull-up,
sit-and-reach, and flexibility tests in training group (P< 0.01). WHR for training group did not show any significant
increase (0.001±0.03), though the changes were significantly (P<0.05) different compared to control group
(0.012±0.024). Subjects in control group had significant increase in TC, TG, and LDL-C, while, HDL-C and
VLDL did not changed significantly. Conclusions: Exercise resulted in slowing down the increases in BMI that
occurred after quitting drug (EG: 0.21 kg/m2 and CG: 1.5 kg/m2) (P<0.05). It seems that, physical activity and
exercise can prevent or manage overweight after quitting drugs, and smoking.