Despite the harmful effects of smoking being well-known, many smokers are unable to quit. However, a new research is showing that data on personal wearables that indicate exactly how smoking is affecting the body could be a key factor in helping smokers quit.

A landmark study by wearable brand Whoop published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, analysed more than 12,000 new members over 72 weeks. It found that continuous health monitoring co-occurs with substantial, sustained reductions in tobacco use, and those reductions track with measurable improvements in cardiovascular and sleep health.

The study found that the probability of daily tobacco use among members who reported smoking dropped from 55.1 per cent at enrolment to just 27.2 per cent after 72 weeks. By the final stretch of the study, more than one in four members — 28.2 per cent who initially used tobacco had quit entirely.

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“The size of the shift surprised us,” said Dr Greg Grosicki, Staff Research Scientist at Whoop. “We didn’t expect that scale. I won’t claim Whoop caused it, but it’s hard to ignore that seeing your own physiology day after day might nudge people toward different choices.”

The numbers

The study quantified exactly what happens to the body on days when tobacco is used. Compared with tobacco-free days, tobacco-use days were associated with:

  • Higher resting heart rate by 1.71 bpm

  • Lower heart rate variability (HRV) by 3.54 ms

  • Higher respiratory rate 

  • Nearly 10 fewer minutes of sleep 

The study included a regional analysis of Whoop members across the Gulf Cooperation Council, which revealed the same directional trends — but with notable variations.

The UAE recorded the lowest share of logged days with tobacco use in GCC countries (58.6 per cent) but showed the largest observed physiological differences across the region. On tobacco-use days, UAE members experienced a significant drop in HRV, increase in resting heart rate and respiratory rate and a sleep loss of almost three minutes.

Dr Grosicki explained what this meant: “Larger physiological differences are expected when members use tobacco less frequently because there are more non-use days to compare against. The results reflect the day-to-day contrast, not greater harm in the UAE.”

Visible cost of the habit

Despite the knowledge that smoking is bad, people continue to smoke. Dr Grosicki said that it is because knowing something is bad for you in the abstract isn’t the same as feeling it.

“Health warnings tell you there’s a problem, then leave you to work out what it means for you and what to do,” he said. “Whoop closes that gap. It shows you how tobacco affects your body over time.”

Dr Ihsan Almarzooqi, co-founder and Managing Director of Metabolic (formerly GluCare.Health), agrees. “Wearables make the invisible cost of a habit visible,” he said. “Most people have no idea this is happening in real time because they’ve never seen the data. Once they do, quitting stops being a moral argument and becomes a physiological one.”

Nalla Karunanithy, CEO of Digital Health and Omnichannel at Aster DM Healthcare said that wearables make an abstract risk personal. “Your HRV dropped 22 per cent last night moves people in a way generic warnings never do,” he said.

Use data to quit smoking

For smokers who want to quit, experts urge a data-first approach. “If you can, start tracking a few days before your quit date,” said Dr Almarzooqi. “You don’t need a perfect baseline — just enough to know what your normal resting heart rate, HRV, and sleep look like so you have something to compare against once you stop.”

Karunanithy warns against relying on willpower alone. “Build structure rather than relying on resolve; successful quitters avoid triggers, substitute new behaviours, and lean on social support,” he said. “Keep craving tactics ready — ride the wave, delay, take a short walk.”

The company recently launched Thrive by myAster, a 100+ biomarker evaluation that does one test every six months for a comprehensive health picture.

Dr Grosicki offers a simple rule for those who see their recovery score drop on tobacco-use days: “Don’t read too much into a single day. But if your recovery is consistently lower on the days you use tobacco, that’s your own body telling you something. Try cutting back, watch what happens over a few weeks, and let that guide the call. It’s harder to argue with your own data than with a health warning.”

Source: Khaleej Times