Butt Out

Today, few, if any, smokers are unaware of the harm their habit is inflicting on their bodies. But not all of them may be aware that quitting at any age can help reduce their risk of a life cut short by a smoking-related illness and improve the quality of that life.

Today, few, if any, smokers are unaware of the harm their habit is inflicting on their bodies. But not all of them may be aware that quitting at any age can help reduce their risk of a life cut short by a smoking-related illness and improve the quality of that life.Two recent studies demonstrate that quitting at a young age can reverse most health risks associated with smoking, and one suggests that quitting at any age can potentially add years to your life.A study published in the June 2004 issue of Health Services Research involved analysis of data from two studies involving more than 20,000 men and women over the age of 50, who were interviewed about their smoking habits and their physical, emotional and social health.The study researchers, of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., found that, among people aged 50 to 54, male heavy smokers lost about two years of healthy life compared to non-smokers and lived about two years less, while female heavy smokers lost more than one-and-a-half years of healthy life and lost 1.44 years of life.In contrast, researchers found that the people who quit smoking between the ages of 35 and 45 had lived as long and in as good health as people who had not smoked.”Messages concerning the effect of smoking on disability and quality of life may be more likely to invoke changes in smoking behavior than are messages about loss of life years,” the study authors wrote.More positive news comes from a 50-year study following 34,439 male doctors published in the June 26th issue of the British Medical Journal that found quitting smoking by age 30 reduced almost all risk associated with smoking and that quitting by age 50 cut risk in half.”The findings of the benefit of giving up at different ages were not surprising for us,” says lead author Sir Richard Doll, an emeritus professor of medicine at Oxford University in England, who published the first paper confirming the link between smoking and lung cancer. “But we had not previously shown them so clearly.”The British study also found that smoking from youth nearly triples the death rate from all causes, including lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease and stroke. “Regular cigarette smoking deprives people, on average, of 10 years of life.” Sir Doll says. “Some people, of course, losing much more and others less.”The heartening news for smokers, however, is that it’s never too late to achieve health benefits from quitting. (Source: ABC News, July 2004)