Smoking is bad for your health. New research shows it’s definitely worth smoking your last cigarette before your 35th birthday. Then your life expectancy would even be equal to that of someone who does not smoke.
Where does this news come from?
US researchers analyzed data from 551,388 Americans. The participants were on average 48.9 years old (aged 25 to 84). In 1997, the researchers questioned them about their smoking behaviour. They followed the participants until 2019 (1). More than 55% of the participants were women. All population groups were represented.
The researchers compared the mortality between smokers and non-smokers, and analyzed the risk of premature death for ex-smokers who stopped smoking before the age of 45 or between 45 and 64 years. They came to the following conclusions:
- Smokers are three times more likely to die prematurely than people who have never smoked.
- When smokers stop smoking before the age of 45 , their risk of premature death is reduced by about 90%.
- When smokers between the ages of 45 and 64 stop smoking, the risk of premature death is reduced by 66%.
- When smokers stop smoking before the age of 35, they are no longer at increased risk of dying prematurely.
These conclusions were the same for men and women and for the different population groups. As expected, quitting smoking has a very positive impact on health.
Information source:
(1) Thomson B, Emberson J, Lacey B et al. Association between smoking, smoking cessation and mortality by race, ethnicity and sex among US adults. JAMA 2022;5:e2231480
How should you interpret this news?
This study finds a link between smoking and premature death from cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory problems.
The nature of this study makes it possible to calculate that there is a relationship between the age at which you stop smoking and its impact on life expectancy: the sooner you stop smoking, the better for your health.
The large number of participants makes the results more plausible. This does not alter the fact that the percentages can still be influenced by all kinds of variables. Nevertheless, we can say that the magnitude of the impact of a smoking cessation is encouraging. Whoever tries to stop smoking completely before 35 years can overcomes the damage caused by smoking.
A few notes on this study:
- The participants were questioned about their smoking behavior only once, namely in 1997, at the start of the study. Some people may have started smoking again.
- At the start of the study, it was not known how many participants had a medical issue, which made them died prematurely.
Anyway, the conclusion remains firm: if you are a a smoker, quitting smoking is the best thing you can do for your health.
Conclusion
A new study examined the impact of smoking cessation on the risk of premature death from cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory problems. The sooner you stop smoking, the lower the risk of premature death from smoking. If you quit smoking before the age of 35, you would have the same life expectancy as someone who has never smoked. Even after the age of 35, quitting smoking is the most important thing you can do for your health.
