Doctors always say that you should quit smoking as early as possible. The younger you quit this bad habit, the healthier you will be. This is logical, since the body is less exposed to smoke in this case. But does this mean that quitting smoking in old age does not make sense? In fact, no – a recent study showed that significant health benefits are preserved even when a person quits smoking, for example, after 70 years – this will add precious years to your life.
Scientists have found that it is not too late to quit smoking at any age. Photo source: studyfinds.org
Contents
- 1 You need to quit smoking at any age
- 2 How many years does quitting smoking prolong life?
- 3 At what age are there the highest chances of prolonging life by quitting smoking?
- 4 How many years does smoking shorten life?
You need to quit smoking at any age
In recent decades, smoking has become much less popular among young people than it used to be. Young people either give up smoking completely or choose vapes, which, by the way, also turned out to be extremely harmful to health.
It is best to quit smoking before the age of 35 — this will extend your life to 8 years or more. Photo source: www.m24.ru
But the number of older smokers remained high. That's why the University of Michigan staff was interested in whether there was any benefit to quitting smoking at an older age. As it turned out, it really does make sense to quit smoking at any time, even if you are over 60 or even 70 years old. But, as expected, at an earlier age, quitting cigarettes allows you to live longer.
“We wanted to show that quitting smoking is beneficial at any age and encourage older people to quit,” says study author, PhD Tui T. T. Le.
How many years does quitting smoking prolong life?
According to the authors of the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the greatest effect of quitting smoking was found in people aged 35. Thus, a smoker can prolong his life by an average of 8 years. Agree, this is a decent life span, for which it makes sense to sacrifice a bad habit.
But a positive effect has also been found for smokers aged 65. True, at this age, life expectancy after quitting smoking increases by an average of 1.7 years. If a person quits smoking at age 75, their life expectancy can increase by an average of about 0.7 years. Of course, this is significantly less than the result of quitting smoking at age 35. But when it comes to prolonging a person's life, every day counts.
Quitting smoking at age 65 can prolong life by 1.7 years. Photo source: dzen.ru
But there is also bad news — there is no guarantee that quitting smoking will actually prolong your life. This indicator also largely depends on the age at which a person quit smoking.
At what age do you have the highest chance of prolonging your life by quitting smoking?
As you might guess, the earlier a person quits smoking, the greater their chance of prolonging their life. For example, more than half of 35-year-olds, when they quit smoking, prolong their life by at least one year. At the same time, more than a third of former smokers at this age prolong their life by 8 years or even more.
However, this does not mean that there is no particular sense in quitting smoking at the age of 75. According to the results of the study, among this category of study participants, about 8% of people were able to extend their life by four years or even longer.
Smoking can take away almost 10 years of life. Photo source: nhantamdental.com
People who quit smoking at age 65 have at least a one in four chance of adding at least one year to their life. At age 75, that chance is about one in seven. That's still a big deal to quit smoking and try to live a little longer. And if you add a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition to the mix, the life extension can be even more significant.
How Many Years Does Smoking Shorten Your Life
In their study, the scientists also calculated how many years smoking shortens life. It should be taken into account that this is a relative indicator, since smoking often causes dangerous diseases such as lung cancer, which lead to rapid and sudden death. However, scientists have found that a 35-year-old person who has smoked all his life, if he does not give up the bad habit, will live on average 9.1 years less than a non-smoker.
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That is, people can lose almost a decade of life because of a bad habit. According to scientists, the results of the study emphasize how important it is to quit smoking as early as possible. Every unsmoked cigarette gives a chance for a longer and healthier life. But even despite this, it is never too late to quit smoking. The results obtained by scientists can be used by health professionals to motivate their patients to quit smoking even in old age.