Stop smoking earlier and live longer

Smoke-Stop Study: Ten years gain from early smoking cessation

29/10/2012

Those who stop smoking early live longer. British researchers from the University of Oxford have found in a comprehensive long-term study that stopping tobacco consumption before the age of 40 can extend women's life expectancy by ten years. The study was published in the journal „The Lancet“ released.

According to information from the University of Oxford „The main findings of the study show that the risk of smoking is greater for women than previous studies indicate - but also that giving up smoking has greater benefits than previously thought.“ Life expectancy for women could increase for up to ten years if smokers have already reinstated them by the age of 39, the researchers write.

Smokers died around three times more often
In the largest British smoker study to date, researchers led by Professor Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University have studied the impact of tobacco use on women's life expectancy. For their studies, between 1996 and 2001, scientists recruited around 1.3 million women aged 50 to 65 years. The participants provided information about their lifestyle as well as medical and social factors in a questionnaire. Three years later they participated in another study. For more than 12 years - from the time of the first survey - the researchers accompanied the volunteers and investigated the deaths that occurred. Of the participants, 20 percent were smokers at the beginning of the study, 28 percent were ex-smokers and 52 percent had never smoked, write Prof. Peto and colleagues. Women were still smokers in the second study after three years, they died on average three times more frequently than non-smokers in the next few years, according to the announcement of the University of Oxford.

Ten years of life can be gained through the smoke stop
The mortality statistics also showed that smokers who ceased tobacco use at the age of 30 increased their life expectancy significantly. „The largest study of smoking among women in the UK has shown that smokers lose at least 10 years of their lives“, Oxford University adds, adding that stopping smoking before the age of 40 means that 90 percent of the increased risk of death should be avoided. Thus, the researchers support the previous thesis that the organism after a certain period of time to recover from the damage of smoking reasonably. However, definitive evidence for this assumption is still pending and British researchers conclude that early cessation of tobacco use will have a much more positive effect than cessation of smoking in later life years. Professor Peto stressed that „Smokers who stop before reaching middle age gain an average of an additional 10 years of life.“ With a smoke stop later in life, the lifetime gained is significantly lower. (Fp)

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Picture credits: Thorsten Freyer