Stop Smoking Now, It’s Not Too Late

Remember my post about how it’s never too late to stop smoking? Well, some more evidence has arrived on the scene, and it’s encouraging stuff: a new study indicates that quitting smoking by age 40 can eliminate up to 90% of the risk of dying from a smoking-related illness.

That’s correct: 90%:

• Those who quit for good between the ages of 25 and 34 reduced their risk of death to only 1.05 times that of never-smokers.
• Even those who didn’t quit until they were 44 only had 1.20 times greater mortality.
• Smokers had a 21.4 times increased risk of dying from lung cancer, but those who quit by age 34 and 44 reduced their risk to 1.84 and 3.34, respectively.

This is perhaps not surprising when one considers the prodigious regenerative power of lung tissue, but it still flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which holds that heavy smoking is pretty much a death sentence at any age.

Of course there is a considerable difference between permanent damage and temporary damage, and that’s the rub: when it comes to smoking, there is considerable space between a few years of abuse and a constant onslaught of carcinogens.

The moral: quit now and you may still lead a life of clear breathing and fresh air well into your golden years.

Tags: los angeles ent, lung cancer, quitting, smoking