BFMTV explains that according to an international study, quitting smoking before the age of 40 allows you to live almost as a non-smoker.
No one questions the multiple negative effects associated with smoking. But an international study published Feb. 8 in the scientific journal NEJM Evidence explains that those who quit smoking before age 40 achieve nearly normal life expectancy. According to Public Health France, 66,000 premature annual deaths are attributable to smoking, recalls BFMTV, Monday February 19.
“Smoking cessation at any age, but especially in the younger years, is associated with excess overall mortality and reductions in vascular, respiratory, and neoplastic diseases. Beneficial results were seen within the first three years of quitting smoking”, analyze the study’s authors. Researchers reached this conclusion after following 1.5 million adults in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Norway for 15 years. It also revealed that people who continued smoking from age 40 to 79 had a 12 to 13 year increase in mortality.
It’s never too late to stop
On the other hand, those who quit smoking before their forties have a life expectancy of 82 years while non-smokers have a life expectancy of 83 years. Frederic de Bales, head of the National Cancer Institute’s prevention division, praised the quality of the study. He also remembers that the quantity of cigarettes is less important than that “Duration of Tobacco Exposure”. “It is more dangerous to smoke five cigarettes a day for twenty years than to smoke 15 cigarettes a day for five years”That explains.
And for those wondering, it’s never too late to quit smoking. “The effect (of smoking cessation, editor’s note) is rapid and reduces the risk of major associated diseases, which means better quality of life and longer life expectancy”, Prabhat Jha, a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Temerti Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, assures. The main beneficial effects in terms of life expectancy are seen on average three years after smoking cessation. At this point, the repentant smoker has already gained five years of life.
Posted on February 19 at 12:04 pm, Cathy Gerig, 6 Media
