Quitting smoking by 40 restores life expectancy to near normal

January 26, 2013 by Agency Reporter Leave a Comment

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The lifespan of a smoker tends to be ten years shorter than that of a never-smoker. But smokers who quit by their 40th birthday can expect to live nearly as long as those who never took up the habit, according to a new analysis of health survey and death record data from the US.

Prabhat Jha, a a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at Canada’s University of Toronto, and colleagues, write about their findings in the 24 January online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM.

Jha, who is also head of the Centre for Global Health Research at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, says in a statement:

“Quitting smoking before age 40, and preferably well before 40, gives back almost all of the decade of lost life from continued smoking.”

However, this is by no means a way of saying it is safe to smoke until that time and then stop, says Jha, who adds:

“Former smokers still have a greater risk of dying sooner than people who never smoked. But the risk is small compared to the huge risk for those who continue to smoke.”

Unique Study

The study confirms recent evidence from Britain, Japan and the US that smoking tends to take ten years off people’s lives, wherever they live in the world.

But it is unique in that it looks at the risks of smoking and the gains of quitting in a sample that is representative of the overall American population, as opposed to groups like nurses or volunteers who tend to be healthier.