Q: I am a 42-year- old office employee who has been smoking since age 14. I currently consume one and a half packs of cigarette a day. I have decided to make smoking cessation as my New Year’s Resolution. I’ve been wondering though. Isn’t it rather late for me to quit this bad habit? What benefits will quitting smoking give me at this late age?
MANILA, Philippines — A: Congratulations! Quitting smoking is indeed a worthwhile New Year’s Resolution that will surely add years to your life and life to your years because smoking is one of the three major contributing factors in the development of chronic diseases—the other two being an unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle. I wish you success and I hope all smokers follow your lead.
Contrary to what you fear, it is never too late to quit smoking. Epidemiological studies have shown that smoking cessation has major immediate and long-term health benefits as long as it is done prior to the development of cancer or other serious disease.
Researches have consistently showed that quitting smoking at any age increases life expectancy. Smokers who quit before the age of 35 have a life expectancy that is not significantly different from non-smokers. Those who stop later, even as late as 65 to 74 years of age, also have significantly longer life expectancy than those who continue to smoke.
Furthermore, most of the ill effects of cigarette smoking are reversible to a certain extent. The reversal may not be complete in some conditions and may merely be minimal in a few others, but nevertheless, former smokers—and this group should include you soon—are assured of a lifetime of better health than smokers. Let me give you some figures and projections which the US Surgeon General released in 1990 and affirmed and updated in 1994 to stress this point.
Lung function starts to improve almost immediately after smoking cessation and in fact, the lungs could regain their capacity to clean themselves properly after only three months of abstinence, provided irreparable damage has not occurred yet.
The risk of dying from cancer of the lungs for “never smokers” is less than one percent. For heavy smokers (i.e., those who smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day) this risk is as high as 30 percent. If a heavy smoker stops smoking, the risk will slowly go down to below three percent over time although even after 20 to 30 years of abstention, the risk will never go down to the “never smoker” level.
For the other forms of cancer associated with smoking like cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, urinary bladder, pancreas, stomach, liver and kidney, the risk among those who quit smoking will progressively decrease to the “never smoker” level over many years.
Incidentally, smoking affects not only the lungs but all major organs thus perceivable improvement in function occurs in all the organs of the body both in the short and the long-term after smoking cessation.
The risk of developing coronary heart disease and stroke to a person who quits smoking will both gradually go down to almost the “never smoker” level in 15 years.
The body cannot reverse the damage that years of smoking have caused to some parts of the respiratory tract such that the risk of quitters developing emphysema and of ultimately suffering from pulmonary insufficiency will always be higher than “never smokers.” But smoking cessation at any time ensures that, at least, no added damage occurs in the organs that comprise the system.
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