Posted on 11/30/2016 9:34:10 PM PST by nickcarraway
Older people who smoke may think there's no reason to give up the habit. After all, hasn't the damage to their bodies already been done?
But it turns out there's a benefit to quitting even later in life. Research published Wednesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that older adults who quit smoking in their 60s had a lower chance of dying in the years that followed than contemporaries who kept smoking.
"It's never too late," says Sarah Nash, an epidemiologist and one of the study's authors.
The results are based on data from more than 160,000 participants older than 70 who were part of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Participants completed questionnaires about their smoking history in 2004 or 2005 and were tracked until the end of 2011 to see who had died.
The study found that it's definitely best to avoid smoking entirely. During the follow-up period, 12 percent of participants who never smoked died, compared to 33 percent of current smokers. And the earlier people quit the better, but there was still a benefit even for late quitters. Of those who quit in their 30s, 16 percent died. In their 40s: 20 percent. In their 50s: 24 percent. And in their 60s: 28 percent.
Still, people who quit in their 60s had a 23 percent lower risk of death during the study than current smokers, says Nash, who conducted the research while she was a fellow at the National Cancer Institute.
One limitation of the study is that the "current smoker" category included anyone who was smoking when they completed the questionnaire, which means it likely included people who went on to quit during the follow-up period. But if that happened to a significant degree, the true mortality gap between people who smoke and those who quit would only be larger.
The researchers also looked at deaths from smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer, heart disease and respiratory infections, and saw similar trends.
The research also reinforces the well-known point that it's important to try to prevent people from picking up the habit in the first place. Most smokers start during their teenage years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And among current smokers, the earlier the study participants started, the higher their likelihood of dying during the follow-up period. Of those who started when they were younger than 15, 38 percent died, compared to 23 percent of those who started when they were 30 or older.
To Quit Smoking, It's Best To Go Cold Turkey SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS To Quit Smoking, It's Best To Go Cold Turkey Until now there have been hints from other research, but no solid proof, that people in their 60s and 70s could benefit from quitting.
"Based on less substantial data, we've been telling the public that it's never too late to quit, because it will benefit health and prolong life," says Norman Edelman, a physician and senior scientific adviser to the American Lung Association who wasn't involved with the study. Now, he says, he'll have more concrete evidence to offer to patients, especially to older smokers who assume that the damage from years of tobacco use can't be reversed.
Edelman says he gives the same smoking cessation advice to older smokers as to younger ones: Use a program (the ALA has its own, as does the American Cancer Society) in conjunction with pharmaceutical help, such as nicotine replacement products or prescription medications (such as Chantix or Zyban). Your odds of success are greater if you use both, he says.
He says older smokers should be sure to speak with their physicians about potential side effects of tobacco cessation medications.
Guess you forgot the Vegas joke at my expense!! :)
Oh I agree...the damned nanny staters, who demand to regulate MY life and others', need to stop. Some things DO need to be made illegal and some laws re food and meds DO need to be in place, but these crazed loons need to just mind their own damned business.
When I was growing up, the vast majority of adults smoked; they smoked at home, they smoked in cars, they smoked in movie theatres, grocery stores, taxis, parks, on the beach.........EVERYWHERE and I knew NOBODY who had a peanut allergy and only one kid who has asthma...ONE CHILD and his parents didn't smoke or allow anyone to do so in their home!
I have immense pride and satisfaction from the service I provided my customers. I’ve lost quite a few family members to tobacco use over the years.
Every once in a while. I’d get an email from some random 60 year old lady.
Telling me she’s been trying to quit for 30 years and when she got my product, she was done smoking.
That, in and of itself, made my business worth running.
I have no regrets.
Hate? Yeah, I got a lot of hate. ;)
I really hate the left. We finally have a much safer alternative to smoking and they everything possible to destroy it.
Ha ha I see what you did there. :-)
Well, yeah
If one gets caught.
Not seeing it, sorry you read it that way.
Six of one a half dozen of the other. The thing that pisses me off is government doing everything they can to crush the little guy like yourself but working hand in hand with the big guys.
“Grandpa on mom’s side”
That’s the maternal side of your family.
Paternal is your dad’s side.
You had four grandparents, two paternal grandparents and two maternal grandparents.
My sister was 64 when she quit smoking. She quit when it was discovered she had 4 aneurysms, and needed surgery to tie off her inner carotid artery which was feeding the largest of the aneurysms. She survived the surgery, but five years later was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died at the age of 69. Everyone in my family smoked but me. Besides my sister, both my parents died of lung cancer. My father was 72. My mother was 69. My brother died of a massive heart attack at the age of 51. He had stopped smoking at 49 when he had the first heart attack. My oldest sister lived to be 74 and died after suffering a stroke. I’m 69. Only God knows if I’ll make it to 70.
sorry
The problem is not smokers, it is liberals, period.
I quit 8 years ago at age 63, after 50 years as a smoker.
I’m not a smoke Nazi about it though. Any FReeper friends who smoke want to drop in, I’ll dig out the ash trays.
I quit last June.
And started eating...lol.
“I’ve quit before with Chantix and have some the doc gave me recently but can’t seem to get in the right frame of mind to do it.”
==
“Have you ever tried e-cigs? Lots of folks have weaned themselves off tobacco by using them.”
==
Best way to go is cold turkey so a person is not dependent on pills, patches, devices, etc.
“Best way to go is cold turkey so a person is not dependent on pills, patches, devices, etc.”
I once had a buddy who was a heroin addict. He quit that ‘cold turkey’. It was a brutal, painful experience for him.
He later told me that quitting smoking was ten times harder.
Not everyone has the willpower to just quit.
I went to a vape shop and tried one but I wasn’t impressed, besides, I’m afraid the thing will blow up.......lol
“He later told me that quitting smoking was ten times harder.
Not everyone has the willpower to just quit.”
==
Yup. I think much of that has to do with cigs being an acceptable, normal part of daily life (more so in the past, tho). That is, cigs are easily had, you can pull a cig out of a pack and start smoking in a matter of seconds with no blowback. With H, you have to make a connection, avoid the police, find some place to shoot up and have a kit to do it (or at the very least, a needle). It takes more doing than smoking a cig.
At any rate, cold turkey is worth a try and when a person does succeed, he realizes he had the ability within himself to do it anytime (which is a healthy ego-boost).
I went cold turkey at 11:30 AM the day after the election.
I had been thinking about it for months prior.
So far, so good.
Haven’t slipped yet unless you count four pieces of nicotine gum.
Why do these ‘helpful’ people always assume a person wants to live peeing themselves, crapping in their pants, shuffling on a walker, not reading....just existing. I’ve had a good run and at 67 I want out.
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