Are you one of many smokers who has spent countless hours staring at the end of a burning cigarette while trying to rationally answer just one question: Why do I smoke?
Common reasons are boredom, feeling anxious, nervous or lonely.
Some smokers say cigarettes help them clear their head, think well, or stay thin. Still others can’t imagine life worth living without smoking, or say food and drink-- or even sex-- would lose its appeal without lighting up.
If you are over age 50, you may want to quit but can’t seem to shake the idea, “I’ve been smoking all my adult life. It’s too late for me to quit now.”
But before you convince yourself the smoke-free ship has sailed for you, you should know there’s growing evidence that quitting after age 50 has some real tangible health benefits, regardless of your age.
Numerous studies have shown smoking robs a person of several years of disease-free life. Although researchers quibble over just how many years a smoker’s life is cut short from puffing, data does clearly show that each year about 440,000 smokers do die prematurely, according to the National Cancer Institute.
One reason for this is that smoking is associated with very serious health risks, including several cancer types — lung, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach, and cervix, as well as acute myeloid leukemia—heart disease, stroke, chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, hip fractures and cataracts.
Smokers are also at higher risk of developing pneumonia and other airway infections, and even erectile dysfunction in males.
Quitting smoking now, regardless of your age, could mean you are less likely to die from smoking-related illness than those who continue to smoke, according to recent research published in the British Medical Journal.
Need more evidence? A new study by the German Cancer Research Center looked at data from more than 8,800 people, ages 50-74, and found the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease is more than twice that of non-smokers.
In fact, “smokers are affected at a significantly younger age than individuals who have never smoked or have stopped smoking," said Professor Hermann Brenner, who led the German study.
For example, a 60-year-old smoker has the same risk of myocardial infarction as a 79-year-old non-smoker and the same risk of stroke as a 69-year-old non-smoker, the study showed.
Here’s the really smart part: You’ll notice the positive effects of smoking cessation within a short period of time, and you could get a new lease on life.
Quitting smoking will help you breathe better, increase the oxygen supply in your blood, raise your vitality and drastically reduce your risk for heart attack and strokes.
"Compared to individuals who continue smoking, the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke is reduced by more than 40 percent already within the first five years after the last cigarette," first author of the study, Carolin Gellert, said in a release.
Of course, the researchers point out that “dose and duration of tobacco consumption have an impact on [individual] disease risk.”
In other words, the more cigarettes you smoke each day, plus the number of years you smoke raises your risk for each year you continue to smoke.
This is precisely the conundrum older smokers face.
There are four primary factors that make older people more likely to suffer from smoking-related illnesses, according to the American Lung Association.
For starters, today's generation of older Americans had smoking rates among the highest of any U.S. generation. They have smoked longer than any previous generation (an average of 40 years).
They tend to be heavier smokers, and they are also significantly less likely than younger smokers to believe that smoking harms their health.
The Germans study suggested that smoking cessation programs, which have concentrated on younger participants up to now, should be expanded to reach out to older people as well given the tangible health benefits.
Go ahead. It’s never too late to quit.
Lynette Summerill is an award-winning writer and Scuba enthusiast who lives in San Diego with her husband and two beach loving dogs. In addition to writing about cancer-related issues for EmpowHER, her work has been seen in publications around the world.
Sources:
Doll R, Peto R, Boreham J, Sutherland I. Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years’ observations on male British doctors. British Medical Journal 2004; 328(7455):1519–1527.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15213107
Harms of Smoking and Health Benefits of Quitting. NCI Fact Sheet. Online at:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/cessation#r19
Smoking and Older Adults. National Lung Association
http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/about-smoking/facts-figures/smoking-and-older-adults.html
Carolin Gellert, Ben Schöttker, Heiko Müller, Bernd Holleczek, Hermann Brenner: Impact of smoking and quitting on cardiovascular outcomes and risk advancement periods among older adults. Eur J Epidemiol. 2013. doi: 10.1007/s10654-013-9776-0.
Abstract: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10654-013-9776-0
“Smoking cessation in old age: Less heart attacks and stroke in 5 years” Sibylle Kohlstädt, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/haog-sci022013.php
Reviewed February 21, 2013
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith