Thursday, February 14, 2013

Smokers Die Ten Years Sooner Than Nonsmokers


We all know that smoking is bad for our health. But how bad is bad? The answer is very bad. It takes a decade off of life.
Death rates are about 3 times higher for smokers than nonsmokers. The chance that a young person will live to age 80 is about 70% for nonsmokers but about 35% for smokers. Stated differently, a smoker loses about 11(women) to 12 (men) years of life compared to nonsmokers.
 
Now that women have been smoking for long periods of time, their risks match those of men who smoke. “Women who smoke like men die like men who smoke.” Women’s relative risk of developing and dying from lung cancer (compared to nonsmoking women) is about 25, same as for men. For chronic lung disease, the relative risks are 23 and 25 for women and men, respectively. For ischemic heart disease the relative risks are 2.9 and 2.5 and for stroke they are 2.1 and 1.9.
These are the results presented from two studies of very large populations of Americans published January 24, 2013 by the New England Journal of Medicine, one by Prabhat Jha and colleagues and another by Michael Thun and colleagues. Each analyzed different populations but arrived at essentially the same conclusions. 
Alarming as these numbers appear, there is hope. Those who quit smoking will gain back substantial years of life, with more years gained the sooner one ceases smoking. For example, in Jha’s analysis, those who quit in the age range 25-34 reverted almost to the nonsmoker status – they gained back 10 years of life. Stopping between 35-44 years of age gained 9 years and between 45-54 years of age the gain was 6 years.
 
It is never too late to quit and the benefits are clearly substantial.

 
 
 
 
Posted by at 9:13 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Praise for Dr Schimpff

The craft of science writing requires skills that are arguably the most underestimated and misunderstood in the media world. Dumbing down all too often gets mistaken for clarity. Showmanship frequently masks a poor presentation of scientific issues. Factoids are paraded in lieu of ideas. Answers are marketed at the expense of searching questions. By contrast, Steve Schimpff provides a fine combination of enlightenment and reading satisfaction. As a medical scientist he brings his readers encyclopedic knowledge of his subject. As a teacher and as a medical ambassador to other disciplines he's learned how to explain medical breakthroughs without unnecessary jargon. As an advisor to policymakers he's acquired the knack of cutting directly to the practical effects, showing how advances in medical science affect the big lifestyle and economic questions that concern us all. But Schimpff's greatest strength as a writer is that he's a physician through and through, caring above all for the person. His engaging conversational style, insights and fascinating treasury of cutting-edge information leave both lay readers and medical professionals turning his pages. In his hands the impact of new medical technologies and discoveries becomes an engrossing story about what lies ahead for us in the 21st century: as healthy people, as patients of all ages, as children, as parents, as taxpayers, as both consumers and providers of health services. There can be few greater stories than the adventure of what awaits our minds, bodies, budgets, lifespans and societies as new technologies change our world. Schimpff tells it with passion, vision, sweep, intelligence and an urgency that none of us can ignore.

-- N.J. Slabbert, science writer, co-author of Innovation, The Key to Prosperity: Technology & America's Role in the 21st Century Global Economy (with Aris Melissaratos, director of technology enterprise at the John Hopkins University).