Quitting smoking can extend your life even after the age of 75

Quitting smoking offers a number of health benefits, from reduced risk of cancer and stroke to increased life expectancy. But is it ever too delayed to give up? Modern research suggests that even at age 75, quitting smoking can still enhance your life expectancy.

“Over the last decade, we have seen a remarkable decline in the number of adolescent adults who smoke. However, smoking rates among older adults have not changed and, to our knowledge, no studies have shown a benefit to them from quitting smoking. We wanted to show that quitting smoking is beneficial at any age and provides an incentive for older people who smoke to quit,” said Thuy TT Le, who led the study. press release.

Latest test published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine examined the benefits of smoking cessation in older adults at 10-year intervals from ages 35 to 75 to determine potential benefits.

Scientists have found that if a person quits smoking at age 75, they can regain about 0.7 years of their average life expectancy of 9 years. The study also noted that about 8% of people who quit smoking will regain at least 4 years, which is 45% of their life expectancy.

Additionally, about 10% of people who quit smoking at age 65 gain at least 8 years of life back compared to people who continue smoking.

Compared to people who have never smoked, current smokers aged 35, 45, 55, 65 and 75 will lose on average 9.1, 8.3, 7.3, 5.9 and 4.4 years of life respectively if they they will continue smoking. However, quitting smoking at age 35, 45, 55, 65, or 75 will avoid an average loss of 8.0, 5.6, 3.4, 1.7, and 0.7 years, respectively.

“Quitting smoking early will facilitate you avoid losing most of your years to smoking. Even people who quit smoking at the age of 65 and over can still significantly extend their lives,” the researchers concluded.

The results show that although the benefits of quitting smoking may decline with age, older people can still significantly enhance their life expectancy. Even in your later years, the improvements in health that result from quitting smoking can account for a significant portion of your remaining life expectancy.

“The benefits of stopping smoking are not constrained to adolescent and middle-aged adults who smoke; this study shows that it can also be applied to seniors. Although the benefits of quitting smoking at older ages may seem compact in absolute terms, they represent a huge portion of the individual’s remaining life expectancy gains,” said co-author Kenneth E. Warner.