Smokers are warned to give up their habit in the new year because the latest research has shown that men lose 17 minutes of their life with every cigarette they smoke, while women’s lives are shortened by 22 minutes.
This is more than previous estimates that suggest that each cigarette shortens a smoker’s life by 11 minutes. Experts’ estimates, which indicate that each cigarette leads to an average of 20 minutes of loss of life for both sexes, are based on the latest figures from long-term studies that monitor the health of the population.
Istraživačis University College London said that the damage caused by smoking is “cumulative” and the sooner a person stops smoking and the more cigarettes he avoids, the longer he lives.
A new analysis, commissioned by the British Department of Health and Social Care, suggests that if you smoke, your who smokes 10 cigarettes a day on January 1 and stops smoking by January 8 could “prevent the loss of a whole day of life”.
Until February 20, their life could be extended by a whole week, and if they stop smoking by August 5, they will probably live a whole month longer than if they continued with the bad habit.
The authors added: “Research suggests that smokers typically lose about the same number of healthy years as they do total life years. “Thus, a 60-year-old smoker; will usually have the health profile of a 70-year-old non-smoker”.
The analysis, to be published in the Journal of Addiction, concludes: “We estimate that, on average, smokers in Britain who do not quit lose approximately 20 minutes of life expectancy for each cigarette they smoke”.
Experts say that quitting smoking at any age is beneficial, but “the sooner you quit and get off this escalator of death, you can expect a longer and healthier life.”