Posted on 03/21/2006 8:21:19 AM PST by presidio9
Cigarette smoking strongly increases the risk of dying in middle age for both men and women, but kicking the habit, even at older ages, strongly decreases the risk of dying prematurely. These are the findings of the largest and longest study to date on smoking habits and consequences. The study is published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Among nearly 50,000 residents of rural Norway who were followed for 25 years, researchers found that 41 percent of men who continued to smoke heavily (at least one pack a day) died between 40 and 70 years of age compared with just 14 percent of men who never smoked. Twenty-six percent of women who were heavy smokers died between 40 and 70 years of age compared with only 9 percent of women who did not smoke.
"Our study shows that smoking strongly reduces the chances of surviving from 40 to 70 years of age," write Dr. Stein Emil Volsett of the University of Bergen and colleagues. There is a clear dose-response relationship between smoking and mortality -- survival decreases with increasing number of cigarettes smoked per day, they note.
The study also shows that the longer people delay smoking, the less likely they are to die from smoking at an early age, a finding that supports efforts to target smoking prevention efforts at adolescents and pre-adolescents.
Moreover, the sooner a smoker quits the better -- and it's never too late to quit. While the benefits of quitting are greatest for those who quit before their 40th or 50th birthday, people who quit at older ages (between 50 and 59 years of age) also enjoy better health.
The survival curves in this study "provide a powerful graphic representation of the huge effect of smoking on mortality risk in middle age among women and men," Dr. Ronald M. Davis writes in a related commentary.
"This study," he added in comments to Reuters Health, "confirms once again that cigarette smokers are much more likely than nonsmokers to die prematurely."
"The good news is that quitting smoking substantially reduces the excess risk of dying prematurely." Dr. Davis is with the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, part of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
In other news, hookers have lots of sex.
This is "news"?????
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In other news:
-Hell is Indeed Hot, Says Study
-Pigs Can't Fly, Harvard Team Proves
-Helen Thomas is Older than Dirt, Says Scientist
PING!
LOL. Good ones!
- -Harvard Team Proves Helen Thomas is no flying pig
In other news, it was related to this reporter, by an anonymous source, that free rock climbers are more likely to be killed by a fall from great heights than those who don't climb rocks.
So, this means 45 % of the rest lived to over 100, smoking a pack a day? that's not bad.
Actually the folks who've outlived most...those folks are smokers and non smokers have one KEY for that...NO SUGAR.
As long as there is any chance a deceased smoker's survivors can sue a tobacco company and win, it's news to someone.
Actually they do not die as often as the people they hit.
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