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A STUDY OF more than one million women has found that giving up smoking gave them a high chance of extending their life by ten years – as long as they gave up early enough.
The study which looked at 1.3 million women over the course of five years and was published today in The Lancet found that female smokers are likely to die at least ten years earlier than non-smokers – but stopping before the age of 40 means this likelihood is cut by more than 90 per cent.
Women who stopped before the age of 30 saw the liklihood cut by a massive 97 per cent, the study found.
This is one of the biggest studies so far to find that both the hazards of smoking and also the benefits of stopping are far bigger than previous studies have suggested.
The women recruited for the study, all aged between 50 and 65, were asked questions about their lifestyle, medical and social factors and resurveyed over the course of around twelve years. Around 66,000 of the women died over the course of the study.
The women who were smokers when they were resurveyed after the first three years were almost three times as likely as non-smokers to die over the following 9 years
Of the 20 per cent of women in the group who were smokers, two thirds of the deaths were found to have been caused by smoking.
The report did not give details on whether the women who had given up smoking suffered from an increased risk of non-fatal illnesses.
“If women smoke like men, they die like men – but whether they are men or women, smokers who stop before reaching middle age will on average gain about an extra ten years of life,” said Professor Richard Peto from the University of Oxford, a co-author of the study.
Both in the UK and in the USA, women born around 1940 were the first generation in which many smoked substantial numbers of cigarettes throughout adult life. Hence, only in the 21st century could we observe directly the full effects of prolonged smoking, and of prolonged cessation, on premature mortality among women.
The study was published in The Lancet today to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Doll, a physiologist who was one of the first people to identify the link between lung cancer and smoking.
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2 weeks to go and I am1year smoke free….has been tough at times…..if I get an extra year that will do me!!!
Bravo Roy…keep it up! Giving up smoking was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It’s been nearly ten years but I continue to feel proud of myself.
I think it also increases the chance of single women meeting a man, women that smoke put me right off! Uuuuggghh!
On a completely unrelated issue.. I spotted my friend’s father the other night, coming out of a fetish night at a local gay club wearing a see-through skirt. Needless to say, I didn’t relish the thought of having to explain to my mate why I thought his Dad was a bit transparent.
ha ha.
The problem is that people living longer lives means more poverty. Population growth is our greatest danger. There is only so much to go around.
Exactly, but smoking as a method of population control is both seriously morally dodgy and misses the point that it places such pressure on our health service in terms of ongoing morbidity. Which is why we should be promoting safe sex and family planning and encouraging self-sufficiency. So there!
I’m sorry Mary but I have to question your comment.
I find it utterly insane that your basically touting death by smoking as a positive.
Having just come across several other posts you have made its very clear your a troll ‘Mary’
Can I advise that a troll should at least be 1.) Original 2.) Funny 3.) Intelligent
All qualities that you are sadly lacking.
Mary. Rubbish. What evidence have you that “there is only so much to go around”? There are parts of the world that are virtually empty of people.
Yes William , empty of people be aide they are inhabitable.
A war will soon happen to take the population down a peg
Hit the nail on the head Bandaraboy. We all know that trolls are tedious, but they’re made much worse when they are completely devoid of subtlety.
Absolute rubbish. Over 50% of the worlds food is dumped. Only 25% of the worlds arable land is productive. We could easily feed 10 times the worlds population if vested interests didn’t control our food industries.
I agree BandaraBoy, a troll to the core. Some real nasty comments in general.
So Mary……euthanasia on your agenda then?
why do people want to live to old age,ending up in a home with dementia,dying younger sounds better to me.
Most people don’t get dementia or end up in a home.
Yeah but you don’t just die in your sleep! If you’re a smoker it’s usually cancer, heart disease or emphysema that takes you out painfully over several months or years!
So woman who gives up smoking once every ten years will live forever?!
vinny il live till my day comes just like u so get over it
troll alert!!..what’s the dribble about Dyin young for then?you should go see someone about that
thats not what i said,just dont see the point wanting to live forever. live and enjoy it while u can but not to be hung up on living to being old and senile or unable to live with dignity,quality over quantity
that’s not what you said at all read your own comment!!
Living longer may have some dis-advantages. I don’t know as I havn’t lived longer yet.
But the quality of life of a non smoker must be way better. Waking up fresh and energetic. Having more money.
A natural death may be less painful than a smokers death. I don’t know the answer to this yet.
Nanny state again for you.Thumb me down as much as you like. Why harassing the smokers again?Life is short enough as it is for more misery.
and whats the bull troll alert u fit ur own remark very well
you just don’t make any sense with your comments and worst of all when someone agrees with you ya have a little fit
Lung cancer which you can get from smoking is biggest of women in UK –
News.sky.com/1002677/biggest killer of women….
have your say