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Quitting smoking: Sooner is best, but later is better than not at all

(This article was first printed in the October 2004 issue of the Harvard Health Letter. For more information or to order, please go to www.health.harvard.edu/health.)

A study of 35,000 British male doctors and their smoking habits stands out as perhaps one of the most important ever. When early results were published in 1954, it was the first really solid evidence that smoking causes lung cancer. On June 26 of this year, 50 years to the day after that initial report, the British Medical Journal published an article summarizing a half century’s worth of mortality data on the British physicians. Some of the key points:

• Nonsmokers live about 10 years longer than smokers.
• Quitting at age 60, 50, 40, or 30 adds, respectively, 3, 6, 9, or 10 years to life expectancy.
• The life expectancy of ex-smokers is just about the same as it is for those who never smoked if they quit between the ages of 35 and 44.

Even quitting between the ages of 55 and 64 helps ex-smokers live longer than smokers, although their life expectancy lags behind those who never smoked.

(This article was first printed in the October 2004 issue of the Harvard Health Letter. For more information or to order, please go to www.health.harvard.edu/health.)

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