IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO QUIT: SCIENTISTS REITERATE THEIR FINDINGS OF THE ADVANTAGES OF SMOKE CESSATION

Doctors' advice has always been consistent: it is never too late to quit smoking.  

There is a caveat to this advice, however.  Certain damage may be irreversible if quitting comes too late, such as hardening of the arteries or narrowing of the arteries, but as far as the risk of developing cancer, and even heart attack and death, all these are mitigated once smoking stops.

This is a significant finding, because many people believe that if they have been smoking for decades, that cessation offers few advantages.  Therefore, these finding renew the effort by doctors to prompt their patients to give up the habit. 

Heart disease is the greater killer among us.  It causes almost 600,000 deaths per year, at least until 2010.  Most heart attacks occur when deposits of cholesterol break free from the arterial wall and become lodged in the heart or other artery, or simply constrict the artery to an extent that does not allow the blood to flow, forcing the heart to strain and eventually produce a heart attack. 

A recent study, published under the acronym CONFIRM ( Coronary CT evaluation for Clinical Outcomes: An International Multicenter Study), has pointed to the following : 

1 - Severely blocked arteries were observed to be more common in those people who were current or past smokers, vs those who never smoked. 

2 - Current and past smokers have one and a half more times the incidence of extreme narrowing of the arteries in two of the most important arteries, and twice the incidence of narrowing in all three major heart arteries.

3 - Heart attacks and deaths were twice the rate in current smokers than in people who had never picked up the habit. 

In past smokers however or in those who had quit smoking, the rate of death were the same as those who had never smoked.  And that fact cut across all lines, gender, age and risk factors, indicating how effective smoking cessation can be, even in those people at risk for coronary death or to those who stop at a late stage in their lives. 

Of course smoking cessation is favorable to any age, but especially to those who quit early. In twenty years from the moment of cessation, the patient in effect has reversed all its chances of developing lung cancer.  But even the fact that the risk of death is halved, at a late stage in the patient's life or after decades of smoking, is an outcome that should be given great consideration. 


Partial Source : MNT/ 9.2.13