Smoking leads to premature death

Cigarette smoking increases the risk of dying in middle age for both men and women, but kicking the habit at older age, strongly decreases the risk of dying prematurely. Researchers from the University of Bergen followed nearly 50,000 residents of rural Norway for 25 years. They found that 41 percent of men who continued to smoke heavily (at least one pack a day) died between 40 to 70 years of age as compared to 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. Smoking strongly reduces the chances of surviving from 40 to 70 years of age. There is a clear dose-response relationship between smoking and mortality - survival decreases with increasing number of cigarettes smoked per day. The study also shows that the longer people delay smoking, the less likely they are to die from smoking at an early age. The sooner a smoker quits the better. 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 findings confirm that cigarette smokers are much more likely to die prematurely than nonsmokers.