Quick Benefit to Smoking Halt, With a Caveat, Study Finds

by stvalentine | May 7, 2008 at 06:08 am | 144 views | add comment

Women who stop smokingcan enjoy major health benefits within five years, but it can takedecades to correct respiratory damage and shed the added risk of lung cancer, researchers reported on Tuesday.

Those who stopped had a 13 percent reduction in the risk of death from all causes, including heart and vascular problems, within the first five years, the study found. After 20 years, the risk of death from any cause was the same for those who quit as for those who had never smoked.

For deaths due specifically to respiratory diseases, there was an 18 percent reduction within 5 to 10 years of quitting, reaching the level found in nonsmokers after 20 years.

But while there was a 21 percent reduction in the risk of lung cancer death within five years, it took 30 years for that excess risk to disappear.

The findings are the latest to emerge from a study of more than 121,000 American women in the nursing profession whose health histories were recorded in 1976 and followed during the ensuing years. While the study involved only women, other research has found benefits for men who stop smoking.