If You Are a Non-Smoker and You Smoke Casually, You Are Not Happy
Heavy smokers aren’t the only ones preparing for cancer and heart disease in the future. A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine shows that people who smoked, on average, just one cigarette a day had a 64 percent chance of early death compared to nonsmokers.
This adds to the number of studies that even light smoking is harmful . Unfortunately, if you’re a heavy smoker, you probably don’t think you are at risk. In this 2009 college student study , half of the students who smoked in the past 30 days answered “no” to the question of whether they smoked. Likewise, this 2006 Australian study found that most “casual” or “social” smokers were not motivated to quit; many believed they had already quit smoking.
Of course, quitting smoking can lower your risk. In a new study, among people who quit smoking before age 50, the risk of dying earlier dropped from 64 percent to 44 percent. The results were obtained when older people were asked about their smoking habits during their life; Most of the participants were white, between the ages of 60 and 80. The researchers note that the results reflect the smoking habits of people born in the 1930s and 1940s. However, the real effects of smoking may be even worse than they found, as some smokers from that era may have died too young to participate in the study. Read more in the magazine article or in the news below:
Association of Long-Term Low Intensity Smoking with All-Cause-Specific Mortality at the National Institutes of Health – AARP Diet and Health Study | JAMA Internal Medicine via NBC News