A new study suggests that smokers can nearly eliminate their risk of dying from lung or other cancers if they kick their habit before age 45.
It’s well established that smoking and tobacco-related products significantly increases a person’s risk of developing a form of cancer. In America, smokers died of cancer at three times the rate of nonsmokers.
Researchers found that smokers who quite by age 45 lowered their lung cancer risk by 87%.
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“Researchers said the new findings underscore the power of quitting as early as possible. Among more than 400,000 Americans they followed, smokers died of cancer at three times the rate of nonsmokers. However, smokers who managed to quit by age 45 lowered that excess risk by 87%.
And if they overcame the habit by age 35, their excess risk of cancer death was erased, said Blake Thomson, a researcher at the American Cancer Society who led the study.
He stressed that it’s never too late to quit. Smokers who quit in their 50s to early 60s also substantially lowered their excess risk of cancer death.
But the findings do underscore the power of kicking the habit as early as possible.
‘If you’re a smoker in your 30s, hopefully these findings will speak to you,’ Thomson said.”
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