It is never too late to quite smoking
The research, led by Sir Richard Doll, has been ongoing since 1951, and was the first study to make the connection between smoking and lung cancer.
Scientists tracked the progress of almost 35,000 men born between 1900 and 1930, asking them about their smoking habits and gathering information on their health over the last 50 years.
They found that those who had never smoked lived, on average, ten years longer than those who had smoked for most of their lives.
Half of the men in the study who smoked died of smoking-related diseases, although this rate rose to two-thirds among those born around 1920, many of whom were given free cigarettes when they fought in the Second World War. Only 26% of smokers in the study lived to 80, compared to 59% of the non-smokers.
However, the research also showed that the men who gave up smoking in their early thirties were likely to live as long as their non-smoking peers, while even those who quit at 40 died just one year earlier than those who had never smoked. Ending the habit at 50 added another six years to life expectancy and giving up at 60 added three.
Smoking causes asthma in children and adults and is one of the main triggers for people with asthma. Exposure to second-hand smoke is the principal reason for emergency hospital treatment for children suffering asthma attacks.
More than 5.1 million people in the UK have asthma, including one in eight children - one of the highest rates in the world. On average one person in the UK dies of asthma every seven hours.
Asthma UK recently led a group of health charities in urging the government to implement a ban on smoking in public places, which it is thought would help to prevent an estimated 5,000 deaths a year from the effects of second-hand smoke. In New York City, where such a veto has been imposed for more than a year, the number of smokers has decreased sharply.
Dr Matt Hallsworth, Asthma UK's Research Manager, cited a study by the charity in 2003 which found that people with asthma who smoke have a reduced sensitivity to their preventer medication: 'In addition to the well-documented detrimental effects of smoking on everyone, people with asthma who smoke may unknowingly be blocking the effects of the very treatment that can prevent their asthma from deteriorating.'
The study is published in the British Medical Journal.
Read about giving up smoking with NHS support
For advice and information on asthma, call the Asthma UK Adviceline (08457 01 02 03) or email an asthma nurse specialist.
http://www.asthma.org.uk/news/news151.php
Niciodatã nu este prea târziu pentru a destul de fumat - It is never too late to quite smoking - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate