Ex-smoker: With 4 measures you can extend your life despite years of smoking

Quitting smoking not only lowers your own cancer risk. At the same time, this prevents cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and increases general health.

But even if the lung cells of smokers recover in most cases, there is an increased residual risk of various types of cancer. In addition, arteriosclerosis is increasing – especially in older people. However, a new data analysis by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) now shows that ex-smokers in old age in particular can significantly extend their lives with some lifestyle changes.

Data from nearly 160,000 ex-smokers

The research group first analyzed the data from numerous senior citizens regarding their diet and lifestyle, which had already been collected in 1995/96. Among the subjects were 160,000 ex-smokers who had given up smoking some time ago. On average, the ex-smokers were around 62 years old at the time the data was collected and had mostly given up smoking more than ten years ago.

Four aspects of lifestyle that matter

In the next step, they related the ex-smokers’ risk of death in the following 18.9 years to the following four lifestyle aspects: body mass index, nutrition in the “Healthy Eating Index”, physical activity and alcohol consumption. The healthier the average lifestyle, the more points the subjects received on a developed scale with a maximum value of eight.

Specifically, the following lifestyle is considered ideal:

• normal weight
• high-quality nutrition according to the “Healthy Eating Index”
• more than four hours of sport per week
• Refrain from excessive alcohol consumption

The result: Ex-smokers with the healthiest lifestyle—a score of seven or eight—had a 27 percent lower risk of all-cause death compared to the rest of the subjects. Subjects with a score of five or six and three and four had a comparatively lower risk of all-cause death. However, the risk was higher than in groups seven and eight.

Reduced risk of respiratory, cardiovascular and cancer diseases

Subjects with a high value on the health scale died less often from respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases and also less often from cancer. The percentage effects of the various measures were as follows:

• Normal weight: reduced risk by 14 percent
• quality nutrition: reduced risk by nine percent
• more than four hours of sport per week: reduced risk by 17 percent
• Refraining from excessive alcohol consumption: reduced risk by four percent

As the authors write, the determined dose-response relationship may indicate a causal relationship between a healthy lifestyle in ex-smokers and a longer lifespan, but this would never be proven in epidemiological studies.

Implementation of a measure already secures a survival benefit

However, reverse causality is possible – meaning that people who generally remain healthy in old age are more likely to have the strength and motivation to lead a healthy lifestyle.

The study authors recommend ex-smokers to work on all four aspects and adjust them to the recommended range. Still, even those who implement just one of the recommendations would gain some survival advantage.