A healthy lifestyle helps ex-smokers avoid an early grave

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-09-23 01:00

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US and Japanese scientists say maintaining a healthy lifestyle can help ex-smokers avoid an early death, and reduce their chances of developing cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease as they age. The team looked at health records for nearly 160,000 older US ex-smokers, and say those who kept to a healthy weight, ate a healthy diet, kept physically active and avoided too much alcohol were less likely to die prematurely from any cause, and specifically from cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease. The healthiest ex-smokers were 27% less likely to die prematurely than ex-smokers who lived an unhealthy lifestyle, the scientists say, adding that the findings suggest ex-smokers can avoid some of the worst outcomes of the habit by keeping fit and healthy after they quit.

Media release

From: JAMA

Association of Healthy Lifestyle With Mortality Among Former Smokers

About The Study: In this study of nearly 160,000 older U.S. adults who were former smokers, better adherence to evidence-based recommendations for body weight, diet, physical activity, and alcohol intake was associated with a lower risk of death from all causes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease.

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Research JAMA, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: National Cancer Institute, USA

Funder: This study was funded by the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute for government employees’ official duties.

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