Is it useless to quit smoking after so many years of smoking?

Is it useless to quit smoking after so many years of smoking?
 August 07, 2019

According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), smoking is responsible for about six million deaths each year: more than those caused by alcohol, AIDS, drugs, road accidents, murders and suicides put together. It is therefore a fundamental health challenge to ensure that people who smoke stop doing so. However, in many cases it is more difficult for doctors to convince a person who has many years of smoking behind them, and therefore has more serious damage, compared to one who has been smoking for fewer years. As stated in an article published in 2003 by the journal Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, "Nowadays older smokers represent the hard core of this population; they are the ones who do not want to stop or who are so addicted that they cannot do it, they are so used to smoking that they cannot imagine their lives without cigarettes and think they are now so irretrievably damaged that they cannot take advantage of the decision to stop ” , 2003). Data from several studies, however, show that this is a misconception.


What happens to the body when you stop smoking?
Quitting smoking is a decision that has many positive health effects, both short and medium and long term. Within twenty minutes of the last cigarette there is already a drop in heart rate and blood pressure, while within half a day the level of carbon monoxide in the blood returns to normal. In the following 2-12 weeks, then, there is an improvement in circulation and a significant increase in lung function and within the first nine months problems such as coughing and shortness of breath are usually resolved.
After a year the risk of developing a coronary heart disease is halved compared to that of a smoker and after 5-15 years the stroke returns to those who have never used tobacco. After ten years the chances of getting cancer of the lung, mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, uterine cervix and pancreas are also reduced. Finally, after fifteen years, the risk of coronary heart disease can be considered equal to that of non-smokers (WHO).


Do health benefits also occur in long-term smokers?
According to David W. Appel and Thomas K. Aldrich, two medical specialists in respiratory diseases, "the benefits that older smokers get from smoking cessation are so substantial that all clinicians should actively and regularly try to convince them to do so. [...] The patients who make it get important results in terms of quality and life expectancy ". At any time in life, therefore, this decision is associated with a significant gain in terms of survival (Taylor, 2002). "Even in an advanced age, quitting smoking protects against the development of some forms of cancer," explains Sergio Harari, director of Pneumology at the San Giuseppe Hospital IRCCS Multimedica in Milan, in a video produced by the Umberto Veronesi Foundation "but not only, when you stop, the loss of lung function and the progression of cardiovascular risk is also blocked ”(Umberto Veronesi Foundation). A 2015 study by the German Cancer Research Center, for example, showed that even after the age of sixty the decision to quit smoking is associated, within a few years, with a reduction in the risk of suffering stroke and heart attacks ( Gellert, 2013).


Why is quitting smoking so difficult?
The main obstacle to smoking cessation is the dependence on nicotine contained in cigarettes. The intake of this psychomotor stimulant, in fact, determines a series of neural mechanisms similar to those involved in the dependence on substances such as cocaine and amphetamine. When you stop smoking, then, you face a real withdrawal syndrome, characterized by irritability, restlessness, a feeling of discomfort, reduced concentration and increased appetite. In fact, the feeling of calm and relaxation that smokers often associate with a cigarette is actually due to temporary relief from these symptoms. Furthermore, in addition to the physiological factors associated with nicotine addiction, numerous psychological and social factors are also involved. "For those who smoke twenty cigarettes a day - writes Martin J. Jarvis, of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health of the University College London - the nicotine intake is associated at the brain level with the sight of the cigarette packet, the smell of smoke and to scrape the throat, about 70,000 times a year. This explains why many smokers are worried about not knowing what to do with their own hands if they stop smoking, ”