By Brian Vastag The Washington Post — Smokers who quit by around
age 40 can stave off an early death, according to a landmark
study that fills key gaps in knowledge of smoking-related health
ills. While smokers who never stop lose about a decade of life
expectancy, those who quit between ages 35 and 44 gained back
nine of those years, the study found. Moreover, the benefits of
dropping the habit extend deep into middle age. Smokers who quit
between 45 and 54 gained back six otherwise lost years, and
those who quit between 55 and 64 gained four years. Quitting
young, before age 35, erased the entire decade of lost life
expectancy. The message: It's never too late to quit, even for
heavy smokers with decades of puffing behind them. But younger
smokers should not be lulled into thinking they can smoke until
40 and then stop without consequences, said Prabhat Jha, an
epidemiologist at the Center for Global Health Research in
Toronto. Jha led the new study, published online Wednesday in
the New England Journal of