First the bad news: life-long smokers die, on average, 10 years
younger than people who have never smoked. Now some good news:
kicking the tobacco habit at age 40, 50, or 60 can reclaim 9, 6,
and 3 of those years, respectively. The effort is worth it, at
any age and for any smoker. Some more good news: there are many
tools to help smokers quit. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)
provides some of the nicotine that smokers crave, but not the
harmful substances found in cigarettes, thereby easing the
withdrawal symptoms that make quitting so difficult. NRT is
available as a patch, gum, lozenge, and prescription inhaler or
nasal spray. The use of NRT has been touted to more than double
a quitter’s success rate compared with smokers who go “cold
turkey.” This figure is based on the first generation of NRT
studies, which monitored volunteers up to 12 months after
quitting. It is now established that relapse back to smoking
continues well beyond 12 months, making the true long-term
benefits of NRT unclear. To clarif