Study: Smoking Damage Not as Long-Term as Generally Thought

By: Kristen Dahlgren, NBC News Channel | WSAV-TV
Published: May 06, 2008

Lesley Miller tries to live a healthy lifestyle but there is one big problem. She smokes.

Miller said, "I feel like, a walking contradiction. I work out, I try to eat healthy and yet at the same time I’m smoking cigarettes."

So, she's trying to quit, and a new study says it's not too late for her to reverse some of smoking’s deadliest consequences. Dr. Stacey Kenfield of Harvard School of Public Health said, "For every major cause of death we saw reductions in the risk of dying."

Researchers at Harvard University looked at data from more than 100,000 women collected from 1980 through 2004 and found those who quit smoking significantly reduced their risk of death within just a few years of quitting. Twenty years after, most risks were equal to that of someone who never smoked.

The biggest and quickest decreases were for the risk of heart disease and stroke. Dr. Jeffrey Chapman of Cleveland Clinic said, "The blood vessels harmed by chemicals heal rejuvenate first few years after quitting smoking."

Even the risk of lung cancer death was down 21 percent in the first five years after quitting - down 87 percent by year 30.

For Lesley Miller, it may be the motivation she's been looking for. "This time I realize my life is on the line and I would never forgive myself if I got lung cancer or emphysema or heart disease because of something I did to myself, because of something I could have controlled,” said Miller.

Doctors say she's right. It really may be her life she's holding in her hands.

Study: Smoking Damage Not as Long-Term as Generally Thought

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