A new study revealed that even occasional smoking can be just as damaging as a regular such habit.
A new study revealed that even occasional smoking can be just as damaging as the regular habit of smoking fewer cigarettes does not equal non-smoking.
The new study was released this Monday in the JAMA or the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Its objective was to determine if occasional smokers or those that smoke less than 10 cigarettes per day have a similar or an increased mortality risk.
Their results were compared to non-smokers as the heavy smokers have already been determined to have a higher such risk.
Research was based on data collected by the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and the Health Study cohort.
The study gathered smoking habits data from a number of 290,215 adults aged in between 59 and 82 at the study’s beginning.
When conducting the study, the researchers also took into account the adults that admitted to occasional smoking earlier in their lives.
In general, the study analyzed the association between long-term but low-key smoking and the causes of death of the respective database members.
Results showed that smoking even one cigarette a day exposes the respective user to a higher mortality risk than that of a non-smoker.
Also, low-key smokers that respect the 1 – 10 daily ration registered even higher such risks as compared to the one per day cigarette smokers.
The study also determined the possible effects of quitting smoking, a practice which was determined to be beneficial to all smokers.
Whilst quitting the habit would benefit all those involved, regardless of their daily cigarette numbers, the moment is somewhat more important.
It was determined that an earlier stop of the habit would lead to longer years of life and more benefits when compared to those that never stop.
The same is true for those that quit smoking many years after they have taken up the habit.
The study also determined that smoking duration seems to be more relevant than the number of daily cigarettes.
Previous studies have also shown that the exposure to tobacco products may be linked to heart diseases and lung cancer.
As such, even smoking just one cigarette a day may shorten the respective person’s life expectancy as occasional smoking is not as safe as non-smoking.
The National Cancer Institute released a series of estimate smoking – death risk values which were based on this JAMA released study.
As such, the National Institute estimates that smokers with a less than a cigarette per day average have a 64 percent higher chance of early death.
Smokers with a 1 to 10 cigarette a day average have an 87 percent higher such chance as both cases are compared to the values registered in non-smokers.
The current study also went to include non-smokers that have been exposed to secondhand smoke. Such statistics were included as previous studies showed that even such non-smokers present a higher risk of developing certain diseases.
Amongst them, one can number heart and respiratory diseases, strokes, cardiovascular problems, or cancer.
The study may have been targeting the occasional smoking habits as other recent research went to show that the number of such smokers is rising.
As such, new research was needed in the low-intensity, occasional smoking area as the available information has until now been quite limited.
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