January 6, 2012   Elderly smokers who quit now may be able to see the health benefits sooner than they thought. That’s the thrust of a new study aimed at determining if elderly smokers who quit recently, can reduce their mortality risk within a few years. The study found a 16 per cent reduction in the risk of death among smokers over the age of 60, who had quit smoking for an average of four years. The paper identified “new quitters” as those who stopped smoking an average of four years and “long-term quitters” as those who stopped taking a puff, for an average of 27 years. New quitters showed a 24 per cent reduction in the risk of death from lung cancer. And when the elderly with chronic diseases were removed from the equation, the result was nearly a 40 per cent reduction in the risk of death from lung cancer. There was also a reduction in the mortality risk in coronary heart disease and stroke.

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