A lot of habits and conditions can raise your risk for death, but smoking is a key factor that's within your control. To help people assess their mortality risk, researchers published charts in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that simplify this complex subject. Items of note:
-Smoking affects your chance of dying as much as if you added five to 10 years to your age.
-After age 50, men who smoke are 10 times more likely to die of lung cancer than of prostate or colon cancer.
-Women smokers ages 40 and older have a greater risk of dying of lung cancer than of breast cancer.
The good news is that as soon as you quit smoking, your body benefits:
-Twenty minutes after your last cigarette, your heart rate and blood pressure improve.
-Within 12 hours of being smoke-free, your blood has less carbon monoxide.
Source: Good Neighbor Pharmacy Connection, January 2013
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