Originally published August 28 2005
British study finds numerous benefits to quitting smoking sooner rather than later
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Smoking can injure your lungs beyond repair, but quitting sooner rather than later can undo much of the damage, British researchers recently found.
It was unsettling enough that ABC anchorman Peter Jennings died of lung cancer just four months after announcing his diagnosis.
Perhaps more distressing to the 90 million--plus smokers and former smokers out there was that Jennings swore off tobacco 20 years ago and was struck by the disease all the same.
It's true that he had resumed smoking after the terrorist attacks in 2001, but he quit again.
Can that first puff years ago start a fatal cascade of lung damage that can never be reversed?
Recently, British researchers wanted to see if there was a point of no return, at which it doesn't matter whether you quit.
Their conclusion, published in BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) last year: timing is everything.
The sooner you quit, the more damage you undo.
A smoker who quits at age 50 reduces the risk of lung disease by half.
Hard on the heels of Jennings' death was the mind-numbing announcement that Dana Reeve, widow of actor Christopher Reeve and a nonsmoker, has lung cancer.
It was a sobering reminder that about 15% of lung-cancer victims have never smoked.
In cases like those, the disease might simply be due to poor genetics, but it's worth remembering that the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S. is exposure to radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas.
The government estimates that 1 in 15 U.S. homes has radon levels that are too high.
The best advice is to have your home tested.
If you are worried that you might have symptoms of lung cancer-- such as a persistent cough, especially with blood-tinged sputum, or unintentional weight loss--get a checkup.
And, of course, if you don't smoke, don't start.
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