Marker check · 3 questions
Smoking
Smoking is the strongest lifestyle predictor of early death: lifelong smokers lose about a decade of life, and the landmark cohorts agree on the number. The upside is symmetric — quitting before ~40 recovers around nine of those ten years, and risk keeps falling the longer you stay quit. Vaping and regular secondhand exposure carry smaller but measurable risks.
The research
- Jha et al., NEJM 2013 — smokers lose ~10y; quitting by 40 regains ~9y
- Doll et al., BMJ 2004 — 50-year British Doctors Study, ~10y deficit
- US Surgeon General Report 2014 — secondhand smoke mortality