After you quit smoking, incredible changes occur in the human body, according to a new study.
What happens after you quit smoking? Experts have revealed the changes that take place in the body
So, regardless of the age at which you quit smoking, your life expectancy increases significantly, according to a study by experts from Canada and Norway.
“Quitting smoking is highly effective in reducing the risk of death. And people are benefiting from this change remarkably quickly,” says Prabhat Jha, an expert at Unity Health Toronto.
If a smoker can stay away from cigarettes for 10 years, Jha and his colleagues estimate that they would have a life expectancy similar to a person who has never smoked, according to Science Alert.
When people quit smoking, the body does not immediately return to normal. Two recent studies show the lasting effects of smoking on health. Immunity seems to be more affected than previously thought, AFP informs, AGERPRES writes.
“Smoking alters adaptive immunity in a persistent manner,” concluded the authors of a study published in the journal Nature.
According to the WHO, this habit kills around 8 million people worldwide every year.
The analysis highlighted adaptive immunity. This builds up as infections occur. But it remains damaged for many years after people quit smoking.
These conclusions are based on a sample of 1,000 people, selected more than 10 years ago, within a project coordinated by the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Their immunity was then regularly examined through various tests, especially blood tests.
This is an extremely robust cohort study. To assess the extent to which different factors influence health and metabolism over time.
Smoking is the one that had the greatest influence, over the duration of sleep and the level of physical activity, according to researchers led by biology specialist Violaine Saint-André.
At the same time, Jha’s study, which looked at what happens after you quit smoking, suggests that the body can recover.
The study, which is based on biological analyses, cannot say what are the consequences of these immune variations on health.
There could be effects on the risk of infections, cancers or autoimmune diseases. But they are only a hypothesis.
Another study tried to determine to what extent the health risks really persist after you quit smoking.
Published in NEJM Evidence, the study was based on medical data obtained from approximately 1.5 million people in Canada, the US, Norway and the UK.
Its authors compared mortality among several groups: active smokers, people who never smoked, and ex-smokers.
For the latter, the medical risks take time to disappear completely. After a person has given up smoking, he has to wait 10 years to again have a life expectancy comparable to that of a person who has never smoked, according to useit.ro.
