You are never too old to quit smoking
Many individuals who have smoked for decades think the damage is irreversible so they don’t see any benefit in quitting smoking. But quitting smoking at any age will increase your life expectancy and improve your quality of life. It’s the best thing you can do for your health.
Even in your 60s, 70s and beyond, you are likely to experience the following benefits:
- Your heart rate and blood pressure will go down.
- Your sense of taste and smell will improve.
- Your lungs, heart and circulatory system will work better.
- Your breathing will improve and you will cough and feel out of breathless often.
- You will be less likely to have a heart attack or stroke.
- Your likelihood of getting cancer will lower.
No matter what age you quit smoking, you can significantly lower your risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer – reducing your likelihood of dying from smoking-related illness.
Older people often don’t feel able to quit smoking. But people in their later years are successfully quitting smoking every day. You may need to have a few tries at it and you may have a few slip ups along the way, but you can always have another go.
There are some great tools on this website to help you quit smoking. Visit the Quit your way page for options.
But why wait until later in life?
Quit smoking by the age of 45 and you are likely to avoid about 90% of the cardiovascular risks of smoking such as heart attack and stroke.
You will see improvements to your health over time and there will be other positive changes that you don’t see such as reduced risk of death from heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung cancer and other kinds of cancer.
And why waste what could be the best years of your life suffering from the effects of smoking? People who have quit smoking in their 40s and 50s say they have more energy to keep up with the kids and the grandkids, are less stressed about their finances and enjoy the freedom from addiction.