Each cigarette shortens life by 19.5 mins,kick the butt to reverse damage: study

Bengaluru: Every puff counts—literally. A recent study revealed that each cigarette smoked shaves an average of 19.5 minutes off your life. For women, it's even worse, each cigarette costs 22 minutes, while men lose 17 minutes.But here's the silver lining: quitting at any age can reverse the damage. The research, done by University College London and commissioned by the UK's department of health and social care, suggested that quitting smoking—at any age—can reclaim those precious minutes, hours, and even days lost because of smoking.Dr Pragati Rao D, head of department and consultant in pulmonary medicine at Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, told TOI that doctors witness the change in patients' quality of life once they quit smoking. "When they stop smoking, their quality of life improves, breathlessness reduces, and the risk of repeated lung infections and hospitalisations decreases. We measure this through lung function tests, which assess how much air a person can exhale in one second. Patients who quit often see a marked improvement."She emphasised that it is never too late to quit. Even heavy smokers who consumed a pack a day for over a decade can still see improvement. "If lung function is at 60% while smoking, it may recover to 70% after quitting. It won't return to 80%—which is considered normal—but the damage is still reversible to an extent," she explained.Dr Vivek Anand Padegal, director of pulmonology at Fortis Hospital, highlighted that even smoking one cigarette increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes. "We have long known that smoking is harmful. It increases the risk of at least 27 different types of cancer, along with heart and lung diseases. In Bengaluru, we are seeing an increasing number of young smokers suffering heart attacks, which suggests that Indian patients may be even more vulnerable. The message is simple: if you smoke, quit. If you don't smoke, don't start—especially young professional women, among whom smoking is becoming more common."Dr Ganesh Pratap, consultant pulmonologist and allergy & asthma specialist at Sparsh Hospital, echoed these concerns: "We have always emphasised that quitting smoking is one of the best ways to improve life expectancy. This study reinforces that message. Smoking damages lung capacity and increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. However, there is always an opportunity to reverse some of the damage.The benefits of quitting begin almost immediately. Within just a few days, lung function starts to recover, and the risk of heart disease begins to drop. Over time, former smokers can regain years of life they would have otherwise lost," he said.——-box20-stick pack can cost 7 hours of lifeData from an old study had estimated each cigarette shaved 11 minutes off a lifetime, but the new study by University College London reveals a full pack of 20 cigarettes could cost nearly seven hours of life.Even the occasional smoker isn't safe: a single daily cigarette over a decade can steal more than a month from a man's life and nearly two months from a woman's.According to the analysis, if a smoker of 10 cigarettes a day quits today, they could prevent the loss of a full day of life in a week. They could boost their life expectancy by a week if they quit for a month. By the end of a year, they could have avoided losing 50 days of life, the assessment found.Check out the Valentine Day 2025 , along with the Valentine’s Day Wishes and Messages.