There is good news for anyone who has quit smoking. Fifteen years after you quit, your risk of heart failure and death may be the same as for someone who never smoked. People who were heavy smokers-more than a pack of cigarettes a day for more than 32 years-may take longer than 15 years, but even their risk declines with time.
These findings are from a study published in the journal Circulation that looked at information from the Cardiovascular Health Study. They looked at data from more than 2,500 people who had never smoker, 629 people who currently smoked, and almost 1,300 people who had smoked but quit at least 15 years earlier. In this last category there were 312 formerly heavy smokers. These are the people who smoked for 32 pack-years. A pack-year is the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for a year. Someone who smokes two packs a day racks up two pack-years.
After 13 years of follow-up, about 21% of those who never smoked and 21% of former smokers experienced heart failure. Almost 30% of the former heavy smokers suffered heart failure.
This is still a better outcome than that seen with the current smokers, who were 50% more likely to have heart failure than those who never smoked and those who had quit. Current smokers were found to be twice as likely to die from any cause as those who never smoked. Former heavy smokers were about 26% more likely to die than those who never smoked.
These findings support most of the medical research of the last few decades that has shown that no matter how much you smoked, you are better off if you quit. The risk of all the diseases that are linked to smoking starts to go down as soon as a smoker quits.
The Cardiovascular Health Study is an ongoing study of adults over age 65.
