WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Researchers studying more than 300,000 adults found that even light smoking, just two to five cigarettes a day, greatly increases the risk of heart disease and early death.
A team from Johns Hopkins University followed people for nearly 20 years and discovered that smoking as few as two cigarettes daily raised the risk of dying from any cause by 60 percent and increased the chance of heart disease by 50 percent, compared to people who never smoked.
Over the study period, there were more than 125,000 deaths and 54,000 heart-related events like heart attacks and strokes. The results showed that even small amounts of smoking are harmful, and cutting back is not enough to undo the damage.
Notably, people who quit smoking did lower their risk over time, especially in the first 10 years, but their risk remained higher than that of lifelong non-smokers even decades later.
'As far as behavior change, it is imperative to quit smoking as early in life as possible, as the amount of time passed since complete cessation from cigarettes is more important than prolonged exposure to a lower quantity of cigarettes each day,' the authors advised.
The researchers recommended that doctors should help people struggling to quit by offering the right support and treatments, and emphasized that while quitting is hugely beneficial, it takes many years for the body to fully recover.
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