Smoking One Cigarette Can Slash 20 Minutes Off Your Life

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Did you know that smoking one single cigarette can burn 20 minutes off of your life expectancy?

This is according to a UK-based study, which also found that smokers lose about the same number of healthy years as they do total years of life.

“Thus smoking primarily eats into the relatively healthy middle years rather than shortening the period at the end of life, which is often marked by chronic illness or disability,” according to the study.

While the study focused on the UK, life expectancy and smoking are big issues in the US, too.

Today, there are over 480,000 US deaths each year caused by smoking and smoke exposure, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Let’s dig deeper into this issue and learn more about how this impacts Latinos.

Smoking and Life Expectancy

In the UK, researchers at University College London estimated the loss of life expectancy per cigarette at about 17 minutes for men and 22 for women, reports an article from CNN Health.

“20 cigarettes at 20 minutes per cigarette works out to be almost seven hours of life lost per pack,” said Dr. Sarah Jackson, author of the research and a fellow at UCL Alcohol and Tobacco Research Group, according to CNN Health.

In the US, cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of disease, death, and disability.

This can include cancer, heart disease, lung disease, type 2 diabetes among others.

“Epidemiological data indicate that the harm caused by smoking is cumulative and the sooner the person stops, and the more cigarettes they avoid smoking, the longer they live,” according to the UK study.

CNN Health further highlights an additional UK study that sheds light on the short and long-term effects that smoking can have on people’s immune system, putting them at a more vulnerable risk for developing diseases and infections.

“When smokers in the study quit, their immune response got better at one level, but it didn’t completely recover for years,” according to the article.

Smoking Habits and Latino Heritage

While it’s clear that smoking can have a major impact on several aspects of health, how does it impact Latinos?

A study has found an answer.

Researchers looked at tobacco biomarkers, which reflect smoking intensity and are used to assess cessation status, by Latino heritage.

They found that Latino smokers had the lowest concentrations of cotinine and NNAL.

Cotinine is “metabolite of nicotine, the addictive substance found in tobacco and smoking-cessation products. It is used as a biomarker to indicate whether you have been exposed to nicotine recently,” according to Imaware.

NNAL – 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol – is a Tobacco-Specific Nitrosamine (TSNA), which are a group of carcinogens found in tobacco and tobacco smoke.

However, among Latino smokers, Puerto Rican individuals had higher concentrations of cotinine and NNAL than their Central American and Mexican peers.

Ultimately, the study concluded that cotinine and NNAL concentrations differed by race and ethnicity and by heritage among Latinos.

Further, Latino heritage should be considered when looking at cessation interventions and biomarkers.

Quit Smoking Today with Quitxt!

Are you or someone you know looking for a way to quit smoking?

Look no further than Quitxt!

Quitxt serves as a bilingual service from UT Health San Antonio and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas that sends texts messages to smartphones to help South Texas adults quit smoking.

Messages from Quitxt help with motivation to quit, setting a quit date, handling stress, and using nicotine replacement, if needed.

More than 1 in 5 Quitxt users fully quit smoking after completing the English version of the program, according to a 2017 study.

“There’s no better time than now to stop smoking with help from Quitxt,” said Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of Quitxt and Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio. “Quitting smoking is proven to improve your health, increase your life span, and save money.”

To join Quitxt in English, text “iquit” to 844-332-2058.

For Spanish, text “lodejo” to 844-332-2058.

QUIT SMOKING WITH QUITXT