from Hacker News

Regardless of age, quitting cigarette smoking will add years to your life

by yusufaytas on 10/9/24, 10:59 AM with 48 comments

  • by stavros on 10/9/24, 12:27 PM

    This is great news, now I can start smoking so I can quit it and add years to my life.
  • by grahamj on 10/9/24, 12:49 PM

    Going on 13 years without a smoke, since my kid was on the way. Now I wonder how I ever started that dumb habit in the first place. Can’t stand to be anywhere near it anymore.
  • by mannyv on 10/9/24, 3:11 PM

    I smoked for 15 years, 2-3 packs a day.

    Smoking is fun. Nicotine is great. People who say otherwise are lying. I miss smoking, but it's not something I think about a lot.

    Let's put it this way. People do things because they get something out of it, and they stop when the cost is too high for the benefit they get. Saying addiction is terrible, well, it's not terrible for the person doing it. It's great.

    Addiction is just a word for "behavior we don't like."

  • by ddmf on 10/10/24, 8:16 AM

    I started at 12 - my newspaper delivery colleague had pinched some from his newsagent and offered me one.

    19 years later, after the birth of my last child, I finally stopped - i'd tried everything but slowly reverted back to it.

    A two week intro course of champix - Varenicline - enabled me to quit it finally, and for good.

    I've been stopped over 16 years now and even smelling second-hand smoke makes me feel physically sick.

  • by Eddy_Viscosity2 on 10/9/24, 6:55 PM

    This seems good but also bad. Like its great that quitting will always give you extra years, but it also means if you delay quitting, you still get those extra years. So why not delay a bit longer... (I know why this is bad logic, but to a nicotine-addicted mind, this reasoning could be very tempting)
  • by Freak_NL on 10/9/24, 12:51 PM

    Smoking is one of the nastiest habits society has acquired. Twenty years ago it looked like smoking was on the way out, but recent trends are troubling and show how weak we are in the face of determined actors with financial motives.

    Facts like these are good to see, because every little bit of incentive to help people stop smoking is needed. The trouble however is not getting people started in the first place…

    The downwards trend of the percentage of people who smoke is stagnating, and recent research has shown that the way people pick up smoking is, predictably and indeed, by stepping up from vaping. The short summary is that for susceptible young teenagers vaping is cool, and then when they turn 15 or 16, vaping is too childish, and 'real' smoking is where it's at. Smoking is still 'cool', and now even 'retro-cool'. By that time they are quite addicted to nicotine, so it's either vaping, tobacco smoking, or quitting. The latter of course being really hard at that age. Big tobacco won this round.

    It's not all bad of course. Smoking has been successfully banished from lots of places. This varies by country, but I for one really appreciate not having to breath smoke in public transport, offices, shops, restaurants, and bars, and not having to see parents smoke on the school grounds (thereby denormalizing smoking for children). I saw society change in that regard, and it is positive.

    But I loathe the people who kept delaying acting on vapes taking over part of our youth and keeping them smoking for the foreseeable future.

  • by testmasterflex on 10/9/24, 12:41 PM

    I _think_ that as long as I’m working out, I’m in better health than an _inactive_ non smoker.

    I bicycle everyday, a few gym sessions a week and smoke half a pack every weekend or so.

  • by lawgimenez on 10/9/24, 12:50 PM

    Quitting smoking is hard though, remembering I was going through a severe withdrawal phase.

    Don’t know why but maybe I quit cold turkey as a chainsmoker.

  • by knodi123 on 10/9/24, 12:54 PM

    I'll start smoking every december, and quit as a new years resolution. I'm going to live forever!!
  • by InDubioProRubio on 10/9/24, 12:57 PM

    But why would you want that? The state of the world is about to get news banned as tabbaco advertisement.