Smoking Quiz

Nonsense! You have every reason to quit now and quit for good — even if you've been smoking for years. Stopping smoking will help you live longer and feel better. You will reduce your risk of heart attack, stroke and cancer; improve blood flow and lung function; and help stop diseases like emphysema and bronchitis from getting worse.

Once they quit, older smokers are far more likely than younger smokers to stay away from cigarettes. Older smokers know more about both the short- and long-term health benefits of quitting.

Smokers, especially those over 50 years old, are much more likely to get tired, feel short of breath and cough more often. These symptoms can signal the start of bronchitis or emphysema, both of which are suffered more often by older smokers. These symptoms also can be caused by carbon monoxide in your blood. Stopping smoking will help to reduce these symptoms.

Smoking is a major risk factor for four of the five leading causes of death including heart disease, stroke, cancer, and lung diseases like emphysema and bronchitis. For adults 60 and over, smoking is a major risk factor for six of the top 14 causes of death. Older male smokers are nearly twice as likely to die of stroke as older men who do not smoke. The odds are nearly as high for older female smokers. Cigarette smokers of any age have a 70-percent greater heart-disease death rate than do nonsmokers.

The good news is that stopping smoking does help people who have suffered a heart attack. In fact, their chances of having another attack are smaller. In some cases, ex-smokers can cut their risk of another heart attack by half or more.

Most smokers would prefer to quit. What keeps them from quitting? There are many excuses — fear of being irritable, nervous and tense; fear of gaining weight. Some of these concerns are very real, but there is help. The one belief that isn’t true — believing that quitting after so many years of smoking will not help. While quitting won’t be easy, it’s never too late.

Older smokers usually smoke more cigarettes than younger people. Plus, older smokers are more likely to smoke high-nicotine brands.

You may be surprised to learn that older smokers are actually more likely to succeed at quitting smoking. This is especially true if they're already experiencing long-term, smoking-related symptoms like shortness of breath, coughing, or chest pain. Older smokers who stop want to avoid further health problems, take control of their life, get rid of the smell of cigarettes, and save money.

One out of 12 adults aged 65 or older smokes cigarettes. Since our older adult population is growing, these smokers make up a large part of the country's total of 44.5 million smokers! According to 2004 estimates by the Centers for Disease Control, 20.9 percent of the adult U.S. population still smokes.

Smoking greatly increases the risk of dying of diseases like emphysema and bronchitis. In fact, over 80 percent of all deaths from these two diseases are directly due to smoking. The risk of dying from lung cancer is also a lot higher for smokers than nonsmokers: 22 times higher for males, 12 times higher for females.