SHOCKING! Each cigarette costs you 20 minutes of life, new study reveals

A recent study conducted by researchers from the University College of London found that smoking one single cigarette can reduce the life expectancy of an individual by 20 minutes on average. According to a research in the Journal of Addiction, smoking one cigarette shortened a woman's life expectancy by 22 minutes and a man's by 17 minutes.

The study said that if a person who smokes 10 cigarettes a day quits smoking on January 1, 2025, they can reduce the loss of a full day of life by January 8. By February 5, they can increase their life expectancy by a week and a month by August 5. Also, they can reduce the loss of 50 days of life if they avoid smoking the entire year. 

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"People tend to underestimate just how much smoking harms them," stated Dr. Sarah Jackson, principal research fellow at UCL's alcohol and tobacco research section.

"Smokers who continue to smoke lose almost ten years of life on average. That's ten years of milestones, life events, and valuable time spent with loved ones. Some people might think they don't mind missing out on a few years of life, given that old age is often marked by chronic illness or disability," Jackson said in an interview with The Guardian. However, smoking does not shorten the harmful last stages of life.

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She went on to say, "It mostly eats into the midlife years that are often healthy, delaying the start of illness. Accordingly, a smoker who is 60 years old will usually have the same health profile as a non-smoker who is 70 years old.

According to the study's authors, in order to get the health benefits, smokers must give up entirely. Numerous medical disorders, including heart disease and stroke, are known to be brought on by smoking. Smoking raises these conditions' risk by about half. The researchers in the study stated, "Stopping smoking at every age is beneficial, but the sooner smokers get off this escalator of death the longer and healthier they can expect their lives to be."

The study used the latest data from the British Doctors Study which began in 1951 as one of the world’s first large studies into the effects of smoking and the Million Women Study which has tracked the health of women since 1996.