Lungs how old?
Smokers can’t assume that their lungs are the same age as their other body parts. And when they know their lungs’ age relative to their real age, they’re more likely to kick the habit, according to a study in the March 6 British Medical Journal.
Lung function -- meaning how well a person breathes -- naturally declines with age. But for some smokers, the decline is rapid. A three-decades-long smoker in her 50s, for example, could have the lungs of a 75-year old.
Researchers in England wondered whether a lesson in individual lung age would help smokers quit. So they recruited 561 smokers aged 35 and older and gave them a simple breathing test. For half the group, they calculated lung age from the results. The other half received raw results without a calculation of lung age.
The test was repeated a year later, along with a saliva test to verify reports of those who said they had quit smoking. Those who got the initial results in the form of their lung age were twice as likely to have quit a year later as those who just got the statistical medical result. This was true even for smokers whose lung ages came up normal. “We called this the win-win scenario,” says lead author Dr. Gary Parkes, a general practitioner. “They were relieved to have a good result and decided to quit.”
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