Key takeaways
- Smoking after 40 increases health risks significantly.
- Heart disease, lung cancer, and COPD risks.
- Accelerated aging, respiratory issues, slower healing.
- Arthritis, osteoporosis, and eye diseases risks.
- Quitting smoking improves health and quality of life.
Remember those mornings when you could jump out of bed without a second thought?
As the years go by, getting up can feel more like a slow negotiation with your body.
If you’re over 40, you’re probably familiar with the stiff knees, aching back, and the feeling that your immune system isn’t quite as strong as it used to be.
Now, add smoking to the mix, and you’re not just dealing with ageing—you’re speeding up the damage to your body.
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Are you still lighting up past 40? The toll of smoking is much heavier than you might realise.
It’s not just about wrinkles or a persistent cough; the damage goes much deeper.
Let’s take a look at the increased health risks smokers face after 40, and how quitting can make a huge difference.
Cardiovascular Disease
Smoking in your 40s and beyond really puts your heart at risk with all those nasty chemicals in cigarette smoke.
Over time, they can do some serious damage, causing your arteries to build up plaque and struggle with blood flow.
When blood pressure creeps up too high, you’re looking at a much higher chance of heart attacks, strokes, and other scary cardiovascular issues.
This is something a lot of smokers in their 40s and older deal with.
But, here’s good news: the best way to avoid these health problems is to kick the nicotine habit, even if it feels like a tough mountain to climb.
There are plenty of tips and tricks out there to help you get started and stick with it, so you can keep your heart happy and healthy as you age.
Lung Cancer
Smokers represent a large portion of people affected by lung cancer, alongside those working in environments filled with harmful chemical fumes and particles.
Unfortunately, for those over 40, most smoking-related lung disease diagnoses tend to be much worse due to reduced overall health and lung function.
At this stage, it’s pretty evident that there’s no shortcut or simple fix to reduce your risk of lung cancer.
If you want to protect your lungs and lead a longer, healthier life, quitting smoking is the only way forward.
Accelerated Aging
You’re already beyond 40 and are approaching the point where the physical manifestations of aging are already starting to show. If you’re a smoker, you probably look years ahead of what you should really look like at your age.
Smoking is a primary cause of the accelerated wrinkling, drying and dulling of skin and typically have older-looking and sometimes sagging skin than their counterparts. More importantly, your compromised immune system increases acne growth and the risk of having psoriasis.
No health treatment is going to make your skin look beautiful again until you stop smoking. So start your quit journey to let your night creams and skin rejuvenating treatments work effectively and make you look younger than your age.
Respiratory Complications
If you’re at a high risk of lung cancer due to smoking, you’re surely at a high risk of contracting various respiratory issues.
People over 40 who still smoke most likely have developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis or emphysema.
Feel that breathing is hard while you’re just relaxing? It’s probably because your respiratory problems are worsening due to smoking.
You probably still have many things you want to do in life. If you want to achieve them and feel healthy as you do so, it’s high time that you stopped smoking for good.
Arthritis and Osteoporosis
The back aches and weak knees you have standing up after a long time isn’t just because you lack exercise and are getting older. It’s also due to smoking.
Smoking has been linked to decreased bone density and an increased risk of osteoporosis, particularly in postmenopausal women.
The explanation is simple. Beyond the age of 40, the decline of bone density is much faster for smokers than their non-smoking counterparts, making them more prone to fractures and, even if they get medical attention quickly, much slower to heal.
It’s not worth it to live a life where you need someone’s assistance to stand up or worse, when you have to use the loo. Give yourself much more confidence in living beyond 40 years old by stopping smoking.
Slower Healing
We’ve mentioned that your bones are slower to heal when you smoke. Your entire body heals significantly slower as you age, and it gets worse when you still smoke.
Our blood transfers the nutrients absorbed through digestion. Because smoking reduces its flow to the various parts of the body, it hampers the body’s ability to heal wounds effectively at any age.
Most likely, it’s much worse for 40-year-olds who still smoke because the chemicals and the body’s slowed healing process can be major contributors to severe and life-threatening infections.
Eye Diseases
It’s no surprise that smoking also affects the eyes. Aside from irritating your eyes, 40-year-old smokers are at a high risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), cataracts, and other eye diseases.
At this age, non-smokers already experience some vision loss due to age. For smokers, the situation is much worse to the point it has significant negative effects on their daily activities and quality of life.
Summary
As we reach 40, smoking should be out of our lives to keep ourselves from contracting diseases and having mobility issues. Quitting ensures we improve our quality of life as we age. Admittedly, quitting smoking can be extremely challenging, but it can be easy if you go at it with a supportive environment and the right tools.
You’re probably reading this because you want to know about the dangers of smoking as you pass the age of 40 and beyond. We hope you found our content informative. We’re also here to help if you’re struggling to quit.
Smokefree Clinic gives you access to many medically reviewed and trustworthy resources that can inform and aid you in your path to wellness, so have a look around!
If you’re ready to get started, Smokefree can connect you to Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good.
Link Reference:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5291468/
- https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart/smoking
- https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/basic_info/risk_factors.htm
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2271387/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3368498/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1323208/
- https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/diseases/vision-loss-blindness.html