If you’re an HIV patient and smoker, chances are the tobacco is more deadly than the actual virus.
A recent study looked at whether smoking or the virus itself is more harmful on the body.
In the report, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that smoking is worse.
The habit cut six years from a 40-year-old HIV-positive individual who is living with the virus under control, according to NBC News.
Dr. Krishna Reddy, of MGH, wrote in a statement that the study shows just how bad smoking is in general if it’s more dangerous than HIV.
“We actually quantify the risk, and I think providing those numbers to patients can help put their own risks from smoking in perspective,” Reddy wrote. “A person with HIV who consistently takes HIV medicines but smokes is much more likely to die of a smoking-related disease than of HIV itself.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans annually. Furthermore, through conditions like cancer and lung disease, smoking kills about 6 million people across the world every year.
During the study, researchers learned that an HIV-positive patient who smokes and begins treatment at age 40 could see a life expectancy of 65 for men and 68 for women. HIV patients who are former smokers could live to 71 for men and 73 for women.
“We show that even people who have been smoking til age 60 but quit at age 60 have a substantial increase in their life expectancy compared to those who continue to smoke,” Reddy says, “so it’s never too late to quit.”
Though it is well known that smoking is bad for a person’s health, it may be hard to quit. Talk to your loved one about how you can help them in their journey to put the cigarettes down.
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