Quitting smoking? It could extend life expectancy: research [Video]

If you’re thinking about making a New Year’s resolution to quit smoking, it might help to know that new research says it could extend your life expectancy.

Each cigarette someone smokes, on average, can take about 20 minutes off their life expectancy overall, according to new research based on British smokers.

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After accounting for socioeconomic status and other factors, researchers at University College London estimated the loss of life expectancy per cigarette at about 17 minutes for men and 22 for women, they wrote in an editorial published Sunday in the journal Addiction.

That means if someone smokes a pack of 20 cigarettes per day, “20 cigarettes at 20 minutes per cigarette works out to be almost seven hours of life lost per pack,” said Dr. Sarah Jackson, a principal research fellow in the UCL Alcohol and Tobacco Research Groupand lead author of …