Smoking may cut life short by ten years

Published on Thursday 17 September 2009 22:00

MIDDLE-aged smokers with high cholesterol and blood pressure face a ten-year cut in life expectancy, researchers warned yesterday.

The three risk factors combined to reduce lifespan by a decade among over-50s compared with non-smokers with normal cholesterol and blood.

Those with additional health worries, such as being overweight, fare even worse, losing 15 years of their life expectancy.

The stark warning follows an Oxford University study of 19,000 men over an average of 38 years.

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, which helped fund the research published in the British Medical Journal, said: "This important study puts a figure on the life-limiting effects of smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. The good news is that all of us can make changes to live longer … even after 50."