Diet & Lifestyle  Smoking

11 minutes of your life are lost with each cigarette

Smokers beware! Each cigarette you smoke will take 11 minutes off your life, according to new study in the British Medical Journal.

A study of male smokers revealed that each cigarette smoked, a typical smoker will lose 11 minutes of their estimated lifespan.

Eleven minutes is a lot of living to be thrown away – it’s enough time for a phone call to a friend, a short walk, or a bout of fairly frantic sexual intercourse!

Dr. Mary Shaw and colleagues from the University of Bristol in England based their findings on data from a survey of British households. They calculated that the typical male smoker "will consume a total of 311,688 cigarettes" from age 17 until death at age 71.

The researchers also calculated the figure of 11 minutes per cigarette from a separate analysis, which found that smoking reduces the lifespan of the average smoker by 6.5 years compared with non-smokers.

The report concludes that, by eliminating a full carton of cigarettes, a smoker would gain an extra day and a half of life – that’s enough time to fly around the world, go to the theatre, have a candle-lit meal and enjoy a romantic night away.

Source: British Medical Journal 2000; 320:53

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