I believe you must have heard such rumors, around an old man suddenly quit smoking, or quit drinking after cancer, or brain hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, paralyzed in bed! Is this really the case? If the elderly have the habit of smoking and drinking, will quitting smoking and drinking induce diseases? Let's talk about it today!
70, do not quit smoking and drinking, more likely to get sick! Doctors blame:It's never too late at any age
It's never too late to quit smoking!
Smoking can be harmful. It's a well-established fact that there are dozens of substances in cigarettes that cause cancer.
Smoking damages your lungs and airways, causes chronic bronchitis, and even induces emphysema, which damages your lungs and makes it difficult for you to breathe; it also increases your risk of heart disease and stroke, and induces various types of cancers, such as lung, oral, esophageal, laryngeal, gastric, liver, pancreatic, renal, bladder, and cervical cancers; it makes you very susceptible to osteoporosis and increases your risk of blindness and blindness; smoking makes you more likely to get type 2 diabetes and more likely to have some complications than not smoking. Smoking also makes you more easily fatigued and makes it harder for wounds to heal ...... These are just some of the harms smoking can cause!
So if you want to quit smoking, it's never too late, and even if you're 70 years old, you can quit smoking altogether
As long as you can try to quit slowly, you can enjoy its benefits, such as lowering your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung disease, improving your blood circulation, and gradually regaining your sense of taste and smell, and your body odor is no longer as bad as it used to be. Plus, it's important to set a healthy example for your children and grandchildren.
Although the process of quitting smoking is more painful, you may face weight gain, insomnia, cold symptoms, anxiety, etc. , that is, because the cilia in your airways gradually return after you quit smoking, so you may have more phlegm than before, but as long as you lower your smoke slowly and gradually, you will enjoy the benefits of quitting.
See some of my friends here, who will argue that the old people in our village smoked all their lives without any health problems, and some of them got cancer instead of quitting smoking. This is survivor bias. It is true that some old people have smoked all their lives without any problems, but such people are very few. Even if there are more than 3-5 such old people in your village, this is a minority situation compared to the entire smoking population, and people have quality genes. Usually these old men are likely to eat healthy in all aspects and be able to hold down a job. With the added bonus of genes, it's understandable that he has no problems. But you didn't go to the hospital. You go to the respiratory and thoracic departments of major hospitals to see how many people suffer from various diseases due to smoking. You have not seen such patients. Just take the example of the elderly people around you who have these special conditions. It's turning a blind eye but not seeing Tarzan (a large number of patients dying from illnesses due to smoking).
Additionally, there are older people who get sick after quitting smoking, but you should consider why these older people are quitting. Would they have quit smoking if they didn't have some specific adverse physical symptoms? Also, you should consider that these older people, even if they don't want to have a better body to quit smoking because of their bad symptoms, they have been smoking for many years and the problem has built up in their body. In fact, it was only after they quit smoking that they realized it. Have you considered these situations?
So, you need to quit smoking!
Is it necessary to quit drinking?
After talking about quitting smoking, Dr. Hsieh wants to have a good conversation about quitting smoking in older adults.
But Dr. Hsieh personally believes that the issue of abstinence should be treated differently, starting with whether or not older people are drinking too much alcohol, and whether or not they are drinking too much alcohol.
For older people, even small amounts of alcohol can impair their judgment, coordination and reaction time. As a result, if they drink too much alcohol, they can easily increase their risk of falling at work and at home. For older adults, a serious fracture, especially a hip fracture, can be fatal in the event of a fall.
In addition, many older adults develop chronic diseases as they age. For older people, nearly 40% of those over 65 need to take four to five medications. We must be careful to see if alcohol consumption increases the risk of these medications, especially if some older adults need oral aspirin. If too much alcohol is consumed, or if too much alcohol is consumed, there may be an increased risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.
In addition, we should consider that with heavy drinking, the risk of cancer increases over time, leading to nutritional deficiencies, cirrhosis of the liver and pancreatitis, and may induce immune system disorders and even brain damage.
So how can we tell if we're drinking too much?The 2007 China Chronic Disease and Risk Factor Surveillance Reporting Standards define excessive drinking. For men, drinking more than two and a half bottles of high-alcohol liquor, more than three and a half bottles of low-alcohol liquor, more than three to five cans of beer, or 750 ml of wine at one time is considered excessive; for women, drinking two or three bottles of high-alcohol liquor, three or two bottles of low-alcohol liquor, two and a half to four cans of beer, or 600 ml of wine at one time is considered excessive drinking.
So, if the amount of alcohol consumed exceeds these standards, it is recommended to stop drinking.
If you have some chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver or cerebral infarction, it is recommended that you do not drink alcohol.
Then let's discuss a problem. Can a 70-year-old still drink normally without these problems?
According to the 2016 China Dietary Guidelines, for adults, the maximum amount of alcohol recommended in a day in order to limit alcohol intake. No more than 25 grams of alcohol for men and 15 grams for women. 25 grams of alcohol is equivalent to 75 milliliters of 38-degree baijiu, 50 milliliters of high-alcohol baijiu, 250 milliliters of wine, and 750 milliliters of beer; 15 grams of alcohol is equivalent to 50 milliliters of 38-degree baijiu, 30 milliliters of high-alcohol baijiu, 150 milliliters of wine, and 450 milliliters of beer.
So if you are in good health, in your 70s, can still work, and don't have some chronic illnesses, you can drink appropriately every day, but you must not exceed this amount.
Mr. Xie once wrote an article about the blue zones of longevity, that is to say there are five regions in the world. The average number of people over 100 in these five regions is 10 times higher than in the United States. Some scholars have studied the habits of these old people and found that these old people drink a small amount of alcohol every day. We can never say that these old people live longer because they drink small amounts of alcohol, but at least we can say that small amounts of alcohol do not jeopardize the lives of these old people, and many of them are healthy.
People are not scarce until the seventies, so we should never have the idea that people will not be able to make ends meet when they reach the seventies. It's not a dream to live to be 90 or 100 years old as long as you stick to a healthy lifestyle. So if you have the habit of smoking and drinking too much, it is recommended that you try to quit. Don't listen to the unreliable rumor that you will get sick if you quit smoking and drinking when you get older.
Finally, one more thing. A few years ago, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet published a shocking article claiming that drinking alcohol has zero health benefits! In other words, it is not recommended for anyone to drink alcohol!
For older people, if there are too many difficulties in their lives, they will use smoking and drinking to ease their worries. In China, there are many middle-aged and elderly people who have the habit of smoking and drinking, a habit that can cause serious damage to their organs. Smoking hurts the lungs and drinking hurts the liver and stomach. In order to get the elderly to quit smoking and drinking, the younger generation did their best, but they were blocked by a sentence.
In the perception of the elderly, quitting smoking and drinking will only bring a lot of bad things, but smoking for so many years, drinking for so long, and being 70 years old, it's easier to get a big disease. And the elderly may cite examples of people around them who quit smoking and drinking and ended up dying to refute others.
At 70, quitting smoking and drinking is more likely to get serious illness? See a doctor's analysis
At 70, quitting smoking and drinking is more likely to lead to serious illness? Experts say this is just a way for people to reassure themselves. It's never too late to quit smoking and drinking.
Long-term smoking is very harmful to the health of older people. The longer you smoke and the earlier you start smoking, the more damage it does to your lungs, respiratory tract and other organs. And quitting smoking can only bring benefits. Because after quitting, the nicotine, tar and other carcinogens in cigarettes can be metabolized by the body in a more timely manner, thus slowly restoring the original health.
After quitting smoking, many people say they will have cough, phlegm and irritability. But these are normal withdrawal reactions to quitting smoking. After quitting smoking, the lungs can regenerate cilia so that the impurities in the lungs can be discharged as soon as possible, which may bring some withdrawal reactions in the process. However, if you persist in quitting smoking for more than 1-3 months, these uncomfortable symptoms will gradually disappear and bring benefits.
No matter how old you are now, it's never too late to quit smoking and drinking. After about a year of quitting smoking, people are able to experience significant physical changes, breathe better and eat better. It's never too late to quit smoking. Sticking with it is most important.
Besides that, for some people who are good drinkers, quitting can be very difficult and eating without a drink can be boring. But long-term drinking can also make disease more likely. For people who are 70 years old, the liver and the metabolism in the body will weaken, and the metabolism of alcohol will be more difficult. This is the time to cut back on alcohol.
When alcohol enters the body, it can directly damage the liver, brain nerves, blood vessels and other parts of the body, and older people are more prone to liver disease and weakened reflexes. And many elderly people also have chronic diseases that require long-term medication. Take aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease. Drinking alcohol after taking medication is likely to affect the efficacy of the drug, but also induce more serious gastrointestinal damage, and even increase the metabolic burden of the liver, inducing cirrhosis or even liver cancer.
All things considered, you can't just look at those individuals who have been smoking and drinking for a long time, but you have to fully realize the disadvantages that come with smoking and drinking. Not afraid of ten thousand, only afraid of a thousand. For modern people, seventy years old is not a very long life. If it is too late to quit smoking and drinking at this age, experts tell you that it is never too late to quit smoking and drinking.
It's never too late to quit smoking and drinking, no matter how old you are. Seventy. Quitting smoking and drinking can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, minimize damage to human organs and prevent disease. And older people can get more benefits by quitting smoking and drinking, eating better, sleeping better, and being healthier.