Doctors Should Offer All Smokers Help with Quitting, Study Says
Although doctors typically gauge a smoker’s willingness to quit before offering help in doing so, new research indicates that help should be offered to all smokers.
Although doctors typically gauge a smoker’s willingness to quit before offering help in doing so, new research indicates that help should be offered to all smokers.
While most cases of lung cancer occur in smokers, nearly 20 percent of cases strike those who’ve never touched a cigarette. When it comes down to the facts, 32,000 nonsmoking Americans die from lung cancer every year — so many that experts say it’s time to stop calling it “the smoker’s disease.”
While surveys consistently show that more than 3 out of 4 smokers would like to quit, only about 10 percent of those who try each year are successful.
Fortunately, new studies show one way to raise those numbers is to treat smoking as a chronic disease — like high blood pressure — for which long-term treatment is offered.