Smoking raises the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and other potentially fatal illnesses. But the risk of heart disease and stroke begin to drop rapidly soon after you quit smoking. And, within five years, an ex-smoker isn't any more likely to have heart disease than a person who never smoked. Unfortunately, the risk of developing lung cancer doesn't drop to that of someone who has never smoked until 15 years after quitting. Although lung cancer is what smokers fear most, smoking raises the risk for a plague of other ailments, including emphysema, and quitting reduces those risks.
Most people begin to start feeling better when they quit.
But research has proven even people in their 90s can get in better shape after years of sloth. Light weight-lifting builds muscle mass that is lost as people age, building strength and setting the base for doing cardiovascular exercises. Both help prevent and reverse osteoporosis. Exercise also improves balance, thereby decreasing the risk of falling, a common and life-threatening problem in older persons. For all the good exercise can do, it can do more harm than good if older people try to start pumping iron or even doing something so seemingly harmless as walking, without the help of a trainer or exercise class, said Steven Zelicoff, exercise physiologist and director of the Center for Health Promotion in Shadyside.