According to a recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, quitting smoking at any stage in life prolongs life expectancy.

The study found quitting as late as age 64 can add an additional four years onto a person’s life.  Even more impressively, quitting by age 34 increases the life expectancy by a decade.

“It has long been known that quitting at any time carries some benefits, this study confirms and strengthens those previous findings,” Jean Swearingen, medical director at Student Health Services, said.

The study conducted by Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research, and his researchers looked at health data from more than 200,000 Americans and found the odds of surviving to the age of 80 were cut in half for smokers.

“Smoking causes many potential health problems, from cosmetic aspects like wrinkles, odor, and yellowing teeth and nails, to nuisance aspects such as an increased risk of colds, flu and bronchitis. There are also more serious aspects such as heart disease, a variety of cancers, emphysema and stroke,” Swearingen said.

The participants were categorized as smokers, former smokers and non-smokers. Necessary measures were taken to weed out those who were already in declining health.

The results found that 8,236 of the 113,752 females and 7,479 of the 88,496 males had died by 2006.  That is, women who were current smokers were three times more likely to die, and men were 2.8 times more likely to die.

Zack Applehans/Staff Photographer: A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said making the decision to quit smoking at any stage of life has the ability to prolong life.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. smoking has declined to 19.3 percent among adults. However, this is still a large number coming in at an estimated 45.3 million smokers.

“Giving up a regular smoking habit is hard, but definitely doable. A real desire to quit and a defined plan are necessary,” Swearingen said.

She also added a variety of aids to assist someone who is trying to kick the habit including Once the search price comparison button is clicked, Big Words automatically runs every combination of all the books at every different store. Then the cheapest combination of stores to buy the needed books is calculated, all shipping fees and promotional discounts included.        

Sherwood also mentioned the two main goals of Big Words: to always find the least expensive copy of the book, and to only search inventories of reputable companies, like Chegg or Amazon. This makes it easier for students to trust Big Words, by knowing they are buying from a reliable source.                   

“On average, students who take Big Words cheapest recommendation to rent and sell, will save $1,000 per year,” Sherwood said.

Sherwood and his staff did an experiment to compare the price difference between renting the books or buying and selling at the end of the semester.               

The top 1,000 most popular textbook titles were taken for the study. Prices between the two options were compared, and Sherwood concluded it was cheaper to buy and sell each semester rather than rent books 99% of the time.                 

In order to make Big Words known, Wolf said they have representatives at various universities handing out promotional materials about the company.                

“It’s really an awareness thing. There are still a lot of people that don’t know that you can rent or buy books online, so just getting that word out is very important,” Wolf explained.

To rent, buy, or sell books using this company, visit www.bigwords.com, or download the free app available for iPhones and Androids.