How people get it: With free quit lines (1-800-QUIT-NOW in the US), counseling, and medicines such as nicotine patches.
The basics
What it is
MedlinePlus says quitting tobacco is hard, like any addiction. MedlinePlus says most people who quit tried at least once before without long-term success.
Source: MedlinePlus (NIH): Benefits of quitting tobacco: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia ↗
What people use it for
The US Preventive Services Task Force describes quitting help that includes counseling and medicines for people who use tobacco.
What the research has found so far
- The CDC says quitting lowers the risk of early death and can add as much as 10 years to life.
- The CDC says quitting reduces the risk of 12 different cancers.
- MedlinePlus says coughing and shortness of breath decrease within 1 to 12 months of quitting.
- MedlinePlus says the risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a person who still smokes after 10 years.
- A systematic review of 26 trials found 8.0% of people who got physician advice quit for 6 months or more, versus 4.8% with no advice or usual care.
- The Task Force found the evidence on e-cigarettes for quitting smoking is insufficient to judge benefits and harms.
Sources: CDC: Benefits of Quitting Smoking | Smoking and Tobacco Use ↗ · MedlinePlus (NIH): Benefits of quitting tobacco: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia ↗ · US Preventive Services Task Force: Recommendation: Tobacco Smoking Cessation in Adults, Including Pregnant Persons: Interventions ↗
On quitting smoking and aging, PubMed lists 1,250 trials in people, 4,345 studies that watched people over time, 6 animal and lab studies. See the counts and searches
Stage 4 because it is recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force (help to quit for all adults who use tobacco). See the source ↗
A stage shows how far research has got, not whether it will work for you. How stages work
Side effects and risks
- Reviews of nicotine replacement found harms including nausea, vomiting, stomach symptoms, and trouble sleeping.
- Skin irritation at the patch site has also been reported with nicotine replacement.
- Common side effects reported with varenicline include nausea, insomnia, abnormal dreams, headache, and fatigue.
- The most common side effects of e-cigarettes in trials were coughing, nausea, throat irritation, and sleep disruption.
Who should be careful
The Task Force says evidence is too limited to judge the benefits and harms of quit-smoking medicines in pregnancy. The Task Force says no tobacco product use is risk-free, including e-cigarettes.
Approval and legal status
The Task Force says the FDA classifies e-cigarettes as a tobacco product and has approved none as a quit-smoking aid.
Questions to ask your doctor
- Is quitting smoking a good fit for me, given my health and the medicines I take?
- Is there anything I should avoid or watch for, given my health conditions?
- Where should I start, and how much is right for me?
- How would we tell whether it is helping, and when should we review it?
This is general information gathered from the sources listed, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before starting anything new.
What experts say
No expert views collected yet. Each one we add names the person and links to where they said it.
What others are writing
Recent articles about Quitting smoking from health journalists, hospitals and universities. We link to them; we don't write or endorse them.
Quitting smoking in middle age can reduce dementia risk ↗
“people who quit smoking in middle age may, within a decade, reduce their risk of developing dementia to that of people who never smoked, according to a study published in the September 2025 issue of The Lancet Healthy Longevity .”
Quitting smoking in middle age may bring dementia risk within a decade down to the level of people who never smoked.
Quitting smoking is associated with recovery from other addictions ↗
“Adults who smoke cigarettes and are addicted to alcohol or other drugs were more likely to achieve sustained remission of their substance use disorder symptoms if they also quit smoking, according to scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).”
Adults with substance use disorders who quit smoking were more likely to sustain remission, according to NIH-funded research.
Recent research
New studies that mention Quitting smoking appear here after the morning update.
Trials
None of the registered trials of Quitting smoking is one we have linked as aging-related yet.
ClinicalTrials.gov lists 93 registered trials that mention Quitting smoking, for any condition (the count in The science below). Here we show the ones about aging. See them all ↗
The science
Counted from PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov on Oct 30, 2026, using one search for Quitting smoking in relation to aging. Each link opens the exact search.
- Randomized trials in people
- 1,059 search ↗
- Large trials (multicenter or phase 3)
- 228 search ↗
- Phase 3 trials
- 9 search ↗
- Trials in people
- 1,250 search ↗
- Studies that watched people over time
- 4,345 search ↗
- Animal and lab studies
- 6 search ↗
- Registered trials
- 93 search ↗
PubMed search used
("smoking cessation"[tiab] OR "quitting smoking"[tiab] OR "quit smoking"[tiab] OR "tobacco cessation"[tiab] OR "Smoking Cessation"[mh]) AND (aging[tiab] OR ageing[tiab] OR longevity[tiab] OR healthspan[tiab] OR "older adults"[tiab] OR "older people"[tiab] OR elderly[tiab] OR "Aged"[mh])
Counts are search results, so they include some records that only mention Quitting smoking. How we count
Cite or share this page
Longevity Progress. (n.d.). Quitting smoking: Research stage and evidence. Retrieved October 30, 2026, from https://longevityprogress.com/treatments/quitting-smoking
<iframe src="https://longevityprogress.com/embed/stage/quitting-smoking" title="Quitting smoking: research stage on Longevity Progress" width="340" height="72" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
The badge shows this treatment's current research stage and links back here. It updates by itself when the stage changes.