If you’re an HIV patient and smoker, chances are the tobacco is more deadly than the actual virus.
A recent study looked at whether smoking or the virus itself is more harmful on the body.
In the report, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that smoking is worse.
The habit cut six years from a 40-year-old HIV-positive individual who is living with the virus under control, according to NBC News.
Dr. Krishna Reddy, of MGH, wrote in a statement that the study shows just how bad smoking is in general if it’s more dangerous than HIV.