Published May 28, 2026, 3:17 PM EDT
Tobacco is the most preventable cause of death among veterans.
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Published May 28, 2026, 3:17 PM EDT
Veterans smoke at higher rates than the general population, and the reasons are not hard to understand. Military culture has a long history with tobacco. Deployment increases smoking rates by more than 50%. Stress, sleep deprivation, boredom and the social dynamics of unit life push people toward cigarettes, and the habit follows them home. About one in five veterans currently use tobacco, and veterans are more likely than civilians to use every type of tobacco product, including the most harmful. A new study from the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle suggests that the VA’s Whole Health program, a patient-centered model that incorporates complementary therapies alongside conventional medicine, is giving veterans an additional path to quitting. The results, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, are drawn from more than 37,000 veterans who smoked, making it one of the largest real-world evaluations of these approaches for tobacco cessation. Read More: VA Health Care Enrollment Process
