Smoking has been linked to a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis after a recent study proved that years of quitting can help prevent this disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an immune disorder that causes massive swelling and pain in the joints.

A U.S. study, which examined up to 38 years of data on more than 230,000 women, showed that people who quit smoking decades ago are less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than people who gave up cigarettes more recently.

“These results provide evidence for those at increased rheumatoid arthritis risk to quit smoking since this may delay or even prevent the onset of rheumatoid arthritis,” said senior study author Dr. Jeffrey Sparks of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.