Bad choices

How do you deal with people who make bad choices that affect primarily themselves?

My mother had open heart surgery and had two heart values replaced. Her heart stopped when she was in pre-op and they had to revive her, just to do the surgery. After surgery, she quit drinking and smoking for several years. Eventually, she decided she didn't have that long to live anyhow, and she wanted to do what she enjoyed so she went back to smoking and drinking. She was dead of a heart attack within a year.

My father was a long time smoker. He actually quit a couple of times, but only briefly and went back to smoking. He was diagnosed with emphysema but continued to smoke. He developed congestive heart failure, but smoked until he was put on oxygen 24 hours a day. As far as I know, he stopped smoking then, but the damage was done. He died of congestive heart failure, though she managed to live longer than my mother - his ex-wife.

They both did what they knew was bad for them, and died years earlier than they might otherwise have done. There was nothing I could do about either one but watch.