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Osteoporosis affects most people if they happen to live long enough. But there are certain things one can do to reduce the risk of osteoporosis such as participating in regular physical activity and ensure getting at least 1000mg to 1500mg of calcium daily. Smoking causes a significant increase in the risk of bone loss and developing osteoporosis. Approximately 34,000 deaths each year in women from ischemic heart problems are directly attributed to smoking. Although most of these deaths are in women past menopause, the risk of smoking-related heart disease is also significantly higher in young women smokers. Researchers have found a fifty percent greater risk of heart attack in women smokers than men smokers. This difference may be due to the interaction of estrogen with the chemicals found in cigarettes.
Studies show that smoking may lead to the development of cervical cancer; one study found an 80 percent greater risk of developing cervical cancer in women smokers than non-smokers. Cervical cancer patients who quit smoking or at least drastically reduced smoking may have a greater chance of remission and survival than patients who continued smoking. The American Cancer Society recently published the results of a study which revealed that breast cancer patients who smoke may increase their risk of dying at least by twenty-five percent. The relieving news is that if you quit smoking immediately, your potential risk of dying as a result of future breast cancer remains the same as for a nonsmoker. Medical experts say that another type of cancer which may occur more frequently in women smokers is vulva cancer. Women smokers face a forty percent higher risk of developing this cruel form of gynecological cancer.
Most of us are aware that smoking is the single largest cause of preventable cancer deaths. Each year smoking causes around 32,000 deaths due to ling cancer and quite a few thousands from other cancers. Smoking just one or two cigarettes a day is adequate to cause lung cancer. Chronic lung disease is also common among older smokers. Smoking also increases your risk of cardiac arrests. If you smoke and also at the same time consume contraceptive pills, your risk of heart disease is 30 times more than that of a non-smoker.
Women should know that smoking also affects the skin and leads to dermatological problems. The aging symptoms are faster in smokers, with the early appearance of wrinkles and thinning of the skin. It is heartening to note that many of the benefits of quitting smoking can be had immediately. It will tremendously improve appetite, food will taste better and breathing will become much easier. Even if one has smoked for 30 years, the risk of heart disease will halve within a year of stopping.
Today, 21% of adult women in the U.S. smoke, compared to 26% of adult men. But researchers say this gender difference is constantly narrowing. This is evident as lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States.
Despite scientific studies that show the traumatic effects smoking has on the mind and body, millions continue to smoke. The health benefits when you quit smoking are immediate and substantial. Almost immediately, a person's circulation begins to improve and the level of carbon monoxide in the blood begins to decline. Within a few days of quitting, a person's sense of taste and smell return, and breathing becomes increasingly easier. |
