Women should quit
smoking to lower their risk of heart disease
Smoking is still the
leading preventable cause of death. Not only does tobacco smoke cause lung
cancer, it is also implicated in heart disease, other cancers and respiratory
diseases. As per WHO, an estimated 3 million people in industrialized countries
will have died as a result of tobacco use by 2030, and an additional 7 million
people in developing countries face the same fate.
The harms of smoking
are reversible and can decline to the level of nonsmokers, as per a report in
Journal of the American Medical Association, said Padma Shri, Dr A Marthanda Pillai National President IMA and Padma Shri, Dr BC Roy National Awardee &
DST National Science Communication Awardee, Dr KK Aggarwal, President
Heart Care Foundation of India and Honorary Secretary General IMA.
Women who quit smoking
have a 21 percent lower risk of dying from coronary heart disease within five
years of quitting their last cigarette. The risk of dying from other conditions
also declines after quitting, although the time frame varies depending on the
disease. For chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it may take up to 20 years.
It's never too early to stop, and it's never too late to stop.
Women who are current
smokers have almost triple their risk of overall death compared with nonsmoker
women. Current smokers also have a 63 percent increased risk for colon cancer
compared with never-smokers, while former smokers have a 23 percent increased
risk. There was no significant association between smoking and ovarian cancer.
Women who started
smoking early in life are at a higher risk for overall mortality i.e. of dying
from respiratory disease and from any smoking-related disease. However, a
smoker's overall risk of dying returns to the level of a never-smoker 20 years
after quitting. The overall risk declines by 13 percent within the first five
years of abstaining. Most of the excess risk of dying from coronary heart
disease vanishes within five years of quitting.
For chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease, the return to normal takes 20 years, although
there is an 18 percent reduction in the risk of death seen within five to 10
years after quitting. And the risk for lung cancer does not return
to normal for 30 years after quitting, although there is a 21 percent reduction
in risk within the first five years.
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