According to a new study young women who are smokers have double the chance of getting a stroke as their peers who do not smoke. The risk becomes bigger the more cigarettes a woman smokes a day.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Women 15 to 49 were studied. It was found that women who smoke one to 10 cigarettes a day increased their risk of stroke 2.2 times; those smoking 21 to 39 cigarettes a day increased their risk fourfold; for the heaviest smokers, having over 40 cigarettes a day were increasing their risk by 9.1 times.
466 people who had their first stroke were followed. They were compared with a group of 609 women who were of the same race, age and ethnicity, who had not had a stroke. It was found that after 5 years of quitting smoking the women had the same chance of getting a stroke as the women who had never smoked.
This is one good reason for women to stop smoking but the most important part of the survey was not emphasized – women who smoke did have the chance to decrease their risk of stroke.
[Via: WebMD]
