fitness news
,
Font size Women’s Health
Women smokers developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at an earlier age then men: A study
– Reported, January 07, 2013
Unfortunately, if you’re female, sucking down the cigarettes might cause worse physical complications than our male counterparts. A recent study presented by the American Thoracic Society’s annual meeting found that women developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at an earlier age – and after fewer years of smoking than men.
Previous studies on lung cancer also suggest cigarette smoking will cause lung cancer in women more often than in men, even if they smoke less and don’t start until they’re much older. The researchers are looking at hormones – specifically estrogen – as a possible cause of this increased risk.
“Many people believe that their own smoking is too limited to be harmful — that a few cigarettes a day represent a minimal risk,” said Dr. Inga-Cecilie Soerheim, co-author of the latest study and a research fellow at the Channing Laboratory, a division of Brigham and Young Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “But there is no such thing as a safe amount of cigarette smoking. Our data suggest that this is particularly true for female smokers.”
Looks like your “but I only smoke once a day/when I’m drinking/around other smokers” excuse is bologna.
Everybody is aware of the dangers of smoking. It is absolutely damaging to the human body. While carcinogens in cigarettes pose a hazard to everyone, women are three times as likely as men to get aggressive forms of lung cancer and more likely to develop it at an earlier age. Women are also more likely to die of lung cancer than breast cancer.
Quitting smoking is easier said than done. And women, it turns out, have an even harder time quitting than men. Stronger withdrawal symptoms may be attributed to hormones or the bigger nicotine dose absorbed by smaller female bodies. Regardless of women’s age, the dangers of smoking contribute to infertility, anxiety, blindness, and osteoporosis. Pregnant women who smoke risk not only their health but their babies’ as well. Second hand smoke affects the children and other people around mothers who smoke.
Smoking is a vice that almost always begins during adolescence. When teenagers finish from high school without ever smoking regularly, they probably never will. However, while boys and girls are equally likely to start smoking, the latter get the worse health complications. Young people may exhibit symptoms of addiction within a few days or weeks right after they started smoking.
While cigarette smoking was rare in women during the beginning of the 20th century, the tobacco industry realized the potential of women as a market for the expansion of the cigarette industry. In fact, tobacco companies launched the campaign slogan Instead of a sweet, reach for a smoke to encouraged women to smoke so as not to gain weight. This was followed by You’ve come a long way, baby as a tribute to the burgeoning women’s liberation movement.
These marketing campaigns not only depicted women smokers as beautiful, independent and fun, but also sent subliminal messages that smoking helps women control their weight. Cigarette ads are banned in kids and teens magazines but billion of dollars are spent on t.v., billboards, and adult magazines which can easily be accessed by the youth.
Since 1987, lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States. About 87% of all lung cancer cases in America is directly attributed to smoking. Smoking causes heart disease, which is the number one killer of women in the U.S. The dangers of smoking contribute to respiratory diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, as well as many kinds of cancer.
Women who smoke also harm their appearance as smoking speeds up the aging process and produce more facial wrinkles, gum disease, dental decay, and halitosis. Mental health is also affected due to depression and anxiety disorders. Women are more likely to be depressed than non-smokers, and that women with anxiety disorders are more likely to smoke.
Some women, however, are finding creative ways to break the habit for good. Engaging in activities where smoking wouldn’t fit, such as exercising, biking, mountain-climbing, as well as turning to a non-smoking lifestyle that includes going to smoke-free places with your kids.
The dangers of smoking for women has increased attention and awareness from women’s organizations, resulting in a number of projects that focus on supporting tobacco cessation efforts specifically for women.
We fall victim to lung cancer without even putting a stick to our lips and are encumbered with mounting pollution from flicked cigarette filter waste. So why would an increasing number of women add insult to fatal injury by smoking?
The question is like the unfunny butt of a cruel joke and is puzzling everyone clean air advocates, anti-tobacco lobbyists and health care experts. Weve got the tools to quit the nicotine patch and the Honeyrose herbal cigarettes along with public restrictions and societal pressures. Yet more of us are puffing away in our cars, hotel rooms, Euro cafes or any other designated spot just to get that fix.
Its one thing to watch my stubborn, 72-year-old Aunt Dorothy ducking outside to smoke at family events (despite a bad stomach and a husband who suffers from emphysema); its another matter to watch young, healthy women taking up the addictive habit to deal with stress or to control their weight the primary causes for the growing trend say the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control which have been monitoring the numbers.
Latest reports show female smokers make up nearly 20 percent of the worlds tobacco smokers, and that figure is likely to grow due to successful ad campaigns targeting women, with consumption growing fastest among younger women and girls.
As a result, the rate of deaths among this population is also likely to grow adding to the 5 million who now die each year worldwide from tobacco use and passive smoking. The WHO says the number could reach 8 million deaths by 2030.
To combat the millions the tobacco industry spends each year on ads, health advocates are now trying to step up public awareness campaigns along with anti-smoking restrictions, taxes and bans, especially in low income, developing nations with few controls.
In Indonesia, for example, the tobacco industry is the second largest generator of revenue and a main employer of the third world population and cigarettes are widely advertised to keep that revenue flowing. The ads are the opposite of ours, attempting to play up the cool factor of smoking American brands.
Meanwhile, the American Cancer Society is grappling with the contradiction of reduced lung cancer cases in men the past few years along with an increased rate in women. Whats puzzling is that women who dont smoke are more apt to get lung cancer than men who dont smoke this despite the fact more men die of the disease than women a projected 86,000 men in 2010 compared with 71,000 women. It is believed estrogen is a possible factor.
It all begs the question: If we know we are more prone in general, then why are more young women lighting up?
According to a recent NPR forum, researchers find women have a harder time keeping their vows to quit and tend to succumb to relapse, relying on tobacco to cope with anxiety. As someone who craved a smoke whenever I stepped foot in a newsroom, I can relate.
Research from the Yale School of Medicine found cigarettes fill many roles for women who smoke in reducing negative mood, even enhancing positive mood, managing the stress of daily life and also managing appetite and weight gain.
Its true, many gain up to 15 pounds the first month they quit. And often it is the scale that prompts women watching their weight to relapse. For this reason, researchers are studying certain therapies to assist in quitting, such as exercising to control both weight and stress. Environmentalists want to link another motivator: personal responsibility in reducing pollution that turns Earth into an ashtray. An estimated several trillion cigarette butts are flicked on sidewalks, beaches, nature trails and other public places worldwide each year.
The non-profit CigaretteLitter.com works to discourage the blight, arguing the toxic residue in filters are not just unsightly, but damaging to our environment causing destructive and even fatal fires each year. And the site WhyQuit.com offers blueprints for quitting to those who care deeply about the planet but still crave that Salem Light every time they sip a cocktail at the neighborhood watering hole.
Some women simply opt for cold turkey which many attest is the only way to go- and stay away from friends who smoke, just like over-eaters might not want to hang with other emotional eaters.
Or, you can go the way of the teen daughters in Keeping up with the Kardashians, a reality show that strongly influences young female viewers. In an anti-smoking themed episode, stage mama Kris Jenner is scared into quitting when she witnesses her girls puffing away (dad helped by buying them the rose and marshmallow substitutes). It got the kids grounded, but mom saw the light.
Credits: http://expedition-megacosm.blogspot.in/
