Table of Contents
- WHAT ARE THE CANCER RISKS FOR WOMEN WHO SMOKE?
- WHAT ARE THE CARDIOVASCULAR RISKS FOR WOMEN WHO SMOKE?
- DO WOMEN WHO SMOKE HAVE A SHORTER LIFE SPAN?
- WHAT ARE THE PREGNANCY RISKS FROM SMOKING?
- DOES SMOKING IMPACT AGEING AND WRINKLES?
- WHAT ARE THE SMOKING RELATED BONE PROBLEMS FOR WOMEN?
- HOW DOES SMOKING AFFECT WOMENS FITNESS?
- DOES SMOKING LEAD TO MENSTRUAL PROBLEMS?
- WHAT ARE THE MOUTH COMPLICATIONS FROM SMOKING FOR WOMEN?
- CAN SMOKO HELP WOMEN WHO SMOKE?
- REFERENCES
Are you a woman who smokes? Do you have a loved one or someone else who is looking to quit smoking?
Then this guide on the effects of women smoking that can help convince you or someone you know quit cigarettes and move on to electronic cigarettes.
This is especially important to read as a new study has just been released on the high risks that impact female smokers (1). For example, women under 50 who smoke have the highest chance of a serious heart attack compared to male smokers and non-smokers.
WHAT ARE THE CANCER RISKS FOR WOMEN WHO SMOKE?
This may be obvious but it bears repeating - cigarettes are by far the biggest preventable cause of cancer.
Smoking causes more than 1 in 4 cancer deaths, and nearly a fifth of all cancer.
In 1 cigarette there are over 50 known carcinogens that enter your body with every single puff.
While women smoking rates may be falling across the UK, lung cancer figures are still on the rise in women. Overall cancer rates (2) in women are increasing 6 times faster than in men, and that number will continue to rise over the next 20 years.
Breast cancer has unsurprisingly also been linked to smoking, which is also expected to rise in the upcoming years.
WHAT ARE THE CARDIOVASCULAR RISKS FOR WOMEN WHO SMOKE?
If you are a female smoker, then you are doubling your risk of developing coronary heart disease amongst other cardiovascular problems (3). In fact, women under 50 have the highest risk of heart attack compared to both male smokers and non-smokers!
And it's not only a slightly higher risk as well. Young female smokers are almost 13 times more likely to suffer a heart attack than their male counterparts!
To make it even worse, women who smoke are more likely to have complications after a heart attack compared to men who smoke.
The study concluded that this was due to women having physically smaller hearts then men do, so the damage caused by smoking has even more effect.
You'll also increase your risk of stroke, amongst other cardiovascular problems. This will further decrease your lifespan and potentially cause a major heart event in your younger years.
DO WOMEN WHO SMOKE HAVE A SHORTER LIFE SPAN?
Women who have smoked for a long time will lose around 10 years from their overall life expectancy (4). Women are not different from men in this addiction, nor will they suffer fewer effects of smoking.
On average a cigarette takes about 11 minutes of your lifespan. For even an average smoker that is taking over 3 ½ hours of your life a day.
However, if you quit before the age of 35, you are more likely to gain those years back.
E-cigarettes don’t have the 50 known carcinogens that cigarettes do, and so if you want to live longer, making the switch would definitely be a positive step in the right direction.
WHAT ARE THE PREGNANCY RISKS FROM SMOKING?
It’s a fact that women who smoke have a harder time getting pregnant.
And, if you smoke while you're pregnant, then you'll also have a higher chance of losing your baby due to:
- Miscarriages
- Stillbirth
- Premature births
- Sudden Infant Deaths
We talk about this in more detail in another blog But even with all the health warnings about smoking and the know impact cigarettes have on an unborn child, 11% of expecting mothers continue to smoke!
It is actually the standard advice for both the NHS and the Royal Collage of Midwives that you should definitely stop smoking when pregnant, but if you can’t then they recommend that e-cigarettes are a better solution because they are at least 95% less harmful then cigarettes.
DOES SMOKING IMPACT AGEING AND WRINKLES?
It’s a fact of life that ageing affects us all. No matter what we do, wrinkles slowly appear in the corner of your eyes and mouth.
Although it may be inevitable, it doesn’t mean we should help it along! So if you are worried about those pesky wrinkles, then you definitely need to quit smoking today.
Smoking can make you appear prematurely old due to changes in your skin, teeth, and hair. Smoking deprives your skin of oxygen and nutrients, so smokers can expect to see these facial changes:
- Uneven skin tone
- Sagging skin
- Smoker's pucker (5)
- Loss of skin’s elasticity
- Age spots
- Crow's Feet and eye wrinkles
Every time you puff on a cigarette you are replacing the needed oxygen that goes towards keeping your skin in good condition with toxins and carbon monoxide.
WHAT ARE THE SMOKING RELATED BONE PROBLEMS FOR WOMEN?
This issue is often overlooked, but smoking can have a serious effect on the bones as well, which can cause a whole host of problems for you.
Postmenopausal women have a lower bone density than younger women as the reduction of oestrogen weakens the bones (6). But if you smoke it can speed up this process! This decrease in bone density can increase your chances of breaking a hip or other bone injuries.
Not to mention, women are more likely to get rheumatoid arthritis . Rheumatoid arthritis, an inflammatory chronic condition is a painful disease that will cause swelling and pain in your joints.
Smoking then takes the worst parts of growing older, the strange pains and aches you develop, and makes them much worse.
But it’s not just postmenopausal women who are effected, women of any age will lose bone mass due to smoking. And though this might seem like a great way to keep slim, people who smoke suffer more fractures and take longer to heal. They also get arthritis at a much earlier age than non-smokers.
HOW DOES SMOKING AFFECT WOMENS FITNESS?
This one is self-explanatory. All smokers feel it at one point or another; when they are climbing a flight of stairs or jogging for the bus, that feeling that you are way more out of breath then you would ever be from light exercise.
Women who smoke will have poor fitness levels, as their pulmonary conditioning will not be as strong as those women who do not smoke.
The myth that you can smoke and still be fit is just that, a myth. It doesn’t matter that you go to the gym 3 times a week, the smoke you inhale 20 times a day in clogging up your lungs and damaging them.
And as we said previously, smoking damages women’s hearts more severely then men, causing it to pump harder to achieve what a non-smokers heart could do with ease. As a woman who smokes then your heart is already having a hard time doing everyday activities, let alone exercise.
DOES SMOKING LEAD TO MENSTRUAL PROBLEMS?
If you're a woman who smokes cigarettes, then you may experience more irregular or painful menstrual cycles because smoking can change female hormone levels.
Women smokers are also more likely to go through worse symptoms of menopause and at a younger age.
That means, if you are a young female who lights up you can look forward to:
- Lower levels of oestrogen
- Hot flashes
- Night Sweats
- Increased anxiety or irritability
- The need to urinate more often
WHAT ARE THE MOUTH COMPLICATIONS FROM SMOKING FOR WOMEN?
Last but not least, mouth complications are at higher levels due to women smoking.
Smoking interferes with the normal function of gum tissue cells, which can lead to a variety of problems (7). This includes gum disease, which can lead to bone and tooth loss, and other infections.
This is a vicious cycle. Smoking causes the gum disease, which leads to infections, prolongs the infection (as you heal slower as a smoker) which means the infection spreads more. With more of your mouth infected, the risk of gum disease is more likely.
That’s why when you see long time 40 a day smokers, they almost never have all their teeth.
So for a woman who smokes, they can experience tooth loss, bad breath, and stained teeth. Not to mention, the risk of cancer of the mouth, lips, and tongue. Knowing all of this, switching from cigarettes is a positive way to save the appearance and health of your mouth today.
CAN SMOKO HELP WOMEN WHO SMOKE?
If you or someone you know is a smoker, then switching to SMOKO can help to reduce the impact that smoking can have on our bodies.
SMOKO E-Cigarettes can help women smokers reduce or eliminate traditional cigarettes from their lives. This is due to the fact that electronic cigarettes only have a few simple ingredients compared to real cigarettes.
Electronic cigarettes do not contain tobacco or tar, which greatly decreases of second-hand smoke for those around you.
In fact they are 95% less harmful for you then cigarettes according to Public Health England! (8)
Electronic cigarettes have no smell, so the cigarette smell will no longer linger on your clothes, in your hair, on your breath, or even in your surroundings.
Not to mention the convenience and cheaper costs of electronic cigarettes compared to cigarettes. Plus with SMOKO, we use the highest quality ingredients to create the best electronic cigarette in the UK.
Want to quit smoking? Why not try the UK made realistic e-cigarette free!
REFERENCES
(1) Women who smoke face highest risk of heart attack
(2) Cancer cases among women rising six times faster than men
(3) Young women smokers at much higher risk of deadly heart attack
(4) Putting a Number on Smoking's Toll
(6) The Effects of Smoking on Bone Health
(8) E-Cigarettes around 95% less harmful than tobacco estimates landmark review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written by Mike Cameron
Mike Cameron is a former smoker of 15 years (2 packs a day) until he successfully quit using a cigalike. Mike is the Co-Founder and CEO of SMOKO E-Cigarettes and over the last 10 years, SMOKO has prevented 600M+ cigarettes from being smoked, helped their customers save £320M+ of their hard-earned money from going up in smoke and helped 10,000’s of adult smokers in 25+ countries to live smoke-free.
