How can smoking affect your health?
Smoking raises your risk of heart disease and stroke
Women who smoke greatly increase their risk of heart disease (the leading killer among women) and stroke. The risk goes up with the number of cigarettes smoked and the length of time a woman has been smoking. Even though most of the women who die of heart disease are past menopause, smoking increases the risk more in younger women than in older women. Studies suggest that smoking cigarettes increases the risk of heart disease even more among younger women who are also taking birth control pills.
Smoking damages your lungs
Smoking damages the airways and small air sacs in the lungs. This can cause chronic coughing, wheezing, trouble breathing, and long-term (chronic) lung disease. More than 90% of deaths due to chronic bronchitis and emphysema – together these are known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – are caused by smoking. The risk of COPD goes up with the number of cigarettes smoked each day and with the length of time a woman has been smoking. Female smokers aged 35 or older are almost 13 times more likely to die from emphysema or bronchitis than those who have never smoked. Smoking “low tar” or “light” cigarettes does not reduce these risks, or any of the other health risks of tobacco.
The lungs grow more slowly in teenage girls who smoke. And adult women who smoke start losing lung function in early adulthood.