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How Smoking Affects Teens and Children

How Smoking Affects Men

How Smoking Affects Mothers-to-be

High Blood Pressure

Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

How Smoking Affects Women

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Living the Kinetix Lifestyle

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Cancer Awareness Month

How Smoking Affects Women

Like men, women who smoke face an increased risk of heart disease. This risk increases significantly after menopause if the woman takes estrogen as hormone replacement therapy.

It also appears that lung cancer risk is greater in women who smoke than in men. One study showed that women who smoked the equivalent of a pack a day for 40 years had a cancer risk three times higher than a man smoking the same amount. Other studies have found higher levels of cellular damage in the genes of female smokers, suggesting that cigarette smoke causes more harm to women than to men.

Smoking also causes a significant increase in the risk of osteoporosis. Women who smoke a pack a day can lose five to ten percent more bone than non-smokers, by the time they reach menopause.

Women also appear to become more addicted to the chemicals in cigarette smoke. A U.K. study showed that only 18 percent of women who smoked more than 15 cigarettes a day have quit smoking, compared with 25 percent of men.