Cigarette Smoking and Your Health

Cigarette smoking is the single largest preventable cause of disease and death in the United States. It is estimated that over 400,000 Americans die each year from diseases linked to cigarette smoking. Women who smoke cannot avoid the problems related to smoking. Each cigarette does some harm. Even young women can have health problems caused by smoking.

The average cigarette smoker shortens her life by 5-8 years. Lung cancer and lung disease, heart attack, stillbirth (delivery of a baby that shows no sign of life), miscarriage (the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the fetus can survive outside the uterus), and low birth weight babies (weighing less than 5 1/2 pounds at birth) are all linked to cigarette smoking. Lung cancer has become the number one cancer killer of women in some states. More American women die from lung cancer than from breast cancer.

As many as 29% of American women smoke cigarettes. The number of female smokers aged 12-18 years has doubled in 10 years. More teenage girls than boys now smoke. And the number of women smoking more than one pack of cigarettes per day is increasing.

Chronic Lung Disease
Smoking can cause chronic lung diseases. Emphysema is a disease that destroys the elasticity of the lungs. disease makes exhaling difficult, and the patient is gasping for breath. Almost 80% of patients with emphysema smoke. And if you smoke, you are five times more likely to develop chronic bronchitis , a severe lung infection. This disease produces a steady hacking cough and shortness of breath. In smokers it leads to severe disability and death even more often than cancer does.

Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is one type of cancer that can almost always be prevented by not smoking. Your risk of cancer increases with the number of cigarettes you smoke. A heavy smoker is 24 times more likely to develop cancer than a nonsmoker.

Heart Disease
Smoking is responsible for about 170,000 premature heart attacks in the United States each year. And heart disease is the major cause of death for American women. If you smoke, you double your chance of developing heart disease.

Carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke slows the transfer of oxygen from the blood to body tissue. Nicotine starts your heart pounding 15-25 beats per minute faster. You blood pressure goes up by 15-25 points. When combined with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol, smoking multiplies your risk of having a heart attack.

The Benefits of Quitting
Quitting reverses much of the damage caused by smoking. When you stop smoking, your body begins to repair itself. With time your health risks will equal those of a Nonsmoker. After you quit smoking your lungs begin to repair themselves. Eventually, an ex-smoker's lungs will resemble a nonsmoker's lungs.

Quitting and Pregnancy
By quitting, a pregnant woman helps not only herself but also her fetus. The early weeks of pregnancy are important for the fetus, because it is during this time that the organs are formed. The safest way to avoid any risk to the fetus is to quit smoking before you become pregnant.

If you are already pregnant, the sooner you quit the better it will be for your baby. If you stop smoking during the early months of your pregnancy, your baby will benefit immediately. Your chance of delivering a low-birth-weight baby will also approach that of a nonsmoker.

Quit Smoking Today
Join LGH for a free monthly smoking cessation support group, meeting on the third Wednesday of each month from 6-7pm in the Donovan Conference Room. A trained American Lung Association Freedom from Smoking Facilitator will be available at each session. For more information, please call Michelle Davis at 978-937-6038.

Source: Patient education material from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology was used as a source of information to develop the content for this topic.