Lung cancer, not breast cancer, is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women. Almost all lung cancer deaths in women are caused by smoking.
If you smoke, quitting now is the best thing you can do for your health. You'll have more energy, you'll breathe easier, and your children and other people in your home will be healthier too.
There are plenty of important reasons to quit smoking now. It's good for your heart, good for your lungs, and good for your family. When you stop smoking a pack a day, you'll save $1,800 a year on cigarettes.
Here are some more good reasons to quit smoking:
- Working women smokers report more days lost from work from illness and injury than working women who do not smoke.
- Heart disease is the #1 killer of women in the United States. You are 4 times more likely to die from coronary heart disease if you smoke.
- Women who smoke have more heart attacks, cancers, oral health problems and lung conditions.
- Women who smoke are more likely to have a miscarriage or a lower birth-weight baby.
- Tobacco is responsible for 17% of all female deaths in the United States.
- Most deaths attributable to tobacco are from lung cancer, coronary heart disease, and chronic airway obstruction.
- Women who smoke are more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than their male counterparts.
- Females appear to be more sensitive to second-hand smoke than males.
- Men and women may start smoking for different reasons. Men report starting to smoke to be more energetic and alert, whereas women start smoking for stress reduction.
- When women smoke and drink alcohol, the nicotine appears to enhance the effects of alcohol. In men, the nicotine appears to dilute some of the sedating and intoxicating effects of alcohol.
- Although high school girls and boys use tobacco products at approximately equal rates, among those who do not smoke, girls were 54% more likely than boys to report that they had considered smoking.
- Women are less successful than men in quitting smoking, although they join smoking cessation groups more often than men for social support.
- Women experience more severe withdrawal symptoms than men when quitting smoking.
- Girls born to mothers who smoke have worse lung function compared to boys.
Source: her healthy life .org & her cancer .com
