THE MEDICAL director of the Irish Heart Foundation has described research showing that women smokers are 25 per cent more likely to have heart problems than men who smoke as “powerful”.
Dr Angie Brown said “this new research, combining 86 studies of four million people, showed smoking increased the risk of heart disease by 25 per cent in women compared to men. This alarming statistic is in keeping with other data, but is very powerful because of the large numbers involved.”
“We know that nicotine is metabolised differently in women than in men, and it’s likely that some of the other 4,000 chemicals and carcinogens in tobacco smoke may be having a more potent effect on women due to biological differences.”
The authors of the research in the Lancet, Dr Rachel R Huxley of the University of Minnesota and Dr Mark Woodward of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said: “Cigarette smoking is one of the main causes of coronary heart disease worldwide and will remain so as populations that have so far been relatively unscathed by the smoking epidemic begin to smoke to a degree previously noted only in high- income countries.
“This expectation is especially true for young women in whom the popularity of smoking, particularly in some low-income and middle-income countries, might be on the rise.”
In a linked editorial comment, Dr Matthew A Steliga at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Dr Carolyn M Dresler of Arkansas Department of Health’s tobacco prevention programme, said: “What makes the realisation that women are at increased risk worrisome is that the tobacco industry views women as its growth market.”
Dr Brown said it was never too late to stop smoking, pointing out that within five years of quitting, a person’s risk of heart attack falls to half that of a smoker, and within 10 years they will have about the same risk as someone who never smoked.