The increased risk of heart disease caused by cigarette smoking is reduced by half after 1 year and to that of a never smoker in 10 to 15 years after quitting smoking. Quitting smoking also, over time, reduces cancer risks. In the early 1900s, the first women smokers liked to see themselves as fashionable, liberated, and more than a little risqu . Women have always been good at supporting each other. It's easy to become hooked on nicotine, even after three or four cigarettes.
Nicotine can be as powerfully addictive as heroin or cocaine.
It often takes more than one attempt to quit. Tobacco doesn't discriminate Tobacco gives women an equal chance to develop emphysema, chronic bronchitis, peripheral vascular disease, heart disease, stroke, cancers of the mouth, larynx, bladder and cervix. Women smokers who use contraceptive pills are 10 to 20 times more likely to suffer from heart disease and are at greatly increased risk for stroke than non-smokers. Cigarette smoking has recently been associated with cancer of the cervix, a disease likely to strike younger women. Smoking causes reduced estrogen levels in women, thereby contributing to menstrual disorders, early menopause and osteoporosis.