Emedinews : Cigarettes hurt women's hearts more than men's

As per the results from a large systematic review and meta-analysis compared with nonsmokers, women smokers have a 25% greater relative risk of coronary heart blockages than men who smoke independent of other cardiovascular risk factors.

The study in Lancet by Rachel R. Huxley, DPhil, from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and Mark Woodward PhD, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, further shows that the risk increases by 2% for every additional year of study follow-up.

Women might extract a greater quantity of carcinogens and other toxic agents from the same number of cigarettes than men. This explains why women who smoke have double the risk of lung cancer compared with their male counterparts.

Men who quit smoking also fared better than women who quit.

Although more men than women smoke, those women who do smoke have a greater risk of coronary heart disease and therefore targeting of both sexes is imperative for smoking prevention.