Women smokers face add’l risks unique to thei

It looks like all those TV and print ads enticing women to pick up the smoking habit have worked. Recent studies show that today’s women are smoking nearly as much as men – and are starting to die from smoking-related illnesses at the same rate. This gives a sinister, new meaning to that old cigarette ad proclaiming, "You’ve come a long way, baby!"

For years, more men smoked compared to women, but that once-wide gender gap in smoking prevalence has begun to narrow. As the number of women in the workplace increased, so did the number of women smokers. The "nineties’ women" smoked more than her counterparts in earlier generations. In fact, the number of Filipino women who smoke has doubled over the past decade.

Unfortunately, the trend is likely to continue as smoking habits begin in the teenage years. Related studies also show that more teenage girls are smoking now than 15 years ago, unlike their male peers, who are smoking less.

And even if women are only starting to catch up with men in terms of smoking, it seems that they already have a headstart in contracting smoking-related diseases. Researchers in the United States found that the gene linked to lung cancer is more active in women than in men. This makes female smokers twice as likely to develop lung cancer at alarming rates after only minimal exposure to cigarette smoke. Moreover, non-smoking women are more susceptible to the effects of second-hand smoke.

Smoking also causes numerous other cancers, heart ailment and lung diseases such as bronchitis and emphysema in male and female smokers alike.

Apart from the usual smoking-related illnesses, women smokers also face additional risks that are unique to their gender such as dangerous blood clots among users of birth control pills, dysmenorrhea, menstrual irregularities and earlier menopause, infertility, hip fractures and cervical cancer.

Dangers of smoking during pregnancy, on the other hand, include low-birth-weight babies, stillbirths, preterm delivery and miscarriages.

Despite these health dangers, however, women continue to smoke. Studies show that kicking the habit may be more difficult for women than men. Smokers who try to quit often gain weight as a result of both increased appetite and a diminished metabolism.

In a weight-conscious culture, this may be enough to dissuade many women from even trying. The typical weight gain associated with smoking cessation is six to 12 pounds and most stop-smoking aids such as nicotine patches and gums do little to control it.

Fortunately, there is a stop-smoking pill that helps curb the weight gain associated with smoking cessation. Zyban (bupropion SR) makes quitting more bearable by reducing the cravings and withdrawal symptoms that smokers experience a few days after their last puff. It does this by altering the levels of chemicals in the brain that are related to nicotine addiction.

Experts believe that these chemicals are also involved in the regulation of appetite, which may explain why Zyban users gain less weight that those who quit with the help of other smoking-cessation therapies.

While this drug is not meant to be taken as a weight-loss medication, its ability to minimize weight gain during quit attempts certainly makes for one less argument against smoking cessation. Indeed, women smokers have nothing to lose and everything to gain by quitting smoking.