Women Smokers are more Susceptible to Cancer: John Hopkins

There is a drastic increase in the number of people getting addicted to smoking all over the world. Besides male smokers, women also tend to use tobacco based products like smoking cigarettes and are increasing their risk to develop cancers.

A new research from New york studied nearly 3000 men and women aged 40 and older who have smoking history. They have taken their age, sex and number of smoking years in to consideration and studied how they impacted the possibility of developing lung cancer. And the research showed that women have twice the risk of developing lung cancer from smoking when compared to men.

At present, lung cancer is found to be the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in United States. During this study the researchers diagnosed 77 lung cancers in both men and women. They further studied that the possibility of cancer based on the size and texture of nodules found in their lungs and they are not yet clear why women have the increased risk of getting cancers. They also found that older people who smoke more are at greater risk of lung cancers.

Another research from the University of Minnesota and John Hopkins University in Baltimore conducted a study on around 4 million people and found that female smokers have a 25% higher risk of contracting heart diseases and double the risk of suffering from lung cancer compared to the males. The experts believe that females are more susceptible to toxic fumes in tobacco, as they smoke fewer cigarettes than men.

Smoking During Pregnancy Makes the Kids Drug Abusers: Study

According to the reports from a credible source in US, an estimated number of about 820,000 women smoke while they are pregnant. The researchers based on the above number have though of conducting research on the kids of these women, to see if this habit was passed to the kids. Surprisingly, they have found an interesting news which may help prevent smoking in mothers.

The study was published in the Journal Epidemiology, which found a link between the mothers habits and the later effects on their kids. They clearly found that smoking by mothers during pregnancy makes their kids use anti anxiety drug, anti psychotics, anti depressants, stimulants and lead to addictions.

Even though the researchers didn't find a direct relation between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and the changes made in the child's brain and behavior they showed a connection that provides another reason which makes the mothers to avoid tobacco.

Their findings showed that usage of tobacco during pregnancy is directly related to the mild and severe psychiatric morbidity. The researchers looked at the data of about, 175,000 children and tracked their use of medications between the ages of 5 and 20. Finally, they found that among children whose mothers are not exposed to tobacco, 8.3 percent of required psychiatric medication while the percentage jumped to 11.3 percent in case of children whose mothers smoked up to nine cigarettes a day, and it was 13.6 percent for the children whose mothers smoked more than 9 per day.

These types of reports may at least create some kind of awareness in the mothers who want to have a perfect child and who grows up in to a stronger one.

Many Women Return to Prison As There are No Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

The results of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health stated that women prisoners were more likely to return to the prison even after release with no participation in substance abuse treatment programs. Most of the women in Canada were found to prone to substance abuse and mental health issues because of the trauma experienced in their lives, such as childhood, sexual or physical abuse, or domestic abuse.

A program called the Community Relapse Prevention and Maintenance program was conducted in 2003 by the Correctional Service of Canada. It was especially for women on parole from six federal prisons. 20, two-hour group sessions were offered on a weekly basis in the program. Around 58.9 percent of women in the program were cocaine abusers and 44.3% of them were crack cocaine abusers. It was found from the study that women who were not exposed to the treatment program were more than 10 times likely to be return to prison within 6 months.

Of the federal prison population in Canada, women constitute 5%, though the number had tripled in the past 20 years. About one-third of them were convicted of drug-related offenses. It was found that drug-using offenders are twice likely to have unstable housing in the community. They are less able to manage stress and are often prone to hospital visits for mental health issues. The study quoted the importance of provision of treatment programs for such women. However, many barriers like childcare and high unemployment rates had been preventing them to participate in substance abuse treatment programs.