Menopausal Women and Smoking
Over the years many studies have been done on menopause, and now people understand that it is a natural progression from years of reproduction into perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause. Each step of the way comes with changes in the body, and there are many outside factors that can influence these necessary and natural changes. One of the worst outside factors is smoking.
Menopause begins as a woman’s ovaries cease to create estrogen. There are specific genes known as Bax and Ahr that appear in higher amounts as a woman enters the beginning stages of true menopause. Interestingly enough, cigarette smoke contains chemical compounds that actually activate these genes and effectively begin the process much earlier than normal. Documentary evidence indicates that a woman with a ten cigarette a day habit is roughly forty percent more likely to go into early menopause than a non-smoker. This translates to an average of two years ahead of time.
While some women might appreciate an early end to the reproductive phase of their life, this comes with some major side effects. Menopause is a time when heart disease, bone loss and osteoporosis, and strokes are more common due to the change in body chemistry. Kicking this process into advanced speeds while simultaneously reducing the body’s ability to combat the issues is a disastrous choice.
Not only will any possible health conditions become more likely, but the most common side effects of menopause, such as hot flashes, insomnia, and moodiness will usually be much stronger in a smoker too.
Once a woman has entered into the post-menopausal period the effects of their choice to continue smoking will still continue to show. For one thing, bone density suffers after menopause, and smoking is something that seriously impedes the body’s ability to metabolize and use calcium properly. When this is happening during the post-menopausal period a woman is far more likely to suffer serious bone fractures. Any fractures in a smoker tend to take much longer to heal than in the non-smoker too.
What all of this adds up to is quite plain – smoking can bring menopause on much earlier than is natural, and this in turn causes some serious health risks. If smoking does not come to an end during menopause, the individual is at significantly increased risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, respiratory problems, stroke, and bone fractures. Simply entering into a stop smoking program can dramatically reduce the problems and greatly improve the overall health of the individual.
