Generally speaking, the risks involved in poor eating or poor exercise habits are equivalent among the sexes. But when it comes to smoking – a deadly habit for men and women both – there’s a greater risk for developing serious health conditions as a female smoker than as a male.

Just name the disease or illness, and the chances of developing it are that much greater by smoking. From lung cancer to throat cancer, heart disease to thyroid disease, pneumonia to bronchitis, you’re gambling with house money by messing with these nicotine ninnies.

Fortunately, Americans are recognizing this risk, as the prevalence of smoking has dropped dramatically over the years, from a high of 57 percent among men in 1955, down to 24 percent among men in 2007 (according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention). And while women have always had lower rates of smoking compared to men, the rate of smoking between the two sexes has grown progressively closer from year to year. In 1955, for example, just over 28 percent of women smoked, a 29 point gap compared to the 57 percent of men. But in 2007, that gap had narrowed to a mere 6 percent difference (24 percent of men, 18 percent of women).

And what makes this narrowing of numbers particularly disturbing is that women are getting the lion’s share of the negative health effects associated with smoking and its impact on the heart.

It’s a fairly well-known fact that women tend to live longer than men. But according to a group of Norwegian researchers, women essentially rescind that biological factoid if they smoke. At a conference held by the European Society of Cardiology, lead researcher Dr. Morten Grundtvig and colleagues presented an array of sobering statistics, the most sobering of which appears below. The data was based on the health conditions of approximately 1,800 patients, all of whom had experienced their first heart attack and underwent treatment at a Lillehammer-based hospital:

• The average age of the men who’d experienced a heart attack and were also smokers was 64 (72 among non-smokers)
• The average age of the women who’d experienced a heart attack and were also smokers was 66 (81 among non-smokers)

As you can see, the gap between male and female heart attacks is nine years when smoking was not part of the equation; that gap was narrowed to just two years if smoking was a factor!

Among other findings, the researchers also believe that menopause is brought on quicker through smoking.

The advantages men have over women and the ones women have over men run the gamut, but the ultimate advantage women have over men is their natural inclination to live longer – no small advantage to say the least. But as the researchers in this study say, smoking essentially removes that advantage women have over men if they smoke.

To my female readers everywhere: if you smoke, the time to quit was yesterday. Please read about the things you can do to break the habit in my article “Naturally Eliminate Your Smoking Dependency.”