Postmenopausal Women Who Quit Smoking Reduce Risk of Heart Disease Regardless of Diabetes Status

Regardless of the diabetes status, postmenopausal women who quit smoking could reduce the risk of heart disease.

The study "Smoking Cessation Weight Change and Coronary Heart Disease Among Postmenopausal Women With and Without Diabetes" was conducted by Juhua Luo, an epidemiologist at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington and was published online in the Journal of the American Medical Assocaition.

From the study the researcher learnt that those women who gained more than 5 kg or 11 pounds on quitting smoking noticed a fall in the risk of cardiovascular disease. But those who gained less than 11 pounds, noticed a bigger drop in the risk of cardiovascular disease.

To prove the finding, the researcher examined data of 104,391 postmenopausal women belonging to the age group 50-79. They had participated in the National Institutes of Health-funded Women's Health Initiative.

On examining the data, she noticed that when compared to women who didn't quit smoking, those women who quit smoking and didn't have diabetes had a 26 percent lower risk of developing heart disease. Those who quit smoking for more than three years had 61 percent low risk of developing heart diseases. Those with diabetes, who quit smoking had 60 percent lower risk of heart disease.

"Our study found that if you quit smoking, even for older women, the benefits start pretty quickly, within years," said Luo. "It's never too late to benefit from quitting smoking."