E-cigarettes and women’s health

The impact of tobacco use on women’s health has long been a concern of doctors

– and many women struggle to give up smoking despite warnings about the risks of osteoporosis, heart attack and stroke.

Pregnancy is often a turning point for women smokers and the guilt associated with using tobacco while pregnant is well documented in the media.

Smoking tobacco can increase the risk of stillbirth and low birth weight, as tobacco smoke can limit oxygen supply to the foetus.

At one time nicotine gum and patches were not recommended for pregnant women, although this advice has been relaxed, especially for women in their third trimester of pregnancy. However, any nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) programme in pregnancy should only be followed on the advice of a doctor, including using e-cigarettes as NRT.

Using electronic cigarettes during pregnancy is not generally advisable, simply because nicotine is powerful stimulant which can increase heart rate and also works on the nervous system, potentially causing stress to the foetus.

The benefits of electronic cigarettes, however, include the fact that nicotine replacement refills are available in varying strengths, and start from zero nicotine, so that smokers can still enjoy the feel of handling a cigarette and inhaling without causing stress to the foetus by an intake of nicotine.

For women smokers trying to cut back on nicotine consumption for whatever reason, the need to handle a cigarette can be as important as the actual intake of nicotine.

Women may also fear putting on weight when they give up tobacco, as nicotine suppresses the appetite. The combination of needing to handle a cigarette and feeling hungrier when you quit smoking can soon have a smoker trying to quit reaching for the biscuit tin.

Smoking tobacco can increase the risk of stroke, heart attack and osteoporosis (brittle bone disease) in women, but piling on the pounds can also put extra pressure on the heart and arteries, as well as placing stress on major joints like the hips and knees and coating vital organs in a layer of fat.

Tobacco use also ages the skin, as the smoke literally tans your hide and produces deep lines round the eyes, mouth and on the forehead.

Often a smoker’s teeth become stained and grey, and hair can also become discoloured and yellowing from tobacco smoke.

Many smokers suffer from poor oral hygiene with increased risk of gum disease and tooth loss.

There are also serious cancer risks caused by smoking tobacco, including an increased risk of breast cancer, oesophageal cancer and cancers of the head, neck, eyes, mouth, throat, tongue and even the nasal passages.

Smokers also have an increased risk for arthritis and many chronic smokers may find that as they age they face not just one major health issue, but a cocktail of smoking-related health issues which can lead to pain, decreased mobility and depression.

If this is not enough to put women off smoking, there is also the danger that children will be subjected to passive smoking if their mothers smoke.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Montreal in Canada found that babies exposed to passive smoking were more likely to grow into aggressive adults, regardless of whether their mothers smoked during pregnancy or their parents had behavioural issues themselves.

This may rack up the guilt many women already feel about smoking when they have children, but it is important to realise that the reason many smokers fail in their attempts to quit and cut back is the fact that they are addicted to the nicotine in tobacco, not the actual smoke, which is particularly harmful as it is quickly absorbed by the lungs and pumped to the brain and other organs of the body.

Electronic cigarettes deliver nicotine in a vapour so there is no toxic smoke for children to inhale through passive smoking.

Although e-cigarettes are yet to undergo extensive clinical tests or be recommended as a regulated smoking cessation aid, it is known that they contain much lower levels of the toxic compounds and chemicals found in tobacco smoke, including carbon monoxide and potentially carcinogenic nitrosamines.

By controlling nicotine intake using the varying refill strengths of liquid nicotine, it is also possible to start cutting back on a nicotine addiction – which is fuelled by the release of dopamine in the brain after the nicotine hit caused by smoking tobacco.

Long-term smokers have been found to have around 40% less of an enzyme which breaks down nicotine in the brain, so the addictive buzz a chronic smoker gets from tobacco is harder to control.

However, many smokers who have switched to electronic cigarettes have found that feeling in control of nicotine intake by being able to vary the strength of nicotine refill they use has helped spur them on to success in quitting tobacco altogether.

The good news about quitting smoking for even chronic smokers is that once a smoker stops using tobacco, their lung health will return to normal levels within seven to 10 years of quitting.

This may seem like a long time, but compared with the toxic effects tobacco may eventually have on health, quitting tobacco and switching to using e-cigarettes to cut down on nicotine could mean avoiding a life sentence of tobacco-related ill-health, and looking forward to a brighter and healthier future, in which you control your nicotine use rather than nicotine controlling you.