Women who quit smoking significantly reduce their risk of dying from heart disease and tobacco-related cancers, according to a new study.
The authors reported that with coronary heart disease for example, a woman's risk declines to a non-smokers' risk within 20 years. For lung cancer the risk is reduced within 30 years.
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health analysed data on 105,000 women over 24 years, taken from a long-term survey that began in 1976.
According to the study, there were almost immediate health benefits when women gave up smoking.
Ther was a 47% reduction in risk for coronary heart disease within the first five years of quitting and a 21% reduction in lung cancer death within the first five years.
The data also indicates that smoking can be more dangerous to health the younger a woman is when she starts.
The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
