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Don’t Smoke To Prolong Your Wife’s Life!
 

There are more than 46 million adult smokers in the United States. Every day, about 1,000 people die because of smoking.

Smoking not only can cause cancer and lung disease but also is one of the risk factors for heart disease. Data also showed that about 20 percent of all deaths from heart disease in the United States are directly linked to smoking.

A smoker definitely has a higher chance of getting health hazards mentioned above. Moreover, he or she can also harm the people around through environmental tobacco smoke, or more commonly known as secondhand smoke.

In 2006, a report published by the Public Health Service Office of the Surgeon General in the United States indicated that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Nonsmokers at home or office can have their risk of developing heart disease increased by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent when they were exposed to secondhand smoke.

Scientists believe that short exposure to secondhand smoke could have harm human body in many ways including making blood platelets stickier, and damaging the lining of blood vessels. All these mechanisms raise the odd of developing a heart attack.

A recent paper published in September 2010 by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine indicated that wives living with husbands who smoke at home have shorten lives. The study, conducted by researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in United States, is the first to examine multiplier effect of good habits on mortality in Asian women. It also found that Chinese women who had many healthy habits tend to live longer than those with less healthy lifestyles.

Healthy lifestyle, which includes not smoking, limiting alcohol intake and maintaining healthy weight, can possibly cut down the risk of many diseases. On the other hand, unhealthy habits such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, exposure to secondhand smoke, insufficient fruits and vegetable intake can most likely lead to chronic disease and even premature death.

Shanghai Women's Health Study, which collected information on more than 71,000 non-smoking, non-drinking Chinese women aged between 40 and 70 years between 1996 and 2000, was used to create a healthy lifestyle score. The score was based on 5 factors: weight, waist-to-hip ratio, whether woman exercised regularly, exposure to secondhand smoke, and fruit and vegetable intake. It is believed that these 5 factors are linked to mortality.

The women in the study were followed up for around 9 years, during which a total of 2,860 of them died: 1,351 died of cancer and 775 died of cardiovascular disease. Compared with survivors, those who died were more likely to be underweight, overweight or obese, had higher waist-to-hip ratios, self-reported that they did not regularly exercise, ate less fruit and vegetable, and had a spouse who smoked.

Given the high smoking rate among Asian males, there is no doubt that secondhand smoke is something that Asian women hard to avoid. In order to alter the exposure to spousal smoking, it is possible to begin with increased awareness by both women and their husbands about the harmful effects of smoking. Furthermore, it might also require community-based interventions and changes in the social environment. Perhaps, the authorities might want to consider bans on smoking at home.

In a report by the Institute of Medicine released during October 2009, researchers concluded that there is a causal relationship between ban in smoking and decreases in acute coronary events. The report is based on 11 observational studies, which found that smoking ban led to reduction in acute coronary events ranging from 6 to 47 percent.

Another report, which was published in September 2009 in journal “Circulation” (Journal of the American Heart Association), found that one year after passing smoking bans, communities in North America and Europe had 17 percent fewer heart attack compared with those without smoking bans.

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