Bleeding inside the lining of the brain or subarachnoid hemorrhage is significantly more common among smokers, especially women, a new study has found.
Researchers from Finland found, women who smoke at least one pack of cigarettes a day are eight times more likely than their male counterparts to suffer from subarachnoid hemorrhages.
The study’s lead researcher wanted to make it known that there are a host of adverse health effects that come with smoking cigarettes regardless of gender, but subarachnoid hemorrhages account for 3 percent of all strokes, Health24 reported.
“The message for policymakers is that by implementing effective strategies against smoking, they can considerably reduce the burden of subarachnoid hemorrhage,” said Dr. Joni Lindbohm, who works at the University of Helsinki with a specialties in neurosurgery and public health.
Studies have shown that most strokes are preventable, with an obvious first step for smokers being to quit the habit to reduce chances of suffering from brain bleeding. Most recently, researchers found this week that a risk of having a stroke would be reduced by 12 percent by quitting smoking alone, science news outlet EurekAlert reported.
“Our findings will inform the development of global population-level interventions to reduce stroke, and how such programs may be tailored to individual regions,” said Dr. Salim Yusuf, a professor of medicine of McMaster’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine in Ontario, Canada, who co-authored the report. “This includes better health education, more affordable healthy food, avoidance of tobacco and more affordable medication for hypertension and dyslipidaemia.”
Compounding the new study is the fact that an increasing number of women are apparently smoking cigarettes while they’re pregnant, according to research findings released this month and reported on by CBS News.
“We have long suspected that smoking status during pregnancy is under-reported,” said Dr. Jim Greenberg, director of the Perinatal Institute at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and author of the report. “But now we know just how many women struggle to quit smoking when they are pregnant.”
