Young women who smoke significantly increase their risk of a stroke

New research from scientists in the U.S. has found that the risk of younger women having a stroke is double if they smoke and if they are heavy smokers they have nine times the stroke risk.

According to the new study which assessed the stroke risk in women 15 to 49 years who were smokers, current smokers were 2.6 times as likely to have a stroke than women who never smoked.

The research team led by Dr. John Cole from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, say women who smoke the most face the highest increased risk.

They give clear examples saying women who smoke 21 to 39 cigarettes a day are at more than 4 times the of stroke than a nonsmoker, while those who smoke at least two packs a day, 40 cigarettes, have a stroke risk more than 9 times higher.

While it is well known that smoking increases the risk of stroke and many other diseases such as lung and other cancers as well as heart disease, to what extent the number of cigarettes had an impact was unclear.

For the study the researchers tracked 466 women in the U.S. who had already had a stroke and 604 women who had not - all of similar age, race and ethnicity.

They say the study shows that while strokes commonly occur in older people even in younger women, stroke risk is greatly increased when they smoke and the more a woman smokes, the greater the risk.

The study is published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.