Lifelong Health: Smoking reduces a woman's life expectancy by 10 years

As a general rule when it comes to health, women are far better off than men. Prior to menopause, their risk of heart disease and stroke is substantially less than men, and the numbers of cancers occurring in both sexes is significantly lower. But when it comes to addiction, women do not do as well. Overcoming drug addiction, alcohol abuse and cigarette smoking is much more difficult.

Until recently, the negative effects of smoking had only been studied in detail in men. For the first time, a study in the journal The lancet has shown that smoking reduces the life expectancy of women by an a...