Researchers at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine in Baltimore led by Dr. John Cole discovered that young female smokers have a higher risk of being affected by a stroke.

Their discovery was published in the August 15 issue of the journal “Stroke.”

Generally speaking the risk of having a stroke becomes double if someone smokes. Cole interviewed 466 women aged between 15 and 49 who had had a stroke and 604 women who hadn’t. They were smokers, former smokers or non-smokers.

The risks are directly proportional with the number of cigarettes a woman smokes a day. It is 2.2 times greater in women who smoke one to ten cigarettes a day, 4.3 times higher for those smoking 21 to 39 cigarettes a day and 9.1 times higher for those smoking 2 packs a day or more.

Dr. David A. Meyerson from Johns Hopkins University Bayview Medical Center and spokesman for the American Heart Association said: "Smoking disrupts the cells lining the blood vessels. It increases blood fibrogen levels, which makes blood more likely to clot. It increases the stickiness of platelets, the cells that form blood clots, and it also decreases the body's natural clot-dissolving mechanism."

They also focused on the benefits of quitting smoking and found that stroke risk decreased in 30 days’ time, but the body starts functioning normal from all points of view in about six years.

20% of young American women are smokers and this is the firs time researchers have made a study on women only.