The study also found that while quitting helped, women who had quit smoking for as long as twenty years still were at greater risk for PAD than women who had never smoked.
The study consisted of 39 thousand initially healthy women and was unique in that it focused solely on smoking as a risk factor for developing PAD.
Peripheral artery disease affects nearly 8 million people in the US. It is a narrowing of the arteries, most commonly in the pelvis and legs and is associated with an increased risk for heart attack and stroke. Symptoms include pain in the legs or tiredness in the legs while walking.
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