SUNDAY August 17, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- The risk from smoking may not be confined to lung cancer and heart disease. A new study suggests that smoking may significantly raise stroke risk as well.

The study showed younger women who smoked had more than double the risk of stroke compared to nonsmokers.   The risk was increased 9 times among the heaviest smokers.

The study was conducted by Dr. John Cole of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and colleagues and published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.

For the study, the researchers examined the stroke risk among 466 women aged 15 to 49 who smoked cigarettes and 604 who had no stroke at similar ages. They found that current smokers were 2.6 times as likely to have a stroke as those who never smoked.

The more you smoked, the higher the stroke risk, Cole told Reuters in a phone interview.

The researchers found women who smoked 21 to 39 cigarettes a day were 4.3 times as likely as those nonsmokers to have a stroke. The risk was 9.1 times higher among those who smoked 40 cigarettes a day compared to nonsmokers.

Stroke often occurs to older people.   It is unknown how smoking affects stroke risk.