Smoking And Lungs Damage
Smoking is a lifestyle choice which many people have adopted. The smoke from a cigarette can adversely affect our body. The lungs and the airways are the worst hit and sometimes the damage caused to them is irreversible. People are always advised to quit smoking due to the wide range of health effects on our body. Doctors are always asked this question that if a person quits smoking will his lungs heal and get rid of all the layers of smoke which have been deposited in them over time. As per the leading doctor and an advisor the lungs can be healed to a certain extent. This can only happen if the person quits smoking and never takes it up again.
We mostly don’t know what happens when we smoke a cigarette. The lining of the lung becomes inflamed due to the chemicals found in the cigarette smoke. The tiny hairs that line the lung and which help remove the mucus and dust particles become paralyzed for some time. This, in turn, slows down its functionality and leaves them less effective in their work. The other problem is that the lungs of the smoker produce thick mucus and in larger quantity. The mucus can also not be removed since the functionality of cilia is affected and the mucus stays in the airways. This clogs the airways causing cough and other lung infections such as chronic bronchitis.
If one quits smoking it can help heal the lungs again. Doctors have observed that the short-term changes to lungs can be reversed. The inflammation of the lungs can be reversed and the swelling can also subside. The lungs also produce less mucus and new cilia grow which help cleaning the mucus. It has been observed that once the patients quit smoking the episodes of shortness of breath decrease especially while playing a sport or during exercise. The carbon monoxide from the cigarette smoke can decrease the supply of oxygen to the red blood cells as they bind with them. When the patients quit smoking, the inflammation of the airways decreases which improves the breathing. The chemical irritants of the cigarette do not trouble them inner walls of the lungs. If the patients are coughing more it means that the cilia hairs are working again and they are removing the excess mucus from the body which is again a good thing. The mucus can be removed from the airways and from their to the throat and finally out of the body. The best benefit is that it reduces the chances of the risk of lung cancer. Although the risk never goes away, still the risk goes down if you do not smoke.
One should understand that not all damages can be reversed. Our body can heal and repair a lot of damages, but certain things like the damage to the lung, and the deterioration in the lung function cannot be healed. If you have been smoking for a long term it can cause emphysema which can even cause death. It is never too late to quit smoking for yourself and for your family.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Related Posts:
Smoking cigarette or any other form of tobacco hampers the health in many ways but, still there are many people who are addicted to this literally bad habit. Smoking is not a disease but, it takes a toll on the life of a person who is a habitual smoker. But, smoking can be seen as
Full Post: Antidepressant Drugs as Stop Smoking Medications
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - An experimental drug protected mice exposed to tobacco smoke from developing chronic lung disease, raising hope for a treatment in humans, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They said the chemical CDDO-Im helped activate a master gene called Nrf2 that bolsters the lung’s ability to fight off chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or
Full Post: Drug shields mice from chronic lung disease: study
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Menthol cigarettes may be harder to quit than the standard variety, particularly for lower-income smokers, a new study suggests. The findings add to evidence that mentholated cigarettes may be especially addictive, but highlight a role for socioeconomics as well, researchers say. They found that black and Hispanic smokers who favored
Full Post: Menthol cigarettes may be tougher for some to quit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Offering yet another reason to never start smoking, a new study finds that both current and former smokers run an elevated risk of the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation. The condition, also known as AF, is the most common heart arrhythmia in the U.S., affecting about 2 million people.
Full Post: Smoking ups risk of common heart rhythm problem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here’s another thing that smoking while pregnant can do — it can damage both the mother’s and the baby’s thyroid function, British researchers reported on Tuesday. Cigarette smoke has been shown to cause babies to be born smaller, to make newborns more likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome, and even to
Full Post: Smoking when pregnant affects thyroid for both: study