Smoker's Lungs

2024 Author: Rachel Wainwright | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 07:39

According to the World Health Organization, smoking is the leading cause of death in the modern world. This terrible habit is in the nature of a global epidemic and claims about 6 million lives every year, overtaking heart disease and cancer. Smoking causes tremendous systemic harm to the quality of life and the entire human body, but one of the main blows is taken by the respiratory organs, in particular the smoker's lungs.

Smoker's lungs: a ticket to the next world

At the initial stage of the process, the substances that make up the tobacco smoke immobilize the villi of the epithelium, which lines the inner surface of the respiratory tract. The role of the villi is to remove toxic substances, viruses and bacteria, thus, the smoker begins to get sick with various diseases of the respiratory system more often and accumulate substances that are dangerous to health and life in their lungs.

Chronic obstructive disease (COPD), which is incurable, also affects the lungs of smokers in 80-90% of cases. The bronchi narrow, the lungs overflow with air, chronic inflammation and the development of emphysema occur. Patients with COPD and emphysema experience a constant lack of air, first when moving, and then at rest.

The negative effect of smoking on another serious lung disease - tuberculosis has also been proven: according to statistics, about 95% of patients with tuberculosis are smokers. The overwhelming majority of deceased patients with tuberculosis also suffered from this addiction during their lifetime.

When visual analysis of the smoker's lungs in the photo, first of all, attention is drawn to the presence of soot, which clogs the alveoli, complicates the breathing process and is the root cause of cancerous tumors. Also, photos of the lungs of smokers are characterized by the presence of serious blood supply disorders, such as sclerosis and arterial thrombosis, which further lead to heart attacks and strokes.

If you compare the lungs of healthy people and the lungs of a smoker, there is a huge difference. Light pink, evenly penetrated by full-fledged blood vessels, elastic healthy lungs and the smoker's lungs, which are a black worn-out non-viable organ, seem to have nothing in common.

Lung cancer and the global tobacco epidemic

Compounds referred to in the production of tobacco products as tar, in fact, are phenolic compounds, that is, the most powerful carcinogens. Without exaggeration, they cover the surface of the lungs of experienced smokers with a terrible tarry coating and contribute to the development of oncological processes. Among all cancers, lung cancer most often leads to death, while in 90% of cases, death in lung cancer occurs due to smoking (and not occupational diseases, environmental conditions, etc.).

The insidiousness of lung cancer lies in the prolonged absence of symptoms. Shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, chest discomfort, etc. appear, as a rule, when the disease has already started. Even high-tech modern medicine is not always able to resist it radically - in some cases, only measures to prolong the patient's life are possible.

The psychological state of smokers with lung cancer often aggravates the course of the disease and prognosis. This is due to the awareness of their guilt in the occurrence of a fatal disease. Along with this, there is specific scientific evidence proving the positive effect of smoking cessation in the treatment of patients with lung cancer. It is also proven that the most important role in the prevention of lung cancer belongs to banal smoking cessation.

Found a mistake in the text? Select it and press Ctrl + Enter.