Yep - Don’t Smoke
By MaryAnn Curl, MD MS Internal Medicine and Geriatrics
This one’s been a hard blog to write because it always feels a little preachy for a lifetime nonsmoker to tell others to quit. I’ve watched patients, close friends, and family try to quit and know it is very hard physically, psychologically, and chemically. Years ago I heard an interview with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler who said that heroin was much easier to kick than cigarettes. I hope some of what is in this blog helps.
It’s an established fact that smoking worsens health. Smoking of any kind - tobacco, marijuana, or other substances one might choose to inhale - has an immediate negative effect on respiratory endothelium (lung lining) function by reducing effectiveness of the cellular level function, changing regional blood flow to the area by clamping down the blood vessels, and making your breathing less effective.
In addition to 70 cancer causing chemicals such as formaldehyde, naphthalene, and toluene, cigarettes produce carbon monoxide gas which is basically the same as a mini dose of sucking on a car tailpipe. With each puff, the airways constrict, airflow becomes less free, and the little hair-like cilia that line your lungs and help to remove junk are paralyzed. This paralysis disables an essential function of “taking out the trash” by the lungs so particulates build up. This is a reversible effect, so when you quit smoking and the cilia start beating and doing their lung clearing job, your “smoker’s cough” can increase for a few weeks. I’ve had a great number of patients who get very dismayed in this stage, interpreting this as “bad” or less healthy. Quite the opposite! Your lungs are finally able to take out the trash by clearing the built up tar and toxins.
Longer term effects of smoking include increased risk of poor health outcomes such as:
• Cancer
Smoking can cause cancer in almost any part of the body, including the nose, mouth, lungs, kidneys, bladder, and pancreas https://blackdoctor.org/cancer-deaths-caused-by-smoking/?gad_source=1 . Smoking weakens the immune system, making it harder for your body to fight cancer cells that may develop.
• Heart disease and stroke
Smoking can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke by up to 4 times.
• Lung disease
in addition to cancer, smoking causes chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other lung diseases.
• Whole health
Smoking can increase the risk of developing diabetes, infections, osteoporosis, and hip fractures. It causes dental problems, hearing loss, vision loss, and premature aging of the skin and hair.
• Reproductive health
Smoking can increase the risk of ectopic pregnancy, miscarriages, low birth weight, and developmental delays in babies.
Per the American Cancer Society (ACS), there are immediate benefits of stopping smoking and they multiply the farther away from your last cigarette: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/tobacco/benefits-of-quitting-smoking-over-time.html
If you want to quit, there are a ton of good books, blogs, podcasts, apps, and programs to support your smoke-free life. ACS has free support: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/tobacco/empowered-to-quit.html?gad_source=1
As I said at the outset, this reflection is not a judgement or meant to cause shame. It’s simply the honest facts. If you’d like help finding quit smoking resources, Built For Better Counselors will help you find the right combination that will support you.
This is 2 of 9 in a series about how you may be able to increase your healthspan, the length of time in your life that you’re able to live disease free.
