How Can Smoking Destroy Your Lungs - Three Ways

The destruction of the lungs as a result of smoking cigarettes takes place in three major steps. Those steps are the most common lung diseases smokers suffer from during their "smoking career". We are going to discuss the reasons, the effects and the symptoms of all those three diseases.

I. Chronic Bronchitis
The so called chronic bronchitis is the most common disease that is being caused by smoking tobacco. It is also commonly known as the "smoker's cough". It is the result of the cilia being covered up with tar. The cilia are cells in the bronchia that are meant to remove any kind of dust particles, dirt and chemicals from the respiratory system to grant a normal breathing and healthy lungs. The purpose is to keep the lungs as clean as possible.

When smokers smoke cigarettes tar contained in the tobacco is being inhaled and carried into the bronchia. During the first couple of years as a smoker the cilia is still able to remove the tar from the bronchia to keep the lungs clean, but after about 10 years the cilia is all being covered by tar and it stops working. The result is that the lungs start accumulating dust and dirt particles in mucus. The mucus can not be removed from the lungs and that's where the first symptoms of a chronic bronchitis start: Coughing.

When the body has no more possibility to remove the mucus from the lungs it has to be coughed out. Usually the coughing is very strong in the morning and becomes dry during the day. The coughing often goes hand in hand with a shortness of breath. A Chronic Bronchitis can be cured provided that smoking is being stopped as fast as possible.

II. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) does most often occur as a result of an untreated chronic bronchitis. The disease turns from a treatable one to an untreatable one. The symptoms are basically the same but stronger. The breathlessness can lead to partial paralysis and the coughing is often very exhausting. As mentioned above a COPD can not be cured, but it can be dealt with and eased. The premise here is again that smoking is being stopped as fast as possible.

III. Lung Cancer
Though lung cancer has no direct bearing on the two diseases mentioned above, those two diseases can be seen as signs of the body that the lungs are becoming weaker. Lung cancer is yet not treatable. The lethality is about 85% during the first five years after the diagnosis.

How to prevent all diseases
There is only one proven method for smokers to prevent all the diseases mentioned above effectively: Stop smoking as soon as you can. It does not matter for how long you have been smoking - After 10 years of smoking abstinence your risk of lung cancer will decrease to the one of a never-smoker - Giving up smoking is always worth it!