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What can tobacco do to your health?

by — Last updated: 2017-05-26 in Respiratory tract disorders and diseases

Table of Contents

Emphysema is a specific condition in which the walls between the alveoli within the lung lose their ability to stretch and recoil. This means that the air sacs become weakened and break.

It is proven that smoking at an early age can cause lung cancer. When you smoke you lower your level of lung function. Smoking also causes several other respiratory damages, shortness of breath and reduces the rate of lung growth.

What are the kinds of illnesses that you can get from smoking tobacco?

You can get lung cancer, trachea, or throat cancer. Smoking also causes emphysema, or blackened tarnished lungs.  Smoking irritates lung cells causing them to produce a layer of mucus, which makes it harder to breath. Tobacco smoke eats away at lung cells. Smoking can also stain your teeth because tar residue from the smoke builds up on them. Trying to brush or use mouthwash won't help.  Smoking also leaves a foul scent on you which is also hard to get rid of. Smoking weakens teeth causing them to break.

Treatment of emphysema

The most essential step in any treatment plan for smokers with emphysema is to stop smoking; it's the only way to prevent the damage to your lungs from becoming worse.

Other treatments, which focus on relieving symptoms and preventing complications, include:

  • Bronchodilators- drugs that can help relieve coughing, shortness of breath and trouble breathing by opening constricted airways.
  • Corticosteroid drugs inhaled as aerosol sprays may relieve symptoms of emphysema associated with asthma and bronchitis, although inhaled steroids have several side effects  
  • Supplemental oxygen may provide some relief. Various forms of oxygen are available as well as different devices to deliver them to your lungs.
  • Protein therapy. Infusions of the alpha-1-antitrypsin protein may help slow lung damage in people with an inherited deficiency of that protein.
  • Respiratory infections such as acute bronchitis, pneumonia and influenza are a leading complication of emphysema which can be cured with different antibiotics!   
  • Surgery. In a procedure called lung volume reduction surgery, surgeons remove small wedges of damaged lung tissue. Lung transplantation is also an option if you have a severe emphysema and other options have failed.