What Smoking Really Does to Your Lungs

You know how smoking affects your
body - it increases risk of cancers,
heart diseases, stroke, etc. It doesn't
choose its victims - it has no respect
for class, gender, or race. It strikes
whoever is nearest, making no
distinction between the smoker and
the innocent nonsmoker.
Smoking affects secondhand smokers,
nonsmokers who inadvertently
breathe in the smoke. Secondhand
smoke comes from 2 sources - smoke
from the burning end of the
cigarette, and smoke exhaled by
smokers. Secondhand smoking is as
dangerous as smoking itself, as the
secondhand smokers inhale more of
the smoke than the smokers
themselves.
In so many ways smoking is harmful
to the body, but it is the most
dangerous to the lungs. How does
smoking affect your lungs, then?
Know that it is not only your lungs
that are affected, but also the
airways and your other respiratory
organs. When you start smoking
cigarettes, chemicals enter the body
through the mouth and nose and
into the lungs. Burning tobacco
produces more than 4,000 chemicals,
which include carbon monoxide,
nicotine and tar.
The tar from the cigarettes sticks to
the cilia, the tiny hair-like structures
that line the airways in the lungs.
The cilia typically acts as little
brooms that sweep out harmful dirt -
but when cigarette is smoked, the
cilia can't work properly because the
tar sticks to the cilia and is therefore
covered. Even a stick is enough to
slow down the cilia, and with the
cilia not performing its task properly,
dirt can stay in lungs and so cause
problems. Mucus also gets piled up,
and germs don't get swept out.
Overtime, as smoking get heavier
and more frequent, the cilia dies
and the lungs is exposed to even
more dangerous substances.
How does smoking affect your lungs?
By destroying the cilia. When those
little brooms are not working, dirt-
filled mucus slides down your lungs
and blocks the tiny airways - and the
air can't get in or out properly. That
is the reason why smokers cough a
lot -because they have to cough to
rid of the dirty mucus in their lungs.
Whereas those unexposed to
cigarette smoke hardly ever need to
cough, because their cilia are
working just fine.
How does smoking affect your lungs?
By enlarging the cells producing
mucus in your lungs and airways.
The amount of mucus increases, and
the mucus thickens. Your lungs and
airways then get irritated and
inflames, narrowing and reducing
the airflow.
How does smoking affect your lungs?
By causing detrimental changes in
your lungs and airways - changes
that can be sudden or long-term.
Changes that appear suddenly, lasts
a short time then goes away are
called acute changes, and examples
of these are colds and pneumonia.
Chronic changes are those that
happen slowly and last a long time -
some for the rest of your life. A
chronic change caused by smoking is
emphysema. Bronchitis and lung
cancer are other chronic changes.
How does smoking affect your lungs?
By destroying your lungs and killing
you.