For this and every year, the last day of May happens to be World No Tobacco Day. The theme for each year varies, but the fact remains that you will truly be doing your lungs a favor when you lessen your tobacco intake. It is never easy to give up smoking but the most important decision you can make is to take care of your lungs.
Protect Your Lungs
The airways and air sacs are damaged by smoking. It can also raise your blood pressure and heart rate and can cause damage to blood vessels. All these put you at risk for stroke and heart disease. It is mostly the chemicals that harm the body but it is the nicotine that causes the craving or addiction. The fact is that cigarettes contain the addictive substance nicotine and the smoke alone contains around four thousand chemicals, which include seventy that cause cancer. Hundreds of other poisons are contained in cigarette smoke as well.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
The biggest cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is caused by smoking. This term refers to a broad array of conditions that include chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It causes damage to lungs and airways that cause this long term condition to develop. Smoking can also make people that have other lung conditions like asthma feel worse. It is essential to stop smoking in order to prevent COPD from developing or at least, for its progression to slow down. What better time to stop smoking and save your lungs from damage than on World No Tobacco Day?
Passive Smoke Counts
When you breathe in the smoke from someone else’s cigarette smoke, there is even more damage that occurs in your lungs. Smoking is not only harmful to yourself but also to other people. In children, it is particularly dangerous. Passive smoking increases the risk for health problems like cancer. Asthma and lung problems are something that children tend to develop when they are exposed continuously to second hand smoke. Children that live with smokers and inhale the smoke that the smokers exhale are at high risk for developing infections like ear infections, bronchitis and pneumonia. This is due to the fact that the lungs of children are not exactly completely formed yet.
Reduce Your Risks Immediately
When you stop smoking, the risks you have of developing lung disease such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease are significantly reduced. As a matter of fact, if you are already suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, one of the most effective treatments to slow down the rate of lung deterioration is to quit immediately. It is not easy to get help but there is a lot of available support that you can get from various organizations. If you have been feeling symptoms of obstructed lungs such as difficulty breathing, mild or severe asthma, wheezing or a chronic cough, remember to get in touch with your health care practitioner in the soonest possible time.
