How Smoking Can Harm Your Lungs - Breathefree

You’ve probably heard of this disclaimer on multiple occasions – ‘smoking is injurious to health’. What you may not immediately realise is the extent of the damage smoking can cause to your health, and most directly, your lungs.

Smoking is known to be the leading cause of preventable diseases and deaths globally. Nearly all forms of lung cancer—the top cause of cancer death in both men and women can be attributed to smoking.

How Smoking Changes Your Lungs

A single puff of cigarette smoke contains upwards of 7,000 chemicals. Tobacco smoke contains over 70 known cancer-causing chemicals. When you breathe these in, these toxins go deep into your lungs and can cause swelling, resulting in a host of other respiratory diseases.

Both tobacco and chemical substances found in cigarettes can change the cellular structure of the lungs. They can cause the elastic walls within the airways to break down – resulting in less functioning surface area in the lungs. Cigarettes can damage lung tissue, preventing them from functioning correctly. This can increase the risk of diseases caused by smoking such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema, respiratory diseases, asthma and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).

Nicotine in tobacco can also damage the ability of the respiratory system to filter out dust and dirt. This can lead to toxic substances passing right through, resulting in lung congestion and the ‘smoker’s cough’.

Beyond Lung Damage - Diseases Caused by Smoking

Smoking can affect a person’s health in other ways too, harming almost every organ in the body. In most cases, it can result in a compromised immune system function making you susceptible to many other illnesses. It can also lead to lower bone density (brittle bones), which increases the risk for broken bones and fractures. Smoking also leaves you at a higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis, along with an increased risk for cataracts (clouding of the eye lenses).

How Quitting Can Benefit Your Lungs

It’s never too late to quit smoking. Within days of quitting smoking, lungs begin to repair themselves. In fact, just 12 hours after you quit, the amount of carbon monoxide in your blood drops to a much healthier level. More oxygen flows to your vital organs, and you will be able to breathe better. In about 10 to 15 years, your risk of developing lung cancer reduces and becomes the same as a non-smoker.