Let’s start with what smoking actually does to the body.

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general. It primarily starts at the lungs.

How?   Well think of your lung tissue with openings all over which are air sacs called alveoli. This is an anatomical structure that has the form of a hollow cavity which does the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in and out of our body, when we inhale and exhale. The thing to know about this tissue is that before you start smoking the alveoli are expandable (think of it like a rubber band) allowing the person to get a good exchange of oxygen getting in the body to go to all our tissues and carbon dioxide getting out of the body (O2=oxygen being the fuel to our tissues and prevents cellular starvation to occur, carbon dioxide=CO2 being an acid / toxin to the human body, is the end result of when O2 is used up by our body tissues and is exhaled by the lungs to prevent too high of a CO2 blood level in our body.).   After years of smoking the alveoli stretches out not allowing a good exchange of O2 and CO2. The sad thing for a smoker is the alveoli cannot REVERSE back after damage has already occurred unless you had a lung transplant but without continuing to smoke.  It is hard to see any M.D. or health insurance that would allow a transplant if the patient continues to smoke, especially a 1/2 pack to 2 packs a day.  In all honestly why bother if the samething will happen again in time.  More realistic would be QUIT the bad habit. The tissue doesn’t get completely better but it improves when you quit. So the pt with Emphysema has alveoli that can’t exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide from the blood like it use to at the bottom of the lungs when they were healthier, prior to even starting to smoke. Also, after smoking years and when diagnosed with COPD you have difficulty breathing (that is why smoking is a major cause of bronchitis or Emphysema=types of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease=COPD and it is not REVERSIBLE). Emphysema is the worst type of COPD you can get. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., and the economic burden of COPD in the U.S. in 2007 was $42.6 billion in health care costs and lost productivity. Isn’t this reason enough to stop smoking?

Emphysema is an enlargement of the air spaces distal to the terminal bronchioles, with destruction of their walls. People with emphysema have historically been known as “Pink Puffers”, due to their pink complexion.

Chronic bronchitis is defined in clinical terms as a cough with sputum production on most days for 3 months of a year, for 2 consecutive years. People with advanced COPD that have primarily chronic bronchitis were commonly referred to as “Blue Bloaters” because of the bluish color of the skin and lips (cyanosis) along with hypoxia and fluid retention.

Know when the lungs get effected in time the heart gets effected. One Affects the other in time. The heart can’t live without the lungs and vice versa.  Just like our car the heart of the car is the engine and the lungs are the transmission (one can’t allow the car to work good if the other is not working properly–same with the heart and lungs, one effects the other in time.)

Now knowing just this you’ll understand why smoking alone can cause the following conditions, Through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They state the following:  Check it out in Part 2 tomorrow!