The Link Between Smoke and Lung Cancer

Smoking can have adverse effects on your health that may result in a number of diseases, and also can degrade the overall health condition. Thus, every packet of cigarettes comes with the warning “Smoking is injurious to health”. Yet, for those who are habituated to it, it can be extremely difficult to heed the caution and quit.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death. People who smoke sometimes have a cough. But coughing can also be a sign of lung cancer, as well as other conditions. 

How does smoking increase the risk of lung cancer? 

When you breathe in smoke, many chemicals enter your lungs and these chemicals have the potential to damage the DNA in your lung cells. 

Your body will work to repair the damage done by the chemicals but smoking can cause more damage than your body can heal. This may even lead to the formation of cancer cells. 

The smoke of cigarettes or cigars can damage the tiny sacs in your lungs called alveoli. These microscopic air sacs are the center of the respiratory system’s gas exchange. They move oxygen in your blood and expel carbon dioxide when you exhale. 

Long-term effects that smoking can have on your lungs: 

If you are one of those smokers contemplating quitting, here are some of the compelling reasons to embark on the road to good health immediately. 

Read on to know about the long-term effects that smoking can have on your lungs:

1. The cleaning of the lungs gets disrupted:

Every time you smoke, the harmful chemicals that cigarette contains lead to damaging your breathing and scare your lungs in some way. As a result of smoking, the cleaning system of the lungs is greatly disrupted. The lungs have ‘Cilia' or broom-like hairs that play a crucial role in cleaning the lungs. When you start smoking, the functioning of the cilia starts to slow down, and this goes on for several hours, interfering with the functioning of the lungs.

2. Increases the inflammation as well as irritates:

Just like humans age, so do the lungs. With aging, it's very normal for your lungs to not function as effectively as they used to once. However, smoking makes the aging of the lungs faster. Plus, the airways of the lungs also get inflamed and irritated by smoking and as a result, become narrower and disrupt the normal airflow.

3. Tissue damage and poor immunity become evident:

Smoking not only injures the lung tissues but also causes the immunity power of the lungs to decrease. While on one hand, the damaged tissues lead to decreased blood vessels and air spaces in the lungs, which disrupts the normal oxygen level in the blood, on the other hand, smoking impairs the natural defense power of the lungs, making the lungs more prone to critical lungs condition.

4. It may cause a number of lung conditions:

Ranging from asthma, wheezing, to coughs and colds, smoking can lead to serious lungs diseases such as emphysema, breathing issues, breathlessness, pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, and even lung cancer. Smoking can also cause debilitating and progressive disease, COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to develop.

Smoking is the major risk factor for lung cancer. No matter whether you smoke a pipe or a cigar, as long as they contain cancer-causing chemicals in them, smoking poses a serious threat to your health. 

It’s never too late to quit. The longer you smoke, the higher your risk of lung cancer.