Cigarette Smoking Can
Lead To Emphysema

Emphysema is a disease of the lung that primarily causes shortness of breath, and gets worse over time. Emphysema is an obstructive lung disease because the destruction of lung tissue around smaller airways makes them airways unable to hold their shape properly when you exhale. Also, small air sacs called alveoli get damaged, making it hard to breathe. And smoking cigarettes is the number one cause of it.

The chemicals in cigarettes break down the alveoli, making them larger, and therefore unable to work as they should. These larger sacs capture air, and create the wheezing many of us are used to hearing with heavy smokers.

To be a bit more specific, cigarette smoke affects the cells in the airway responsible for clearing mucus and other secretions. Smoking temporarily disrupts the sweeping action of tiny hairs called cilia that line the airways. Long term exposure to cigarette smoke causes the cilia to disappear from the cells lining the air passages. Without the constant sweeping motion of the cilia, mucous secretions cannot be cleared from the lower respiratory tract. Furthermore, smoke causes mucous secretion to increase at the same time that the ability to clear the secretions is decreased. The resulting mucous buildup provides bacteria with a rich source of food and leads to infection.

The cells in the lung that fight infection are also affected by cigarette smoke. They can't fight bacteria effectively or clear the lungs of the particles cigarette smoke contains. These infections may not be serious enough to require medical care, but the inflammation caused by the immune system constantly attacking bacteria or tar leads to the release of destructive enzymes from the immune cells.

Over time, enzymes released during this inflammation lead to the loss of proteins responsible for keeping the lungs elastic. In addition, the tissue separating the alveoli from one another also is destroyed. Over years of chronic exposure to cigarette smoke, the decreased elasticity and destruction of alveoli leads to the slow destruction of the lungs.

Smokers will notice the symptoms more when they're older, since it takes awhile to get the disease. Unfortunately, if one gets emphysema, it can't be cured, only managed and preserved. This is also why smokers need to stop earlier, to give the lungs a chance to recover since it takes longer for lungs than for other parts of the body. However, sometimes just stopping smoking might not take care of the problems that smoking created, which can lead to oxygen therapy, drugs, and even surgery.

Emphysema can affect other parts of the body as well. Some symptoms associated with it include chronic coughing, wheezing, anxiety, weight loss, feet and ankle swelling and fatigue. Is there any wonder why people should stop smoking?

Emphysema is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. It is a chronic, progressive disease that affects the quality of life at least as much as the length of life. It's also one of the most preventable diseases, as most people won't get it if they never start smoking. The second worst thing in the world is watching someone dying because they can't breathe; the worst is being the person lying there trying to breathe.

© Smoke Not So Much 2009

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