 Quitting Smoking
Improves Lung FunctionFor smokers with
asthma, quitting smoking can improve lung function test scores by more than 15 percent in
less than two months.
The findings appear in the second
issue for July 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine,
published by the American Thoracic Society.
Neil C. Thomson, M.D., of the
Departments of Respiratory Medicine and Immunology at the University of Glasgow, and seven
associates studied 11 asthmatics who continued to smoke and 10 who quit for six weeks.
After only one week of no cigarettes, the researchers said that the lung function test
results of the non-smoking patients had improved to a "considerable degree."
"The improvement in lung
function seen after smoking cessation was clinically significant," said Dr. Thomson.
"It demonstrates that there is a reversible component to the harmful effects of
smoking on the airways in asthma."
"The degree of improvement
noted for smoking cessation far exceeds that of high-dose anti-inflammatory treatment,
such as oral prednisolone, 40 mg daily for 2 weeks, which had no effect on lung function
in smokers in our current study and in our previous work," he continued. "The
improvement could be due to the removal of the acute bronchoconstrictor effects of
cigarette smoke or a reduction in the proinflammatory effects of cigarette smoke on the
airways."
In addition to the improved lung
function test scores, the "quit" group also showed a reduction in sputum
neutrophil counts when compared to those of smokers. Neutrophils are white blood cells
(phagocytes) that engulf bacterial and fungal infections, along with ingesting foreign
debris.
"Sputum neutrophil counts are
reported to be increased in heavy smokers with asthma compared with nonsmokers with
asthma," said Dr. Thomson.
The authors noted that in many
developed countries, more than 20 percent of adults with asthma are active smokers, with
particularly high rates of acute asthmatics visiting hospital emergency rooms.
The smokers with asthma recruited
for this study were aged 18 to 60 and had lung function score results of less than 85
percent of their predicted level. They all had a cigarette history of over 10-pack-years
and smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day. The investigators saw no differences in the
baseline physiological characteristics between the smoking group and those who quit.
Of the 10 subjects who
successfully stopped smoking and completed the six-week study, five used nicotine patches,
one employed acupuncture and four quit without any aid. The researchers believe that their
findings highlight the importance of smoking cessation for adults with asthma.
Contact:
Neil C. Thomson, M.D., Department
of Respiratory Medicine, Division of Immunology, Infection, and Inflammation, University
of Glasgow and Western Infirmary, Glasgow G11 6NT, United KingdomPhone: + 44 141 211
3240E-mail: n.c.thomson@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
 I Feel 100% Better Since I Quit Smoking
"Not smoking makes me feel great!" Often you will hear an
ex-smoker excitingly express this statement when first quitting cigarettes. What is
amazing is when you think back to the days when the very same smoker would blatantly
proclaim that his smoking never caused him any difficulty. He functioned perfectly normal
for someone his age. It is impossible for any smoker to accurately judge just how much
impairment his smoking is causing. Not until he stops will he actually recognize the full
degree of improvements possible by quitting smoking.
The statement that not smoking makes the
ex-smoker feel great is very misleading. Not smoking doesn't make people feel great. It
actually only makes them feel normal. If a person who never smoked a day in his life
decides one morning not to have a cigarette, he will not feel any better or worse than the
morning before. But if a person wakes up everyday and smokes a cigarette, followed by 20,
40, 60 or more before going back to bed, he will feel the effects of nicotine dependence.
He never feels normal. His life consists of a chronic withdrawal state, only alleviated by
lighting one cigarette every 20 to 30 minutes.
While smoking in these intervals keeps the
suffering of withdrawal down to a minimum, it does so at a cost. It impairs his breathing,
circulation, elevates his carbon monoxide levels, wipes out his cilia, robs his strength
and endurance, and greatly increases his risks of deadly diseases like cancer. All this
will cost him hundreds of dollars a year, make him appear socially ostracized, and even
viewed by family and friends as weak or unintelligent. It is no wonder that once he quits
smoking he feels so much better. But it is important for the ex-smoker to realize that he
feels so much better because smoking made him feel so bad.
For once a smoker quits, he often forgets
just how rotten life was as a smoker. He forgets the bad cigarettes, the cough, the aches
and pains, the dirty looks, the inconveniences, and most importantly, the addiction. He
forgets what life was truly like as a smoker. Unfortunately, he doesn't forget everything.
One thought often remains, lingering for years and even decades--the thought of the best
cigarette he ever smoked. It may be a cigarette he smoked 20 years earlier, but it is the
one he remembers above all others. Without keeping an accurate perspective of what life
was really like with cigarettes, the thought of the best cigarette often leads to an
attempt to recapture the bliss by taking a puff. What follows is an unexpected and worse,
an unwanted relapse to a full fledge addiction.
To stay off cigarettes, some people look at
smoking in an artificially negative light. They think of the worst condition smoking may
or may not really cause them. Don't look at cigarettes this way. But on the same note,
don't look at cigarettes in an artificially positive light either. Don't think of smoking
as being inhaling one or two delightful cigarettes a day just when you feel like it. You
couldn't do that before and you will never do it that way again. Rather, look at smoking
as it actually was. It was expensive, inconvenient, and sociably unacceptable on a daily
basis. It controlled you totally. It was costing you your health and had the full
potential of one day costing your life. See cigarettes for what they were. If you remember
your life as a smoker it will be easy to NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF!
© Joel Spitzer
1988, 2000
 What Does Nicotine Do to Your Body?
Nicotine, the active and
addictive ingredient of tobacco, is a mild central nervous system stimulant and a stronger
cardiovascular system stimulant. It constricts blood vessels, increasing the blood
pressure and stimulating the heart, and raises the blood fat levels. In its liquid form,
nicotine is a powerful poison-the injection of even one drop would be deadly. It is the
nicotine, not the smoke, that causes people to continue to smoke cigarettes, but it is the
cigarette smoke that causes many of the problems.
Cigarette smoke is a combination of
lethal gases-carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and nitrogen and sulphur oxides-and tars,
which contain an estimated 4,000 chemicals. Some of these chemical agents are introduced
by current tobacco manufacturing processes. Although tobacco has been smoked for
centuries, only recently has it moved from the naturally grown and dried process. It
appears that in the last century the negative effects of smoking have skyrocketed. My
belief, which is shared by many authorities, is that much of the added risk is produced by
the chemical treatment and unnatural processing of tobacco. The little research that has
been done on this (it is not sponsored by the industry) suggests that natural tobacco
poses much less cancer risk, as well as cardiovascular disease risk, though this is
predominately from the nicotine, which is not changed by processing.
Dangers in modern tobacco products
include pesticides used during growth and chemicals added to the tobacco to make it burn
better or taste different. Chemicals added to the leaves and papers to enhance burning are
among the major causes of fire deaths in this country, as cigarettes continue to burn
after they have been put down. The forced burning also makes people smoke more of each
cigarette in order to complete it. Sugar curing and rapid flue drying are also associated
with increased toxicity of cigarettes. Kerosene heat drying contaminates the tobacco with
another toxic hydrocarbon. Using a natural tobacco, such as some imported from France or
Germany and a few U.S.-made cigarettes (possibly Shermans and More), may reduce the
smoking risk. If a cigarette does not go out when left alone, it has been chemically
treated.
Other toxic contaminants in
cigarettes include cadmium (which affects the kidneys, arteries, and blood pressure),
lead, arsenic, cyanide, and nickel. Dioxin, the most toxic pesticide chemical known to
date, has been found in cigarettes. Acetonitrile, another pesticide, is also found in
tobacco. The nitrogen gases from cigarettes generate carcinogenic nitrosamines in the body
tissues. The tars in smoke contain polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), carcinogenic
materials that bind with cellular DNA to cause damage. Antioxidant therapy, particularly
with vitamin C, is protective against both PAH and nitrosamines, and extra C also blocks
the irritating effects of smoke. Smoking itself reduces vitamin C absorption; blood levels
of ascorbic acid average about 30-40 percent lower in smokers than in non-smokers.
Radioactive materials are also
found in cigarette smoke; polonium is the most common. Some authorities believe that
cigarettes are our greatest source of radiation. A smoker of one and a half packs per day
may be exposed to radiation equal to 300 chest x-rays a year. Radiation is a strong aging
factor. Acetaldehyde, a chemical released during smoking, causes aging, especially of the
skin, as it affects the cross-linking bonds that hold our tissues together.
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