How Does Smoking Affect Your Breathing?

Chemicals

Smoking can cause major breathing issues. Cigarettes contain tobacco, nicotine and more than 4,000 other chemicals, most which are harmful to your health. Tobacco smoke contains benzene, a hydrocarbon found in coal and petroleum. Also found in the smoke is formaldehyde, ammonia, acetone and tar. Formaldehyde is a highly poisonous chemical that's used in the preservation of dead bodies. Ammonia is actually used as a flavoring in cigarettes as it releases the nicotine from the tobacco. It's also used in cleaning products. Acetone is a chemical solvent, mostly used as nail polish remover. Finally, tar is used for roofing and other construction products. This tar is deposited and stays in the smoker's lungs. All of these chemicals are found in toxic household items and, once inhaled, cause major breathing problems.

COPD

These chemicals can cause several different breathing problems. A major disease caused by smoking is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD is made up of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which together block the airflow into your lungs and make it difficult to breathe. The symptoms of COPD don't begin to occur until massive lung damage has already occurred. Emphysema is a condition in which the air sacs at the end of small air passages are gradually destroyed. The sickness is characterized by a shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness, a reduced capacity for physical activity, loss of appetite and weight, and fatigue.
The other half of COPD is chronic bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis occurs when there is a constant irritation of the lungs, usually from chemicals in cigarette smoke. The symptoms of this sickness include a cough that gets worse in the morning or in damp weather, production of yellow mucus, shortness of breath, fatigue and frequent respiratory infections.

Lung Cancer

Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, a potentially deadly disease that causes tumors in the lungs. Lung cancer is completely preventable, by quitting smoking. Usually, symptoms develop when the disease is advanced, making lung cancer hard to catch. These symptoms include wheezing, coughing up blood, fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath and hoarseness. Smoking causes lung cancer because the chemicals damage the cells that line the lungs. Normally, your body is able to repair these cells; however, with prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke, the cells are unable to keep up with the damage and may begin to behave erratically. This causes tumors to grow.

References

• Harmful Chemicals In Cigarettes & Tobacco Smoke
• COPD
• Lung cancer