Does the lungs heal itself if we quit smoking?

Smoking has a lot of bad effects on the body. Lungs and airways are the two most affected parts.

However, in the scientific journal LiveScience, Dr. Norman Edelman, senior scientific advisor to the American Lung Disease Association and an expert on lung-related drugs, provided good news: it was after one. People stop smoking, their lungs can heal to a certain extent.

As soon as a person breathes in substances in cigarette smoke, the lining of the lungs burns and causes irritation. After a few hours of smoking, the "brushing" motion of the hairs in the lungs becomes slower. This makes them temporarily paralyzed and the ability to clean up mucus or other substances such as dust, dirt from the airways is impaired.

Another finding when observing the lungs of smokers is the increased thickness and level of mucus secretion. Because the rate at which feathers fluff these mucus from the lungs is not as fast as the formation of mucus, so they accumulate in the respiratory tract, depositing and causing coughing. The accumulation of mucus also causes many types of infections, including chronic bronchitis.

So how does the lungs heal itself?

Essentially, Dr. Edelman said, minor burns can heal after a person stops smoking. In other words, the bumps on the surface of the lungs and the airways, and the lung cells secrete less mucus. The new fluff can grow back with the ability to clean up the mucus better.

From a few days to a week after stopping smoking, people who have ever smoked will feel less short of breath when exercising. Although this has no clear explanation, it is partly due to the body removing CO gas from the blood. This gas in cigarette smoke can interfere with oxygen transport, because CO gas clings to red blood cells instead of oxygen. This may explain the phenomenon of people who used to smoke.

According to Dr. Edelman, another reason for improving the breathing ability of people who quit smoking is that the burns in the respiratory tract are reduced, because the membrane is no longer exposed to stimulants from tobacco smoke. Decreased bumps mean that air is easier to circulate through the airways.

People who have smoked may cough more after a few weeks of quitting.

Another strange thing is that, smokers can cough more after a few weeks of quitting. But this is a positive sign, which means that the fluff of the lungs is working again, and because they are removing the mucus in the lungs, respiratory tract and throat, stimulating coughing and pushing them out. out."Cough is the process of clearing mucus in the lungs," Edelman said .

Another benefit of quitting is to reduce the risk of lung cancer. The longer people quit smoking, the greater the risk of lung cancer, although this risk is never completely avoided.

For example, after 10 years of quitting, the incidence of cancer among people who quit smoking was only half that of smokers, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But those who have ever smoked are still more likely to die from cancer than those who have never smoked.

The injury cannot heal itself

The body is very good at repairing lung and tissue cell damage caused by smoking, but not every wound can heal itself.

Lung damage and degradation are closely related to the number of cigarettes a person smokes daily and the number of years they smoke. The more smoking there is, the more damage the lungs can heal.

Although the lungs have mechanisms to protect themselves from injury, these protective layers gradually lose their function after a long time of exposure to toxic substances from tobacco. As a result, lung tissue burns and forms scarring, causing the lungs to lose its elasticity and unable to exchange gas effectively.

Smoking for a long time can lead to pneumothorax (emphysema) , a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The condition is alveoli, where oxygen is exchanged and CO2 is released, the lungs are destroyed. People with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases will feel drowsy and have trouble breathing.

Once a person's lungs are so damaged that air spills, the surface of the airways will become deformed and lose its elasticity, making it difficult to push air out of the lungs. These distortions in the lungs are incurable.

By using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), scientists have learned that respiratory damage associated with pneumothorax begins a few years after a person starts smoking. , although symptoms of this disease do not manifest until 20 or 30 years later.

Quitting smoking is never too late, and at any age, giving up smoking will help people breathe better and prolong their life.