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quit smoking now your whole body will thank you
university of Michigan lung experts give 10 reasons
why you should kick the habit
this article is in 2 parts. this is part 1 Dr. Steven Gay has a top 10 list that he thinks all of America should hear. And it’s no laughing matter. It’s a list of the top 10 health reasons to quit smoking, it’s based in part on what Gay has observed in his years as a lung specialist at the University of Michigan Health System. He hopes it will help remind smokers what they could gain by quitting. Though most smokers might assume only their lungs suffer from their tobacco habit, Gay’s list proves otherwise. From a smoker’s head to his or her toes, puffing away on cigarettes or cigars does damage throughout the body. That’s what makes it so risky – and what makes quitting so important. “All around, smoking is an incredibly dangerous disorder,” says Gay, who notes that 47 million Americans take their lives in their hands each day by lighting up. “It’s thought that half a million people each year die from smoking-related diseases, making it the No.1 cause of premature death in the United States.” |
In the short term, quitters just feel better, Gay says, and in the long run, their health is better on the whole than the health of those who keep smoking. “As time goes on, their possibility of dying from smoking-related diseases is going to diminish,” says Gay, a clinical assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School who is also medical director of Critical Care Support Services for UMHS. “Basically, you’re going to do better the longer that you stay away from smoking.”
Smokers can keep themselves from becoming just a statistic if they quit — and November’s Great American Smoke Out is a great time to do it. The damage done by years of puffing won’t go away, but quitting can prevent any further damage.
And now, a drum roll please, as Steven Gay, M.D., unveils his Top 10 Health Reasons to Quit Smoking:
Top 10 Health Reasons to Quit Smoking:
The cancer that everyone associates with smoking is lung cancer. Indeed, smoking is what makes lung cancer the top cause of cancer death in the nation, so the top reason to quit is to avoid this grim diagnosis. Gay has seen his fair share of doomed lung cancer patients come through his clinic, and knows he hasn’t seen the last. But he also notes that studies have shown stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer and other types of cancer are more common or more deadly among smokers.
Over time, the lung damage and inflammation caused by smoking often leads to chronic breathing problems far more serious than a wheeze or a cough. Lungs that are constantly irritated by tobacco smoke often start producing too much mucus, which narrows the breathing passages and makes it harder to breathe. This condition, known as chronic bronchitis, can worsen into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Another chronic breathing disease linked almost exclusively to smoking is emphysema, which is caused by the death of lung cells and which not only limits the amount of oxygen a person can take in, but also reduces his or her ability to get rid of carbon dioxide. Both diseases make their victims’ lives miserable, reducing their ability to work and enjoy life, before killing them, Gay notes. And both can be prevented by quitting smoking before they develop.
Besides doing damage to the lungs that can lead to cancer, smoking hurts the lung’s fragile tissues in other ways. This can lead to an uncontrollable cough — so common it’s easily recognizable as “smoker’s cough” — and other breathing problems as the lungs struggle to cope with all the chemicals in tobacco smoke. These symptoms can signal even worse problems (see reason No. 3). Solution? Nip the problem in the bud by quitting. “Patients who stop smoking have a markedly decreased amount of wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath and mucus production,” Gay says
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