University of Nevada School of Medicine Physicians Can Help You Quit Smoking
August 1st, 2008, by Elizabeth Fildes, Ed.D.Cigarette smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death. The CDC reports that every year more than 400,000 people die from cigarette smoking in the U.S. alone—with one in every five deaths in the U.S. related to smoking. Quitting is the best thing you can do for your health. Let’s face it: it’s hard to quit. It sometimes takes six to eight tries to quit for good. But with help from the medical experts at the Nevada Tobacco Users’ Helpline, your chances of success will be better.
Some of the Nasty Things Smoking Does to Your Body
The visual and olfactory signs of smoking—bad breath, the foul odor, yellow teeth—is the least of your worries if you continue to smoke. Beyond the warning label, smoking causes impotence, infertility, blindness, hearing loss, bone loss, damage to your blood vessels, premature aging and death.
Smoking is as major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease leads to heart disease, stroke and blood clot disorders. Even if you smoke less than 10 cigarettes a day or use smokeless tobacco products, you’re at increased health risk. And smoking lower tar products don’t reduce the risks. Your body tries to repair the damage to arteries by “plastering” the arteries with cholesterol. This cholesterol, known as plaque, becomes irritated when you smoke, and it triggers inflammation and causes the body to send white blood cells to these “plaster” patches. Irritation and inflammation further causes blood clots to form on the plaque plastered tears. Blood clots later can suddenly and completely block an artery.
As for your lungs, damage begins when tobacco smoke paralyzes the cilia, which are microscopic hairs that line your bronchial tubes. Cilia are similar to a broom in your lung that sweeps germs and irritants out of the airways. Smoking interferes with the sweeping movement of cilia. Irritants, like tobacco smoke, remain in the bronchial tubes, and find their way to your alveoli, the tiny air sacs in your lungs.
Emphysema is the damage to alveoli, which transport oxygen to the blood through capillaries. This damage causes air to be trapped in these air sacs and makes exhaling very difficult. Less oxygen is transported to the bloodstream. Tobacco smoke toxins break down the elastic fibers of your alveoli, which work to help exhale the air from your lungs.
Chronic bronchitis is the inflammation and scarring of your bronchial tubes. This happens when the poisonous chemicals in tobacco smoke inflame the tissues in the bronchial tubes. This later reduces the airflow to and from your lungs, producing heavy mucus. This mucus is the ideal breeding ground for infections.
These three conditions cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Cigarette smoke is far and away the most common cause of COPD, accounting for eight out of ten cases.
Quitting Smoking has Immediate Benefits
If you quit now you won’t have to wait too long to experience the benefits. Within eight hours carbon monoxide blood-level drops, meaning more oxygen is available. At 24 hours from smoking your last cigarette, death from a heart attack decreases rapidly. At 48 hours your ability to smell and taste will improve.
Contact the Nevada Tobacco Users’ Helpline, the statewide nicotine dependence treatment program that treats all forms of tobacco dependence. Call 800-QUIT-NOW.
Elizabeth Fildes, Ed.D., R.N, is clinical director and counselor for the Nevada Tobacco Users’ Helpline and clinical assistant professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine.

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