Effects of Smoking
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Smoking's Effects on the Lungs
Smoking's effects on the lungs, such as the development of emphysema and lung cancer, are mainly caused by tar and nicotine. Learn how smoking cigarettes causes immediate changes to occur in the lungs.
One of the hardest habits to break is smoking cigarettes. Everyone knows it damages the lungs, causing emphysema and cancer. But do people know HOW these illnesses occur on a physiological level? Perhaps if the mechanism were explained there would be more people quitting and fewer kids starting.
The two main ingredients of cigarette smoke are tar and nicotine. Simply put, tar is exactly what the word means. Tar is the thick, gooey black stuff that resembles the substance highway crews use in constructing roads. It is the residue (what is left) of tobacco after it has been smoked. It is in the smoker’s lungs.
Nicotine, on the other hand, is a chemical that is absorbed in the blood system and carried throughout the body. Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, which means it makes the smoker’s blood vessels smaller in diameter for a while. This can wreak havoc on the heart, which has to pump harder when the vessels are in such a spasm. Nicotine is also what the smoker becomes addicted to.
The respiratory system, where the smoking takes place, begins at the mouth and nose. Down the throat and through the vocal cords lies the beautiful pulmonary structures. The trachea (windpipe) splits in two, becoming the right and left main stem bronchiole tubes. Lined with hairlike structures called cilia, these tubes actually enter the lung tissue on both sides of the chest.
Like branches emerging from a tree trunk, the bronchiole tubes become smaller and smaller. Finally, the tiny tubes arrive at the alveoli, or air sacs. This is where gas exchange takes place. The blood cells drop the off carbon dioxide and pick up oxygen. It’s truly a wonderful relationship.
The effects of
Smoking's Effects on the Lungs
Smoking's effects on the lungs, such as the development of emphysema and lung cancer, are mainly caused by tar and nicotine. Learn how smoking cigarettes causes immediate changes to occur in the lungs.
One of the hardest habits to break is smoking cigarettes. Everyone knows it damages the lungs, causing emphysema and cancer. But do people know HOW these illnesses occur on a physiological level? Perhaps if the mechanism were explained there would be more people quitting and fewer kids starting.
The two main ingredients of cigarette smoke are tar and nicotine. Simply put, tar is exactly what the word means. Tar is the thick, gooey black stuff that resembles the substance highway crews use in constructing roads. It is the residue (what is left) of tobacco after it has been smoked. It is in the smoker’s lungs.
Nicotine, on the other hand, is a chemical that is absorbed in the blood system and carried throughout the body. Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, which means it makes the smoker’s blood vessels smaller in diameter for a while. This can wreak havoc on the heart, which has to pump harder when the vessels are in such a spasm. Nicotine is also what the smoker becomes addicted to.
The respiratory system, where the smoking takes place, begins at the mouth and nose. Down the throat and through the vocal cords lies the beautiful pulmonary structures. The trachea (windpipe) splits in two, becoming the right and left main stem bronchiole tubes. Lined with hairlike structures called cilia, these tubes actually enter the lung tissue on both sides of the chest.
Like branches emerging from a tree trunk, the bronchiole tubes become smaller and smaller. Finally, the tiny tubes arrive at the alveoli, or air sacs. This is where gas exchange takes place. The blood cells drop the off carbon dioxide and pick up oxygen. It’s truly a wonderful relationship.
The effects of