More than 1 billion people in the world are addicted to tobacco, although the World Health Organization ca. 40 years ago, she proved that smoking has a very negative impact on our health. Tobacco smoke contains harmful nicotine and approx.
7000 other chemical substances, including m.in. carbon monoxide and aromatic hydrocarbons, which increase the risk of developing respiratory, cardiovascular diseases, and also contribute to the development of cancers, in particular lung, oral and esophageal cancer.
When we habitually smoke cigarettes, our lungs are much weaker and have less respiratory capacity. In addition, smoking destroys cilia in the respiratory tract.
The cilia, in other words the membrane epithelium, capture the impurities and with their synchronous movement carry them up the bronchial tree and out of the body. Cilia are one of the systems of defense of our body against infection. Smoking impairs this mechanism and reduces our immunity and ability to fight disease.
Smoking and coronavirus
There is not the slightest doubt that smokers are more vulnerable to the appearance of any diseases and infections of the respiratory system. And yet the SARS-cov2 virus, which causes covid-19, primarily attacks our respiratory system. In the first stage it causes dry cough, fever, weakness, and then shortness of breath and pneumonia, destroys lung tissue and damages the follicles.
This can be particularly dangerous for people with diseases caused by smoking, m.in. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, which as co-existing are factors of severe course of covid-19. People who smoke are even more susceptible to infection, because everything that is associated with smoking, that is, intensive inhalation of air and frequent touching of the face around the mouth and nose, in addition, significantly increase the risk of transmission of coronavirus to our body.
- (1) and if we get sick, studies by Chinese doctors show that, as smokers, we are 14 times more likely to develop severe pneumonia if we get covid-19 than people who do not smoke (2).
- The Chinese researchers also found that of the 1,099 laboratory-confirmed COVID cases in the smoking group, there were significantly more patients who died, required admission to the intensive care unit or mechanical ventilation than in the never-smoking group.
Thus, coronavirus is much more dangerous for people who smoke cigarettes than for non-smokers.
It’s time to give up the habit
Fortunately, if we stop smoking, then after 20 minutes our heart rate returns to normal. After 48 hours, the senses of smell and taste begin to function normally. Subsequently, the cilia in our airways are renewed, and the lungs begin to return to normal function. After about a year, cough and shortness of breath decrease.
Small hair-like structures that remove mucus from the lungs (called cilia) begin to regain normal function in the lungs, increasing their ability to cope with mucus, clean the lungs and reduce the risk of infection. To strengthen your body during a pandemic, it is worth thinking about quitting smoking right now.
Such a procedure is also currently recommended by the WHO and the Polish society of civilizational diseases. It is worth making such a decision! In the fight against addiction, we can help ourselves, using pharmacological preparations available on the market.
One of them is a drug (Recigar) containing cytisine – a substance of plant origin, with an effect similar to nicotine. Importantly, the drug does not contain nicotine, but acts on exactly the same receptors in our central nervous system. Stimulates the secretion of dopamine, which effectively tolerates the symptoms of nicotine hunger. And this makes it significantly reduces the desire to reach for a cigarette. It is also important that the regimen of taking recigar mimics what a person who gives up smoking does in nature. Every day we get less and less of the drug, and this makes our dopamine receptors better adapted to it.