Smoker's Lungs Medical Oncology Center. The effect of tobacco smoke on other organs. Lung disease in smokers

What are smoker's lungs? This information will be useful to all people - both non-smokers and those who can get rid of this addiction. Cigarette smoke contains harmful substances affecting the respiratory system. Most of all, smoke hits a person.

What do the lungs of a smoker look like?

What do smoker's lungs look like? How is the body destroyed by smoking? Entering the trachea, the smoke diverges through the two main bronchi, fills the bronchioles, then enters the respiratory sacs (acini). On the human respiratory tract (trachea, bronchioles, bronchi) are delicate ciliated epithelial cells. Smoke and other harmful substances settle on them. Then, together with sputum, they are removed from the body.

The epithelium of the lungs collects all the harmful substances in the smoke. Each puff accumulates more and more of them. Constantly clogging with toxic fumes, impurities, the respiratory organ begins to fail to cope with its work. turn on protective functions body in the form of a cough.

Prolonged coughing is repeated frequently, thus clearing the respiratory organs of dirty resins and impurities. Here .

Unfortunately, coughing does not provide a complete cleaning of the respiratory organ from the settling smoke in the bronchi. Tobacco and other harmful substances irritate the lungs, and inflammatory process. Weakened in a smoker the immune system. Diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, turning into chronic condition, emphysema, acute respiratory infections, are frequent guests of a smoker.

The risk of cancer increases. Weakened and downtrodden tobacco tar the lungs lose their elasticity, a lot of sputum is collected, which gradually decomposes. Due to the violation of ventilation abilities in the lungs, an ideal place is created for the occurrence of cancer and tuberculosis.

If a person was able to pull himself together and gave up the addiction of smoking, coughing fits, wheezing, difficulty exhaling, picking up sputum may disappear.

Oncology most often develops on the lungs of a person who smokes. In almost 90% of cases, lung cancer is found in those who constantly smoke and whose smoking experience is more than a year. What can we say about heavy smokers with an experience of 20, 30 years or more?

What is the difference between the lungs of a smoker and a healthy person

Let's compare the lungs of a smoker and healthy person.

1. The lungs in healthy people are two pink tight sacs connected to each other.
2. From smoking, the respiratory organ loses its color and acquires a large number of darkening, sometimes it becomes almost black.
3. Of course, it all depends on the experience of the smoker, the number of cigarettes smoked per day.
4. The disease leaves its imprints in the form of scars, seals, etc.
5. Chronic smokers with experience often have tumors different nature, traces of pneumothorax.

Lung disease in smokers

Obstructive lung disease is directly related to smoking.

With this pathology, it becomes difficult to breathe. Obstructive disease tends to get worse over time. It is difficult to stop the process of tissue damage that has begun. But if you take action in time and show yourself to a specialist, you can improve your well-being.

obstructive chronic illness lung appears after inflammatory processes associated with the influence harmful factors: smoking, environmental influences. This disease is complex, and mortality among patients for last years high enough.

First of all, the disease is associated with the widespread use of smoking. The objectives of therapy are to prevent the progression of the disease, improve the quality of life of patients, reduce exacerbations, complications and mortality.

It has been established that when quitting smoking, the process of increasing bronchial obstruction slows down. The body more easily tolerates pneumonia, bronchitis. tobacco addiction relevant among all patients with this disease.

An x-ray of a smoker's lungs shows a large amount of opacities. In a healthy person, the lungs are transparent and clean. Lung disease is dangerous, it most often dies. It has been proven that the largest percentage of lung cancer is occupied by smokers. Therefore, checking the condition of the lungs means prolonging your life.

Such patients are difficult to treat. The pathology of the lungs deforms the veins, blood vessels, the structure of the blood changes, practically all organs suffer. When surgical intervention surgery can be very risky and difficult, both for doctors and for the patient. Holding drug treatment also becomes difficult. Frequent disease pneumothorax is considered to be the cause of death.

Slow makes the walls lung thin, With open wounds. This disease leads to depressurization of the entire respiratory system. dangerous situation must be corrected immediately, as lungs with damaged walls are not able to process air.

Often smokers die suddenly. It would seem that everything is in order, but vasospasm as a result of smoking leads to coronary heart disease. From this disease, a smoker dies more often, less often - a non-smoker.

First of all, not only the smoker's organs suffer from tobacco, especially the cardiovascular activity and respiratory system. For 1 year of smoking, up to 1 kg of poisonous tar, a breeding ground for diseases, settles in the lungs. On the chemical attack in the form of acid, ammonia, pyridine, carbon particles, aromatic hydrocarbons, the body responds with a strong cough.

For three years, with a rhythm of smoking 20 cigarettes a day, a smoker consumes about 22 thousand of them, which is equivalent to working in a uranium mine.

What is the actual problem?

Oral cavity

It destroys . Microcracks accumulate food debris and bacteria. The teeth are destroyed, covered with a brown coating.

The temperature of a smoldering cigarette reaches 300 ºС, when puffed, the cigarette heats up to 1000 ºС.

The oral mucosa is irritated chemicals tobacco smoke. As a result, inflammation salivary glands and gums increased salivation. smoking women decrepit early. Their voice loses its attractiveness and coarsens, teeth darken, a repulsive smell appears.

Digestive system

Nicotine affects internal organs smoking person, the mucous membranes of the stomach, esophagus, intestines, contributes to their inflammation. Indigestion borders on intermittent diarrhea, constipation.

Tobacco provokes an increase in acidity gastric juice. Taste preferences are modified, the appetite deteriorates, the stomach protests against toxic substances, smokers "press" on flour and fat.

Brain

Nicotine and benzidine are nerve poisons that act on the central nervous system. They are especially dangerous for unborn children, they penetrate the brain and disrupt its development. Mental capacity such children are markedly reduced.

When smoking, within 10 seconds to 2 minutes, nicotine reaches the brain, striking with a specific intoxicating effect. 10-15% of smokers have mental disorders: depression, neurasthenia, etc.

The organs of a smoker and a healthy person, what are the differences?

According to scientific research for smokers:

• the risk of death from a stroke or heart attack is 4 times higher compared to non-smokers;
• the death rate in cancer of the stomach and esophagus is 3 times higher than in non-smokers;
• 10 times more common stomach ulcer and 3-4 times higher mortality from it;
• sudden death from coronary disease occurs 5 times more often;
• mortality rate due to circulatory diseases and coronary vessels 2.5 and 2 times higher;
• The average age of smokers who died from heart attacks is 48 years, non-smokers -67 years.

For male smokers:

• erectile dysfunction is observed 30% more often than in non-smokers;
• changes in chromosomes occur more often, the apparatus of heredity is “damaged” (children are born with “ cleft lip”, asymmetry of the eyes, etc.);

For women who smoke:

• handicapped, premature and dead children are born;
• premature miscarriages up to 36 weeks occur 2 times more often.

The internal organs of a smoker wear out and age. Only by quitting smoking, you can regain youth and evaluate your condition before and after.

Recovery of organs after quitting smoking by day

From smoking a person receives extra expenses, bad smell and appearance, life-threatening diseases. Leave cigarettes, start and celebrate daily successes:

• 1 day - improvement of hemodynamic parameters;
• 1 week - elimination physical addiction, normalization of the activity of the stomach and pancreas;
• 1 month - restoration of immunity, taste buds and sense of smell; recovery skin(fresh skin of natural color);
• 6 months - normalization of vascular tone and digestion, appetite and sleep; increase in lung capacity, breathing without shortness of breath; the beginning of the revival of the liver, an increase in overall activity;
• 1 year - the voice is louder, the mood is better, the risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke is reduced by 2 times.

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According to the World Health Organization, smoking is the leading cause of death in modern world. This terrible habit has the character of a global epidemic and claims about 6 million lives annually, overtaking heart disease and cancer. Smoking causes great systemic harm to the quality of life and to the entire human body, but one of the main blows is taken by the respiratory organs, in particular the lungs of a smoker.

Lungs of a smoker: a ticket to the next world

AT initial stage process, the substances that make up tobacco smoke immobilize the villi of the epithelium that lines inner surface respiratory tract. The role of the villi is to remove toxic substances, viruses and bacteria, thus, the smoker begins to get sick much more often various diseases respiratory organs and accumulate substances hazardous to health and life in their lungs.

Chronic obstructive disease (COPD), which is incurable, also affects the lungs of smokers in 80-90% of cases. The bronchi constrict, the lungs fill with air, chronic inflammation and development of emphysema. Patients with COPD and emphysema feel permanent shortage air first when moving, and then at rest.

Also proven Negative influence smoking for one more serious disease lungs - tuberculosis: according to statistics, about 95% of tuberculosis patients are smokers. The vast majority of deceased patients with tuberculosis also suffered from this addiction during their lifetime.

When visually analyzing the lungs of a smoker in the photo, first of all, the presence of soot attracts attention, which clogs the alveoli, complicates the breathing process and is the root cause cancerous tumors. Also, photos of light smokers are characterized by the presence of serious violations blood supply, such as sclerosis and arterial thrombosis, which further lead to heart attacks and strokes.

If we compare the lungs of a healthy person and the lungs of a smoker, there is a huge difference. Light pink, evenly permeated with full-fledged blood vessels, healthy elastic lungs and lungs of a smoker, which are a black worn-out, non-viable organ, seem to have nothing in common.

Lung cancer and the global tobacco epidemic

Compounds named in production tobacco products as resins, in fact, are phenolic compounds, that is, the most powerful carcinogens. Without exaggeration, with a terrible tarry coating, they cover the surface of light smokers with experience and contribute to the development oncological processes. Among all cancers, lung cancer most often leads to death, while in 90% of cases, death in lung cancer occurs precisely due to smoking (and not occupational diseases, environmental conditions, etc.).

The insidiousness of lung cancer is prolonged absence symptoms. Shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, chest discomfort, etc. appear, as a rule, when the disease is already running. Even high-tech modern medicine not always able to resist it radically - in some cases, only measures to prolong the patient's life are possible.

The psychological state of smokers with lung cancer often exacerbates the course of the disease and prognosis. This is due to the awareness of one's guilt in the occurrence deadly disease. In addition, there are concrete scientific data proving positive effect smoking cessation in the treatment of patients with lung cancer. It has also been proven that essential role in the prevention of lung cancer belongs to the banal smoking cessation.

The smoker is different from the shots of a healthy person. In a smoker, the lung pattern thickens and bronchiectasis (cavitary formations in the bronchi) is observed. If these two variants of radiographs are shown to a patient without medical education even he can see the difference.

In order not to frighten readers, we will describe in an understandable language all the changes in the pictures chest observed when "using" a pack of tobacco per day.

What lungs does a smoker have on x-rays

The lungs of a long-term smoker resemble a sieve. This x-ray picture is due to the formation cavity formations bronchiectasis against the background of an enhanced and thickened pulmonary pattern.

Strengthening - the appearance of shadows of blood vessels in peripheral departments lung fields. Condensation - an increase in the number of elements per unit volume lung tissue. In x-ray diagnostics of the lungs, it is customary to count the number of small shadows within the quadrant formed by crossed ribs (see figure).

Some experts compare the x-ray picture of the lung fields in smokers with a "doormat". Such a similarity does take place, since the multiple pores formed by bronchial defects and their inflammatory changes resemble this household item.

The above-described x-ray picture in the pictures (OGC) occurs due to the formation of a non-functional connective tissue at sites of cell death in the respiratory tree. It should be understood that against the background of its growth, the functioning of the alveoli, which are responsible for binding oxygen from the external air and delivering it to the tissues, is disrupted. As a result, respiratory failure is formed.

In such a situation, enlightenment of the lung fields appears, due to increased compensatory airiness of the lungs. Initially, increased airiness occurs in the lower third of the lung fields. Gradually enlightenment in the pictures move up.

X-ray picture of the roots of the lungs when smoking

On x-rays of the lungs when smoking, specific changes appear in the root area. On the background pathological changes in small capillaries, violations of the outflow of lymphatic fluid, disorders of intercellular metabolism, the following changes in the roots appear:

• low structure;
• additional shadows;
• blurring of contours;
• shape deformation;
• increase in density.

Let's consider them in more detail.

Small structure - the impossibility of isolating X-ray signs of normal roots of the lungs (head, body and tail).

The blurring of the contours appears due to an increase in the size of the pulmonary vessels against the background respiratory failure, as well as accumulations fibrous tissue.

The deformation of the contours is formed due to inflammatory changes. The roots lose their straight course and become more tortuous (X-ray symptom of low structure).

The density of the formation increases due to the growth of additional vessels, the accumulation of lymphatic fluid, enlargement of the lymph nodes, the deposition of calcium salts and petrificates (dust deposits).

The image clearly shows the low structure and deformation of the root in an experienced smoker (scheme "b").

Extra shadows on chest x-rays in a smoker

In a long-term smoker, chest x-rays may show additional shadows formed by the following diseases:

• diaphragmatic hernia;
• lung and mediastinal tumors;
• osteomyelitis of the ribs;
• bronchial asthma;
• bronchiectasis;
• bronchitis.

The most common of the above list are bronchitis and bronchiectasis. These forms of pathology on the x-ray are displayed as limited rounded enlightenments. Cavities are formed due to the constant inflammatory effect on the walls of the bronchi, as a result of which they "bend" outwards.

Dust, bacteria, liquid accumulate in the cavities, which causes a chronic inflammatory process that is not treated. antibacterial drugs. Additional cavities cause a decrease in the body's immunity, so smokers are prone to tuberculosis and tumor diseases.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the above x-ray picture of the lungs of a smoker is not specific. Similar changes are observed when long work with polluted air high content toxic substances. To differentiate the pathology, the radiologist collects the patient's history, so smoking should not be hidden. Maybe, this information will save your life!

In reality, it is impossible to see the image of your own lungs, unfortunately. Only a body pathologist will be able to solve this "secret". Neither a fluorographic picture, nor an X-ray do not give a complete picture of the appearance of such an irreplaceable organ as the lungs. x-ray beam passing through the body, bypassing tissues and organs, is able to capture only differences in their density and structure.

However, science has data on what the lungs of a healthy person should be like. Drawings depicting healthy organs can be found in any anatomy textbook. Normally, the lungs consist of elastic and porous tissue, the color of which is barely pink. Their coloration is uniform and devoid of dark or black spots.

Why does a person need lungs?

Lungs in human body are the site of gas exchange between blood in capillaries and air. The lungs are a respiratory organ that saturates the body with vital oxygen through the blood and removes it from it. carbon dioxide. But in addition to breathing, the lungs also have secondary functions that are diverse.

Lungs on x-ray

Analyzing the chest, the doctor pays attention to the presence or absence of dark or, conversely, light spots in the picture. Moreover, healthy lungs should not have either one or the other. For the doctor, the identified shortcomings are a reason to conduct a more detailed examination, but fluorography is not enough to make a diagnosis.

Lungs on x-ray

X-ray is considered a more informative procedure, compared to noticing deformation in the lungs. In a healthy person X-ray lungs will be light, which is a sign of the presence of air in the organ. The x-ray will also reflect the rib lines in the image as transparent white. In addition, shadows will be visible in the picture. blood vessels. An x-ray of the lungs of a smoker, on the contrary, will show dark spots of places poisoned by tobacco.

Lungs of a smoker

Inhaling tobacco smoke smoking man puts his lungs to the test. Nicotine, tar and hydrogen enter the respiratory organ with each puff and remain there forever. Settling in the lung tissue, they stain it black, clogging the pores. At autopsy, the lungs of a smoker have an unpleasant black color. The organ is as if covered with resinous spots. And, depending on the degree of commitment bad habit, human lungs become gray and even black.

Such changes not only spoil the appearance of the lungs, but also prevent them from fully functioning. Chronic inflammation of the lungs develops. Therefore, smokers with experience often complain of shortness of breath.