Often, cigarettes give us a choice; a slow death or a quick one.  Tobacco smoking is currently responsible for 1 out of every 5 deaths annually in the United Sates.  Remember, these deaths are preventable.  As a smoker, you are much more likely to develop emphysema or lung cancer than to smoke consequence free your entire life.

 

The slow death choice is emphysema, an abnormal permanent enlargement of air spaces within the lung. The spaces are caused by the destruction of the air sacs, the place where oxygen from the air is traded for the carbon dioxide in your blood.  As the air sacs are destroyed, your lungs lose more and more of their ability to transfer oxygen to your body. At the same time, the lungs lose the elasticity that causes the compression you need to exhale.

 

That is why so many have difficulty breathing back out after inhaling and develop the tight lipped breathing look that is a hallmark sign of emphysema.  The number one cause of emphysema is cigarette smoking.  A typical emphysema sufferer will present to the doctor with a cough and shortness of breath.  They will likely have smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years or more and are in their 40’s or 50’s.  If they have chronic bronchitis as well as emphysema, the condition is called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).  Smoking is responsible for 80-90 percent of all COPD cases, including emphysema. 

 

The problem with emphysema is that there is no cure.  COPD is now the fourth most common cause of death in the United States and is rising.  The damage done to the lungs is permanent and irreversible.  Medical treatment is geared toward making life as comfortable as possible for the sufferer.  Over time, they will become downright breathless and unable to do even the smallest tasks without gulping for air.  Portable oxygen tanks eventually become necessary to manage this chronic condition.  Eventually, heart failure becomes a possibility as the muscle becomes damaged from a lack of oxygen.  Stopping smoking, while not a cure, is the best method for halting the progression of the disease and improving life function.

Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in the United States, China, and Canada.  It is highly lethal with an average of only 14 percent of those diagnosed surviving beyond 5 years.  85 percent of all lung cancers are caused by smoking.   Small cell lung cancers (SCLC) make up about 25 percent of all cases and non-small cell cancers (NSCLC) comprise the remaining 75 percent.  SCLC is a very aggressive cancer and tends to occur between the ages of 27 and 66, so do not think that lung cancer is something you don’t need to worry about until you get older.   It is a systemic disease that tends to spread (metastasize) to the brain and bones.  The average life expectancy for a person diagnosed with SCLC is only 6 to 9 months. 

  
The prognosis varies for NSCLC and is dependent on staging the disease.  In staging, the doctors will determine how far advanced the cancer is and whether or not it has spread (metastasized).  Stage 1 tumors have a survival rate of 70 percent at 5 years; stage 2 tumors, 45 percent at 5 years; stage 3 tumors, 25 percent at 5 years; and for stage 4 tumors, the average life expectancy is only 8.5 to 21 weeks.  Unfortunately, most people with lung cancer already have stage 3 or stage 4 cancers that cannot be surgically removed by the time they feel ill and go to the doctor.  This is why the survival rates are so grim.

On average, smoking takes 15 years off of your life span.  For lung cancer patients, however, it steals 30 years or more.  Emphysema sufferers may live longer, but of what quality is that remaining time?