Smoke from cigarettes, cigars and pipes causes damage to the whole body, but it is especially harmful to the lungs of a person with asthma. Tobacco smoke is a powerful stimulant of the symptoms of the disease. Smokers with experience in diagnosing the disease first of all ask whether smoking is possible with asthma. To give an answer, you need to understand the etiology of the disease and the degree of harm caused by tobacco products to people with this pathology.
What is bronchial asthma?
An inflammatory, protracted non-infectious disease in medicine is called bronchial asthma. The process leads to bronchospasm and the appearance of dry wheezing in the lungs. Upon contact with allergens or irritants, bronchial resistance forms, which reduces air access, and causes suffocation.
The development of the disease takes place with the participation of mast cells, eosinophilic granulocytes, dendritic cells :
- White (fat) blood cells that cause allergies secrete histamine. This chemical causes nasal stuffiness, narrowing of the airways and bronchospasm.
- Eosinophils secrete proteins that damage the bronchial epithelium.
- Dendritic cells carry allergens from the ciliary epithelium to the lymph nodes.
What affects the occurrence of pathology
The main factors causing the development of bronchial asthma are allergens. Despite their different origin, they all violate the autonomic regulation of persistent excitation of smooth muscles of the bronchi and increase the resistance of the respiratory organs. The most famous allergens are:
- household - dust, pet hair;
- professional - mineral dust, harmful fumes;
- meteorological - windy weather, high humidity;
- environmental - gas contamination.
The trigger that causes attacks of suffocation and a crisis of the disease is smoking. A cigarette emits a lot of harmful elements, such as nicotine, resins. They cause a destructive effect, causing various diseases. Many of them, such as bronchitis, contribute to the onset of bronchial asthma. According to research results, with a cigarette smoking experience of 10 years, the risk of a disease is doubled.
At least, such questions look strange: is it possible to smoke with asthma, are smoking and asthma compatible, given that nicotine is generally dangerous.
Symptoms of pathology
Inflammatory processes leading to respiratory failure of the branches of the respiratory throat lead to impaired lung ventilation and poor discharge of mucus. The focus of inflammation grows from the trachea to the alveolar passages of the lungs.
The main symptoms of asthma are disturbances in the frequency and depth of breathing. You can also suspect asthma in such manifestations as:
- voiced wheezing;
- feeling of tightness in the chest;
- wet cough, worse at night;
- seasonal exacerbations of rhinitis;
- episodes of suffocation accompanied by chest pain;
- sputum discharge during coughing;
- a sharp deterioration in symptoms in contact with irritants, allergens;
- complications even with mild catarrhal diseases.
Usually smoking before asthma causes rare coughing attacks. You should be wary if after cigarettes, even simply from smoke, it starts to tickle strongly in the throat, it is impossible to cough for a long time.
Cigarettes and asthma
When tobacco smoke is inhaled, irritating substances settle on the walls of the respiratory tract. They provoke asthma attacks in a person suffering from this disease. Tar from cigarettes damage the ciliated epithelium, which is involved in the restoration of the bronchial mucosa. Usually cilia "sweep" dust and mucus from the respiratory tract. Tobacco smoke disrupts the epithelium, which allows harmful substances to accumulate in the airways.
Smoking and asthma are incompatible, the effects of addiction complicate the treatment. The prescribed course of therapy has to be adjusted due to some problems that occur after cigarettes. What is going on?
- Smoke forces the lungs to produce more mucus than usual. A large amount of secretion in the lungs provokes asthma attacks.
- Tobacco is an allergen. When smoking, hypersensitizing asthma therapy does not produce the desired effect.
- Smoking provokes asthma-related diseases, such as bronchitis, pneumonia.
In nicotine-dependent people, asthma attacks are longer and occur much more often than in non-smokers asthmatics. Smoking promotes the release of mucus, which in large quantities causes an attack.
In bronchial asthma, it is also advisable to exclude passive smoking. Smoke, even in small amounts, strongly irritates the bronchial mucosa and interferes with the healing process.
Cigarettes destroy the immune system, inflammatory processes quickly turn into chronic forms.
An alternative to asthma cigarettes
Absolutely incompatible smoking and asthma. The consequences, symptoms and reviews of asthmatic smokers confirm this. But not everyone can completely abandon the gray snake, and therefore they are looking for an alternative. Some replace traditional cigarettes with electronic or hookah.
Officially, WHO does not advise banning electronic devices, considering them less dangerous, unlike classic tobacco products. Numerous opinion polls suggest that a significant number of people quit traditional cigarettes thanks to vaping.
And about whether it is possible to smoke a hookah with asthma, the organization has a different opinion. Through the device, a person inhales smoke, even if not tobacco and cold. The harmful substance acts as an irritant on the ciliary epithelium and leads to the development of bronchitis, emphysema and bronchial asthma.
The difference between electronic and conventional cigarettes
In industrial conditions, already harmful tobacco is exposed to various carcinogens. In addition to tobacco, paper burns in which it is wrapped, respectively, a large amount of complex toxic substances gets into the lungs.
An electronic cigarette is a device for burning a liquid mixture, in which nicotine is often not included at all. When turned on, the device heats the liquid, turning it into steam, which the person smokes. The main differences between electronic cigarettes:
- nicotine in the device is diluted and purified;
- no pitches;
- the absence of a combustion process minimizes the likelihood of a fire;
- only the smoker receives harm from the device.
Is it allowed to wipe asthma
Smokers with asthma are well aware that cigarettes exacerbate the inflammatory process. Many of them are trying to quit addiction with the help of electronic substitutes. To understand whether it is possible to smoke vape for asthma, you need to know what happens in the body during this process:
- During inhalation of steam, hypotonic fluid enters the bronchi. The process of sputum discharge worsens, which prevents the normalization of the respiratory system.
- In addition to nicotine, various impurities and flavors that are allergens are added to the vaping fluid. And some of them, glycerin in particular, contribute to the formation of mucus.
- The main supplier of nicotine is China. During transportation, the substance must be treated with propylene glycol. To minimize costs, use technical fluid. Whether it is possible to smoke with asthma or a healthy person such an explosive mixture, no need to explain.
What is a hookah?
This is a device with which inhaled smoke enters the respiratory tract clean and cold. He attracts with his eccentricity. In many places of public catering there is a service “smoking hookah”. Naturally, representatives of the restaurant business are touting the device as a safe alternative to smoking.
Hookah lovers think that there is no harm to their health due to the lack of nicotine. In fact, the harmful substance is there simply in a diluted form. And if, by mathematical manipulations, a calculation is made, it turns out that in one gas station, hookah has almost eight times more nicotine than in a cigarette.
The inhaled smoke is cleaned with a water filter, so there are practically no harmful substances in it. In fact, water is not able to filter the complex chemical components present in the smoking mixture.
There are no laws and standards governing the composition of components for a hookah. Is it possible to smoke such a mixture with asthma, if anything can be in it, and so it is clear.
Consequences of a hookah for asthmatics
When using the device, carbon monoxide enters the human body. Carbon monoxide dynamically binds to an iron-containing protein and blocks the access of oxygen to tissue cells, this leads to hypoxemia. Against this background, a person experiences severe headaches, nausea and suffocation.
Allergens may be present in tobacco blends, and there may be several. Having smoked a hookah, an asthmatic will begin to cough and suffocate. Not knowing exactly what the body responds to, it will be difficult to alleviate the symptoms.
If there are doubts whether it is possible to smoke a hookah with asthma, then another argument will dispel them. All mixtures for the device contain non-food flavorings. They include carbon benzapyrene, which has the highest hazard class. It poses a danger to humans even in small doses. An organism weakened by pathology is difficult to synthesize this substance. Its accumulation causes tumors and mutagenic effects.
What is the conclusion?
For asthmatics, any type of smoking is highly undesirable. Such conclusions were made on the basis of the analysis of all pyrolytic inhalations. The assessment was based on a large number of factors, their impact on various body systems, and a possible threat. For an asthmatic, inhaling smoke or steam is very dangerous, and it does not matter to what extent it is harmless. Therefore, the answer to the question whether it is possible to smoke with bronchial asthma is negative.