Bronchial asthma today is one of the most common diseases of the organs of the respiratory system, with a severe course and repeatedly reducing the quality of life of the patient. In many ways, the wide spread of this disease contributes to the abundance and weighting of the course of this disease.
These are bad environmental conditions, lack of physical activity, and the presence of bad habits, especially the most harmful of which with regard to asthma is smoking, both active and passive (inhalation of tobacco smoke). This fact is confirmed by the results of numerous studies. Moreover, in its cumulative damage that tobacco smoke causes asthma to the body, it is much higher than other atmospheric pollutants.
Inhalation of tobacco smoke in minutes provokes a seizure, which is not so easy to stop. Such high pathogenic smoke activity is characterized by the presence of various components in it – nicotine, tar, etc., which individually are strong allergens and can be a factor in the development of bronchial asthma, and together they even more affect the reactivity of the immune system.
The mechanism of development of an attack of bronchial asthma in contact with tobacco smoke.
The essence of this mechanism lies in the fact that contact with smoke causes pathological asphyxiation resulting from the narrowing lumen of the respiratory system. And not only the largest, but also the smallest airways are narrowed. At its core, asphyxiation is a defensive reaction that should prevent the further entry of an allergen into the respiratory system.
The contraction of the lumen is caused by the impulse coming from the vegetative nervous system. Within reasonable limits, a similar reaction saves the body from falling into the lungs of foreign bodies, chemical and mechanical components that may be present in the atmospheric air.
However, upon contact with tobacco smoke, the reaction occurs hyperergic, and the lumen narrows so much that a person is unable to breathe normally. Additionally, it is worth noting that this pathological process is supported not only by the allergic nature of the narrowing of the lumen of the airways, but also by the excessive production of mucus in asthmatics, which does not depart on its own due to the low reactivity of the smallest cilia covering the bronchial mucosa.
This phenomenon is formed just against the background of active and passive smoking, when the cilia do not cope with the abundance of mucus mixed with small mechanical agents entering the upper respiratory tract and bronchi when smoking or breathing smoke. And once the mucus is not removed, it has an additional irritating effect on the organs of the respiratory system and it becomes more and more, until it clogs the gaps of the smallest bronchioles.
There is no cartilaginous base in the bronchioles, therefore, when an attack is triggered by an impulse from the ANS (vegetative nervous system), they are squeezed by muscles, damaged, and the sputum ceases to depart. The end result of this process is difficulty breathing. At the same time, an attack, unfortunately, leads not only to disability, but also to the danger of death. Therefore, asthmatic should in no case be an active or passive smoker.
Tobacco smoke and its effect on the asthmatic status of future generations
An adult is an adult in order to have the right to choose and independently decide whether to smoke or not. But children who grow up in families where at least one of their parents smokes, find themselves in a stalemate. The physiological characteristics of the reaction of a child’s body in response to inhalation of tobacco smoke are such that passive smoking has a much more destructive effect on the respiratory organs of babies than in the case of adults.
The lung tissue of a child’s body is faster than in adults, irritated, the secretion of mucus is rapidly increasing, and an attack in an asthmatic child does not take long to wait. As for healthy children, they have passive smoking leads to lower resistance to SARS and respiratory diseases that are bacterial in nature. And, of course, the constant trauma of the bronchial tissues leads to an increased risk of asthma.
Speaking about the effect of smoking on the children’s body, one cannot help but touch upon the asthmatic status of future generations. A pregnant woman who smokes herself or often inhales cigarette smoke conveys the dangerous substances that are in the smoke, the fetus. The situation is complicated by the fact that nicotine, a drop of which, as you know, kills a horse, freely penetrates the hemoplacental barrier.
The result of this is the increased risk of asthma in this child throughout his later life. In addition, he will have reduced immunity, he can be born prematurely, with a low body weight, and may even die in the first months of life from the syndrome of sudden death of babies. In short, smoking does not contribute to the health of children – the hope and future of any nation.
Tobacco smoke and its effects on the body asthma
So, to summarize the above, so that you do not have a shadow of a doubt that tobacco smoke is harmful not only for asthmatics, but also for any person.
Inhalation of tobacco smoke, like smoking, leads to:
1. Activation of mucus production in the respiratory system;
2. Violation of the physiological purification of the respiratory system;
3. An allergic reaction in response to the ingestion of tar and nicotine, which are strong allergens;
4. Changes in the reactivity of the immune system, which, in turn, leads to increased sensitivity of the respiratory system.
The result of contact is the constant chronic readiness of the respiratory system to react to the slightest irritant, to which previously no particular reaction would follow. That is why smoking, both active and passive, is currently considered to be one of the strongest risk factors for a healthy person to develop asthma and other respiratory diseases. Well, for asthmatics, it is a factor that increases the frequency and weights the attacks, reduces the effectiveness of treatment, weakens the effect of inhalants, relieves seizures, provokes the development of complications and infection of the respiratory system, and also reduces the quality and longevity. And since smoking causes such irreversible consequences, it is worth considering – is it worth to ruin your health and shorten your life, getting fleeting pleasure from puffing? You decide…