Cancer Articles (Dr. S.N White)

How does smoking affect the lungs? Constant irritation of the bronchial lining by cigarette smoke causes the tiny hairs (cilia) that line the bronchial lining to disappear. Without these tiny hairs to sweep it into the throat in the cleansing action, the mucus remains trapped and "smoker's cough" often results. Continued smoking can cause the cells to form abnormal growth patterns and eventually to turn into cancer. Some recent studies indicate that lung cancer could be cut by as much as 80 percent if all smoking ceased. When a person stops smoking, the lungs begin to cleanse and repair themselves. What kinds of tests does the doctor do when he is looking for lung cancer?  Usually the doctor starts by getting a health history, which gives him important clues to the most likely diagnosis. Then he will do a physical exam, looking, for example, for a hard lump in the neck which would suggest that cancer may have spread from some nearby part of the body to the lymph no...

It can be helpful to make a few lists and carry them with you. • Make a list of situations that most strongly trigger your smoking urge. This will help you recognize them immediately when they occur, or even ahead of time. Work out some advance strategies to respond to this urge, listing some options that might work for you (e.g., leaving the situation, performing some alternative action like gum chewing, taking a walk, eating candy, or saying something prerehearsed to yourself or to others present). • Decide what you will say when you are offered a cigarette, asked if you’ve quit yet, or teased. Rehearse these lines often; advocates of the power of positive thinking claim that mental rehearsals are perhaps just as powerful as real-life experiences in the quest to change your behavior. • Make a list of your motivations to quit so you can reread it whenever you need to. • Make a list of all your reasons not to smoke, including health reasons. This last suggestion is really a fo...

Although more men than women smoke in the United States (26 million men, 23 million women), the rate of decline for male smokers is sharper than that for female smokers: 42 percent of men have quit smoking since 1965 as compared to 32 percent of women. Smoking carries an additional risk of heart attack for women when they also take birth control pills.

I don't see as many people smoking as I used to. Are people smoking less?  Yes, the number of both men and women smokers has decreased dramatically in the United States since the mid-1960s, when public health messages on the hazards of smoking began to reach the general public. Smoking has declined in the United States by about 35 percent since then. There are currently around 40 million ex-smokers in this country. In some states, like California and Utah, less than 18 percent of adults now smoke. While in the United States smoking is declining, this is not true for other countries where greater affluence is linked to more smoking, and where the awareness of the risks of smoking is not as great.

What makes smoking so addictive? Is it a physical or psychological addiction?   Smoking attracts and holds its devotees by three methods, and it is up to each individual smoker to determine how much each component of addiction affects him or her. Examining this mechanism of addiction not only will help the smoker understand why he or she smokes but will be of assistance once the decision is made to quit. Nicotine is the physically addictive part of cigarette smoke. The potent effects of nicotine go far beyond those of most other legal substances. Nicotine reaches the brain just seconds after it is inhaled and releases chemicals that bring on the sensation of pleasure and a feeling of alertness. Smokers must have a steady supply of nicotine circulating in their blood and going to the brain. Without enough nicotine these sensations begin to diminish, and smokers quickly begin to feel the unpleasant effects of withdrawal, such as headaches, nausea, muscle pain, and insomnia. This...

It’s never too late to lower your risk of heart disease. The risk of heart disease rapidly decreases once you stop smoking. In the first twenty four hours after quitting, your blood pressure and pulse return to normal, as do the oxygen and carbon monoxide levels in your blood. This alone relieves some of the extra stress you have been imposing on your heart. Within three months after quitting, you will experience a sharpening of the senses of taste and smell. Your circulation will be improved and your lungs may work at up to 30 percent greater capacity. After a year, your risk of CHD will be about halfway between a smoker’s and a nonsmoker’s. Abnormality of blood clotting due to a higher level of fibrinogen (a component of blood that makes blood clotting, possible) and platelets (particles in the blood that by aggregation make the clots possible) related to smoking will disappear, but it takes longer to undo the damage to the arteries. If your smoking has contributed to plaque de...

How can you say that smoking causes heart disease and stroke?   If you ask smokers, nonsmokers, or ex-smokers what they think are the consequences of smoking, no one will hesitate to mention lung cancer, emphysema, chronic coughing, and other respiratory problems. Only a few will mention heart disease. Smoking not only is a major risk factor for lung cancer and emphysema but also doubles an individual’s likelihood of developing heart disease. Smokers with heart disease are up to 70 percent more likely to die of heart disease than are nonsmokers. The heart disease risk increases in relation to the number of cigarettes smoked each day. Individuals who smoke up to 14 cigarettes a day are approximately twice as likely to develop heart disease as those who don’t smoke. Those who smoke 15 to 24 cigarettes a day are about four times as likely, and those who smoke more than 25 cigarettes a day are six times as likely to develop heart disease. These statistics, added to the risk statis...

Smoking and Diabetes Smoking is dangerous for everyone, but doubly dangerous for diabetics. Inhaling cigarette smoke affects the blood vessels. Diabetes can affect the blood vessels. Both diabetes and smoking tend to narrow them, and narrowed arteries can cause heart disease and gangrene. A diabetic has 2.5 times the normal chances of getting heart disease. A smoker has 1.7 times the normal chances of dying of heart disease. Put the two together and you have over four times the normal risk of heart disease. A diabetic has sixty times the normal chances of getting gangrene of the feet. Again, smoking increases that already dismal figure. A study done at the University Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, found that diabetic patients who smoked required 15 to 20 percent more insulin than nonsmokers. Their level of blood fats was also higher. You might call smoking a kind of Virginia roulette for diabetics. So why are there diabetic smokers? That's a question we have no answer...