Smoking and Chronic Disease

I've treated patients for various problems in my 20+ year career as a respiratory therapist. During that time, I've come across some very nice case studies for why people should not smoke. Unfortunately, these case studies are all too frequent. They are not the exception, but rather the rule for people who use tobacco products. Imagine hospitals all across your city full of patients. Now imagine, 75% of them are there because of tobacco use.

I will describe a typical case study of a patient seen in an average US hospital who has smoked for what could be described as most of their adult life. This man was 68 years old and smoked an average of one to one and a half packs of cigarettes per day for well over 30 years, but he did quit when he was 49. He was first admitted to our hospital when he was only 53 years old, by the way, that's only 4 years after he stopped smoking. His symptoms began with shortness of breath and a cough that wouldn't go away. Over the 15 years he spent coming to our hospital, he was diagnosed with the following diseases: emphysema (COPD), respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation (life support machine) three times, congestive heart failure (CHF), pneumonia (multiple times), coronary artery disease, CVA (stroke), renal insufficiency, chronic bronchitis, acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and several more maladies related to the above diseases. We were on a first name basis and we called him a "frequent flyer", because he was in and out of our hospital so much.

He started wearing home oxygen when he was only 58 and was dependent on respiratory inhalers and cardiac medications for the rest of his life until he eventually died at the ripe old age of 68 in our emergency room from respiratory failure. His wife decided he had been through enough and chose not to revive him.

This is just one typical example out of countless millions that describes what smoking can do. These are simply his facts, nothing was added for dramatic affect, it simply is what it is. I hate to think what his life would have been like if he had not stopped smoking when he did. But, imagine what would have happened if he had quit when he was much younger, say 30 years old. He might have been able to enjoy his life a little more, maybe travel and see his family. He might have been able to play with his grandchildren instead of sitting in the recliner because he couldn't breathe. You see, he couldn't leave his favorite chair for very long, he would simply get too short of breath.

This tragic tale plays out everyday in every city across the world. Most healthcare practitioners will tell you the world is made up of a million other sad stories. My family has been greatly affected by other notorious diseases unrelated to smoking, so I know that sadness comes in many forms, both within and out of our control. But with smoking, it's your choice. You can choose to stop. You have the potential to rewrite the ending to your life. It doesn't have to end with a breathing tube stuck in your trachea, attached to a mechanical ventilator delivering oxygen into your lungs until your family decides you've had enough.

You have so little control over what happens to you in life, but you can control whether you pick up that next cigarette - or does the nicotine have that control? Go ahead and fight back. Get some stop smoking help and take your life back. You won't regret it.