Smoking and Asthma What¹s the Connection?


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smoking and asthma: what’s the connection?

Restlessness, insomnia, tightness in chest, shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, phlegm. These are common symptoms associated with asthma. Are you surprised at how closely they resemble the feelings smokers may experience?

The relationship between cigarette smoking and asthma is not fully understood. However, smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to develop respiratory problems and experience significant respiratory symptoms.

In fact, a 1984 report of the Surgeon General stated that there is conclusive evidence showing that smokers are at increased risk of developing respiratory symptoms such as chronic cough, chronic phlegm production, and wheezing. And more recently, studies have demonstrated accelerated decline in lung function in smoking adults.

smoking as an asthma trigger
For millions of asthma sufferers, cigarette smoke is a common trigger of their asthma symptoms. That’s because smoke can irritate your airways and cause them to narrow. Narrowing airways, or bronchoconstriction cause the symptoms you feel when you have an asthma attack.

Each cigarette you smoke increases your risk for an asthma attack and each asthma attack you have may permanently damage your airways—something no medicine can cure.

smoking affects others
Smoke can trigger your asthma symptoms, but it can also trigger asthma problems for people—especially the children around you. Consider these statistics:

Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the severity and frequency of asthma episodes; 200,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma have experienced aggravated symptoms.
Exposure to secondhand smoke causes 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (pneumonia and bronchitis) annually in children 18 months and younger; these infections result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year.
Secondhand smoke exposure causes buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits. Middle ear infections are the most common cause of childhood operations and of childhood hearing loss.