The Lungs after Smoking Cessation – What You Need to Know
Many smokers who finally manage to end their smoking addiction quickly become disillusioned because they feel their lungs after smoking cessation still feel awful and their breathing and overall health have not greatly improved. Many then fall back into the smoking habit, using the poor excuse that they have already done so much harm to their bodies already, why stop now?
This is of course ridiculous as it will only make things worse that they currently are. To give you an idea of what your lungs do face due to smoking, here is a sobering list.
- Tar – This sticky mixture that comes from cigarettes is a major problem for your lungs. It coats the inside of your airways and also seeps into the lung tissue itself. It irritates the lungs, traps in poisons form cigarettes and can cause scarring as well. It is very hard to remove.
- Toxins – Cigarettes contain over 6000 chemicals that are dangerous to the human body. Among them are poisons used to kill rats for one, and many that are known carcinogens (they cause cancer). These toxins stay in your lungs and get into your bloodstream, going all over the body. They are sheltered from your natural detox systems by the tar present in your lungs as well.
- Emphysema – This condition is caused by a combination of heat and chemicals when you inhale cigarette smoke. The alveoli - which are tiny air sacs right at the end of the lung ‘tree’ - are destroyed by this combination, never to be repaired. This inhibits the vital function of putting oxygen into the bloodstream and taking our carbon dioxide. If you lose too many of these air sacs you will find it very difficult to breath and nothing can heal this!
- Bronchitis – This is a condition caused by irritation of the bronchial tubes in the lungs. Tar and toxins have irritated the tubes, this causes inflammation and sometimes irreversible scarring. The result is an uncontrollable cough and often a coughing up of fluids. Chronic bronchitis is where this happens all the time thanks to your smoking habit.
- Infections – The chemicals in cigarettes can linger in your throat and lungs for a long, long time. Trapped by the tar and mucus they can often cause infections which can be irritating, painful and sometimes even incapacitating! Your lungs, throat and all parts of the pulmonary system can be affected by this.
- Cancer – The big one. Cancer is not certain for all smokers but your chances are massively increased compared to non-smokers. The tar and the poisons from cigarettes all conspire together to increase this risk every single day even after you have stopped smoking.
How to Clean Tar Out of Your Lungs
If you are, or have been a smoker, then let’s take a little journey. Imagine you are in a little camera that can see though skin and bone that can look into your chest to see your lungs. What you would see might sicken you and would be likely turn you off cigarettes forever! Your lungs would appear not as pink and healthy organs full of life, oxygen, and vitality, but instead as blackened, sickly, corrupted sacks only partly filled with fetid air.
It is not a pleasant thought, and I bet as you breathe in and out you can feel this horrible damage that is done to your lungs. This is all caused by the tar and toxins you breathe in with each cigarette puff and is very hard to remove. In fact, it can take over a decade for your body to cleanse your lungs on its own!
Luckily there is a way you can clean tar out of your lungs much more quickly. A lung detox regime, designed to get rid your body of tar as fast as possible, will increase your ability to flush toxins from the lungs.
Lung Cleanse Methods to Flush Cigarette Tar
Undertaking a lung cleanse could be the best thing you could decide to do for you health ever if you have been a smoker, or still smoke right now. This habit has cost your lung health dearly as each puff of a cigarette coats the insides of your lungs with black, sticky tar and toxic substances that cause chronic bronchitis, emphysema and of course … lung cancer.
There are methods that you can use to start to flush these toxins - and the tar that traps them inside of your lungs - out of the body. This is essential if you want to breathe easier and avoid many lung diseases and health complications in the future.
Quit Smoking
Do not think that you can cleanse your lungs and keep smoking. This is like emptying a bath with a bucket while the tap is still on … totally pointless. Also, if you are still under the effects of nicotine addiction then your motivation to cleanse your lungs is likely to wane very quickly. You must end your cigarette addiction before you get into a full and proper lung detox.
Lung Exercises
An easy way to begin strengthening your lungs and forcing some of that tar out of the airways is to do lung exercises. Along with general cardio workouts, working the lungs with deep breathing exercises, lung capacity exercises, and so forth will help to dislodge tar. This is vital to getting large gobs of tar out of your bronchial tubes and will take many toxins with it.
Avoid Dairy Products
Dairy products have an effect on your body that makes it produce more mucus. Mucus is what combined with the stuff you inhale from cigarettes to create this sticky tar so more mucus clogs your airways and makes it harder to remove. If you lessen the amount of dairy products, and even eat foods that liquefy mucus (chili, other spicy vegetables and spices) you can start to thin out the tar and poisons in the lungs.
Lung Cleansing Vitamins
There is a specific vitamin that is a god-send to the lung cleansing regime. Taken at the right doses, and at the right times, it will help your body to purge the impurities and toxins from your lungs. In fact, the right doses of this vitamin will even help you overcome nicotine cravings!
Detoxification
Once you have thinned out this tar somewhat you can start to really job; removing the toxins through a lung detoxification program. This involves boosting your immune system and directly targeting your lungs with some dietary changes and other lifestyle modifications that can supercharge the detox process to free your lungs of the poisons that assault them.
