Dummies question about smokers and asthma

Hi,

Walking out of Somerfield this morning a chap in his 60s walked across my path with a cigarette in his mouth and a huge puff of yucky smoke trailing him. Luckily, I saw it in time to do an about term and circumvent it.

It ruddy annoys me to breath in this yuck and it annoys me more to see smokers walking around when a simple walk is often a 'good day' for me. I imagine we all feel the same about smokers.

Anyhow, do smokers get asthma or does the smoking somehow 'protect' them against asthma? I often wonder whether the smoking somehow dries out their airways stopping them getting asthma.... and they simply progress on to something worse in time?

Or do they go to the Docs one day and the GP tells them not to just give up smoking but to give up smoking because they have asthma.

Just curious.

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smokers can get asthma, my geoggers teacher used to smoke and quit coz he got asthma, not sure if its coincidental but i know it happens.

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COPD

not that i know a great deal about Copd - but i think smokers are more prone to developing copd.

i dont understand the whole concept of smoking - i hate having to use inhalers and putting a medication in my lungs. Its funny as I think smokers dont realise how nasty they smell after a ciggy!

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Yeah they can get asthma, a few people I have known have been sat gasping for breath with a cig in one hand and an inhaler in the other!!

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I know someone who has asthma and still smokes, I really can't understand it.

xxxx

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Hi Everyone,

I could'nt agree more about smoking. One of my well meaning"" friends"" suggested my daughter should take up smoking as it cured her husbands asthma. ???? I ask you.

I am currently writing a book about my experience as a mum whose daughter had severe asthma and who sadly died as a result of it. It's aptly named ""It's only Asthma"" as I would be rich by now if I'd a pound for everyone who said that to either Bernadette or myself. Hopefully one day we can have an answer to why asthma is so serious and prevalent in our society. Keep well. LIZ x x.

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You'd have had your head bitten off if you'd asked the consultant I saw yesterday that!

But yes, smoking is bad for asthma. You know about second-hand smoke, but I learnt today about 'third-hand smoke' that lingers in fabrics and stuff.

sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

It's a troubling discovery as one of my dearest friends is asthmatic (very mild fortunately for him) and lives with smokers and I've always found the scent of smoke on his clothes and irritant when we meet up. Given that my recently-developed asthma is rather more difficult to manage than his is, it makes me worried that I'm going to struggle even when we meet up outside of his place.

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I quit in feb 2008 through my gp and got diagnosed a few months ago. As to whether there is any link i have no idea. I have other close family members with asthma and i also suffer with hayfever and ezcma (not good!). As an ex smoker i would like to comment though that yes it is a nasty habit that can damage health, doesnt smell nice etc... but it is highly addictive and isnt easy to quit at the drop of a hat. Yes it is silly to start smoking but things happen in life that we all regret doing afterwards. Personally i very very rarely drink anything alcoholic but its a personal choice despite it being just as bad for your health!

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Smokers make my life a misery. I have to carry a hanky and portable nebuliser with me when I go out as it is virtually impossible to avoid smokers and inhaling their filthy smoke irritates my chest and closes up my airways sending me into a coughing mucousy fit. Yesterday morning I was sitting in my backgarden when my nasty neighbour appeared over the fence climbing up the scaffolding he just put up to paint his drains, and had a fag in his mouth which headed straight in my direction. I started coughing violently and had to go in and nebulise but not before I said f***ing smokers can't even sit in own back garden now!. GP's advise all patients who are documented as smoking to quit and offer smoking cessation courses etc as it is part of the quality and outcome framework. Smokers are more likely to develop COPD not that they care, have come across life long smokers who have lung cancer and refuse to stop. My own father in law has COPD and smokes roll ups and no matter how bad his chest is he continues to have a fag every half an hour, he really pees me off with his attitude and coming round my house smoking though I have told him to smoke out the front and then have to put up with him stinking of smoke which sets me off, grrr getting wound up just thinking about him!.

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Second hand smoke can cause asthma - it's one of the reasons I'm asthmatic - so I would have thought smokers themselves can get it.

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If you've never smoked it's difficult to understand the addiction of nicotine. I smoked when I was diagnosed with asthma and would come off the O2 to go for a fag and then come back onto the ward and back on the O2. I have been stopped smoking for 8 years now but not because of my asthma because I was pregnant and needed the money to buy things for my baby. Since then I have worked as a smoking cessation advisor and now fully realise how difficult it is for some people to stop smoking asthmatic or not.

We all know it's bad for us and would never of started smoking but some people do smoke and find it extremely difficult to stop.

As for smoking causing asthma ~ this would be difficult to prove as air pollution is a much higher risk and problem than first/ second/ third hand smoke. We breath more pollutions in the air from industry, exhaust fumes etc than we do from tobacco smoke.

Please don't judge people for smoking ~ give them encouragement and advice re stopping instead of critisism.

Truly x