Does anyone know how fast emphysema i... - Lung Conditions C...
Does anyone know how fast emphysema in the moderate stage progresses if you are still smoking ?
Is one of worst things really its nitrus oxide in fags that cause inflamation destruction.
All so found in car bus fumes .. Alot depends on how cooked your lungs are in first place hyperventalation or ards or acidosis with out infection is good indication.
A was at docs and not 100% but my blood co2 sats where 86 so if its not infection
Am at needing Oxygen well i hope i have infection
And got my blood sats wrong
Hope that helps all the best
Not sure, but you have got to stop smoking!
if you carnt stop try e cigs
frying pan into the fire dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...
Why do we believe everything we read in the newspapers?
It doesn't suit the government that people aren't paying all those taxes any more. The next step will be tax on e-cigs!
E-cigarettes don't use as many chemicals as cigarettes and it's not the nicotine that causes COPD plus you can buy refills without any nicotine content.
If I took one puff of a real cigarette, I'd be coughing my heart out. Simply not so with the alternative, which does not make me cough at all.
Knives are not so dangerous as guns I would not want my children given knives because they are not so dangerous.
It's not a question of giving children (or anyone else) anything.
I have made my own personal choice and offered my opinion for others to consider.
Surely the e-cigarettes are orders of magnitude better than their analogue. However they are very new and with such the long terms risks are completely unknown, and for anyone with even the slightest indications of a serious lung disease such as COPD to be inhaling anything into their lungs aside from medication or fresh clean air is absolutely crazy if you ask me. Do whatever you want but realize that just because the manufactures say they are safe is in no way any indication that they are or that there aren't harmful ingredients that are not listed on the description. In the states these are considered tobacco products and the contents or purity of which are not regulated or guaranteed in any way what so ever. If you must continue to consume nicotine there are "safe" alternatives that have been clinically tested and are regulated by government agencies. An example would be nicorette gum.
Scary article Effortless, I hope it does encourage any smoker that feels that its too hard to stop, to try again.
The effort needed to stop smoking ( and I did have a have time stopping over 30 years ago) is not nearly as hard as the effort needed just to stay alive later on
I suppose it depends on the individual. I stopped 7 years ago when I was at the severe stage although I can manage and do almost everything at my own pace I don`t want to scare you but I don`t think I would be here now if I hadn`t stopped smoking.
Hello Tammcarr I dont think any of us could possibly answer that because we are all so very different then on top of that there are so many variables,Also when people come to this site we get told not to go surfing round the internet by members as it is scare mongering.Personally for me having been a heavy smoker for 47yrs iam now considered to be 'very severe'with emphysema/copd,I have had this disease for over 20yrs my life is difficult I struggle to do most things now! 3 1/2 mths ago I stopped smoking 
although Im obviously a slow learner better late than never,I cant change the damage but hopefully slow my decline down considerably.Iam absolutely convinced that had I given up earlier say at the moderate stage Iwould be in an even better situation.I would also add my teeth are now becoming wobbly which is directly linked to smoking,my arteries are hardening and my heart now showing off !! 
So Tammcarr thats me in a nut shell time scales are difficult to predict.Russian roulette is the game we play when we smoke . On the other hand I would like to welcome you to this great friendly forum and hope to see you soon. Janexx
Welcome to the community Tammcarr How long is a piece of string? No one can give you any accurate time-scale, as we are all individuals, with individual circumstances, and individual lifestyles, but carrying on smoking will only speed up this slowly degenerative progressive disease. By stopping smoking, watching your diet and regular exercise, you can stave of the progression for some considerable time. Take care. x
I am not a medical man can only say that smoking did me no good if I had my time again then I would not have started.
I went for quite a few years at the moderate stage, managing fine, working full time, etc., until I got pneumonia and life was never the same after that, took me to severe stage and then down to around 20% function, which makes life extremely difficult, and I think this has happened to a lot of people. Don't risk it Tammcarr, do all you can to give up. x
The lung health study, which studied the effects of smoking cessation in people with COPD, clearly demonstrated that on average those who continued to smoke lost lung function nearly twice as fast as those who quit. That is to say that in quitters, FEV1 deteriorated at a rate of 30 ml/year on average, and in continuous smokers it deteriorated on average at a rate of 60 ml/year. Things to consider are that this study was done on smokers and former smokers with mild to moderate COPD, and that in healthy individuals who never smoked FEV1 deteriorates at an average rate of 20-30 ml/year. This indicates that quitting smoking will return lung function decline to the normal physiological rate for the "average" smoking related mild to moderate COPD patient. I must emphasize however that no one is average and that there was a large variation in the rates of decline amongst both continuous smokers and quitters. I must also emphasize that this study only looked at pulmonary function tests and did not evaluate disease progression in terms of emphysema as detectable by CT densitometry which other studies have shown deteriorates at an accelerated rate regardless of smoking cessation, albeit smoking cessation does attenuate this to some degree. Quitting is always better than continuing as there are obvious other risks to smoking such as lung cancer and heart disease, etc.
atsjournals.org/doi/full/10...
When all of this is known smokers unable to stop smoking trouble me greatly what support can be given when the addiction has such a strong hold it can not be broken with life or death decisions.
In the states there are dedicated inpatient nicotine addiction treatment centers, such as the Mayo Clinic, to help the worst nicotine addicts however they are hospital based and very costly and the smoker has to actually want to stop as with any other cessation methods. I think many people are in denial and don't realize how bad COPD can get as it progresses. People would rather not talk or think about things that upset them which is a natural defense mechanism. People who refuse to quit should be exposed to the terror stories of those that have gone before them. I Like the following read as it both demonstrates the naivety common amongst smokers and the unfortunate consequences that eventually result for many.
