I was actually referred to this community from my other site relating to quit smoking. They seem to think your site may be more helpful, so this is what I posted:
After quitting smoking in 2010 from 37 years of smoking I have found that I have acquired "something"
and these so called doctors can only keep putting me through every hurdle in the book.
So, now that I have quit smoking I can no longer run, jog, or even walk fast without be out of breath; when I smoked two packs a day I could run 5 miles in 20 minutes and smoke while doing this, swim and basically do anything at all always while smoking. I have been tested for oxygen content, COPD, blood borne, sleep apnea, and have had some of the stress tests performed all to come up empty handed. Doctor says do not do any extra exercising until this is figured out for it may kill me. my heart gets to racing so high that I cannot get my breath for about one minute, then all is fine again. the tread mill incident was the best, the doctors wanted to get my heart rate up to 144 bpm from my normal 52 bpm, we got up to 90 and I literally passed out. These doctors gave me the nitro pill and that was also a very big mistake, for if you are not actually having a heart attack that pill will make you wish you were, for you will get the worst migraine you have ever thought of....be ware! Oh, I also had the inhaled regiment; it too was no good!
So, the bottom line of all this chit chat is: what the hell is wrong with me? I don't think this is age, sex, or race related so we will leave this out to save on the bias.
contact with your best ideals, we can research together - email address deleted by moderator.
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Unclebe38
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Omg I read your post and so related to this, to be honest I thought I was going mad. I gave up smoking 4 weeks ago due to having cops, since doing this my breathing has become alot worse, I was the same while smoking I walked for miles I was never sat down but now I get so tired very easily, my doctor just tells me it will get better,
I was talking bout such thing before .. I started smoking in my mid 20 and my gf did to now we are f### with lung disease
My dad who is 70 and smoked all is life and my mother who is 70 all have ok lungs given age and based on how F### I am
I was telling her it's government conspiracy to stop everyone from smoking so they will work till the drop dead thus not be burdon on the state.
Apparently oxygen air we breath as a missing atom AND it looks for that missing atom in what ever uses oxygen or perfused by it AND it's that causes us to age .. and it's that .. that is toxic to none smokers.
Smokers have watered down the oxygen they breath with the smoking THUS oxygen air the breath is not as toxic .. could that be down to 1 of the 4 thousand toxins in cigarets contain that 1 missing atom the oxygen we breath is looking for Thus atom preserves cells lung ?
Our air oxygen concentration as changed quite a few times since man / women walked the earth would of our lungs NO but our HABBITS have.
I remember research re lung disease peroxide cell stuff ... And it did say smoking in some cases can be good for you.
Great post thread
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Is this for real? Where did you get that info?
in reply to
Try watching BBC documentaries .. The air we breath .. also can google oxygen missing atom
I actually can't believe that anyone with a lung disease would say smoking can be good for you with all the research that shows how harmful it is to lungs and general health.
It all sounds very conspiracy theory to me
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Am not saying smoking is good for you as such .. but there is 1 element in fags that IS ...
That the air we breath is seeking out in us ... and in none smokers that element in fags would be MISSING an NO where to be seen in them
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Smoking is still lethal no matter what rhetoric you've read. You claim one element is missing from cigarettes that poses s problem, what about the 1000s of constituents that causes problems? You're neglecting them!
I accept I'm no scientist but that doesn't sound at all right. Nor can I find any reasonable sources anywhere suggesting that theory is remotely viable or evidence-based.
Think about it logically; oxygen is O2 (ie two oxygen atoms); O3 (an extra oxygen atom) is ozone; recognised as a severe pollutant & highly damaging to lungs. So what is the atom that is missing? If you stick another atom of anything then it's not oxygen anymore.
Also bear in mind oxygen is only approx. 21% of 'air', nitrogen being the most common gas comprising 78%.
Some people might get away with smoking or not suffer as badly as others but honestly don't try to suggest there is any scientific base for it being good for anybody. If there was the tobacco industry would have found it long ago & saved themselves billions in legal cases & payouts.
Try posting the theory on the Bad Science forum (badscience.net/forum) & see how much traction it gets; I suspect not very much.
Am no scientist BUT have grasped basics : ... there is "free radicals" to consider OBV I could not remember name BUT FREE radicals are an oxygen atom missing an electron THAT unstable atom seeks an electron back and sometimes takes it from a healthy cell from the body which destroy's or "mutate" that cell.
If your going to argue at least try to know what your talking about .. I might be no expert but think everyone can understand this reply
Free radicals aren't missing an atom they are missing an electron & they are highly unstable. Furthermore (notwithstaning your assertion that I don't know what I'm talking about for which I thank you), smoking is broadly seen as a cause of damage to electrons not a cure for it.
Indeed a quick search for academic papers on the subject seem to suggest that smoking actually puts them into your body rather than 'curing' your missing 'atom'.
Hi unclebe, I am sorry that you are experiencing such breathing difficulties....but I am a bit concerned that you have put your email address on this unlocked post...so anyone can access it. You can delete it if you want by pressing the little arrow in the box at the bottom of your post and just edit it out.
You can send a private message if you want to contact other people.
I have given up smoking twice over the years and each time I had terrible sinus problems as my body re adjusted to clean living. This re adjustment probably effects different people in different ways. Never forget that you were a junkie for many years on a serious drug. (Ever notice how celebrities come out of rehab and detox but are still puffing away ?) Give it time, perhaps a lot more time, and it will improve and you will get the eventual pay off. It's worth sticking it out.
How sad! To manage to stop smoking after all those years , yet still fall ill seems very cruel. I hope they find out what is wrong and grt you back to health.
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Seems to be a story we hear a lot on this site. No
one can explain it. We have thought maybe going cold turkey, is to much of a shock. Don't think people using e-cigs have the problem. Wish I could tell you why, but I can't. No one knows. Hope things get sorted out for you.
I do not like E cigs but they might help the addiction. Have they tested you for Pulmonary Hypertension?
I was a 3rd dan Karate instructor and smoked 40 a day with some problems. I had problems once I gave up but that was in 1992 and my GP considers me a non smoker now.
My lungs are rubbish still but it did help for some years straight after.
Hi Unclebe38. I am now going to give you my two pennyworth. I am convinced that stopping smoking is the best thing you can do, but how you do it is the problem, I tried cold turkey (I smoked for 53 years) and apart from the mood swings, which were intense gum, I felt really ill, fast heart rate, headaches and sometimes the shakes, so, I started smoking again and all was well. It got to the stage where I knew I HAD to stop, but I just couldn't bear to go through all that again, and I put it off for a few months, till in the end I was determined to stop, so I tried all the nicotine replacement stuff that was available at the time, (8 years ago) Champix, patches, chewing gum (which gave me wind) and a few other things, I eventually tried the lozenges, which taste horrid, (but believe me you get used to it) and they worked, I did it by cutting it down one cigarette at a time, it took me 4 months to stop, but stop I did, without all the trouble I had the first time.
So to sum up after all this rambling on, I am convinced that you need to have some sort of nicotine replacement to prevent the symptoms I mentioned earlier. I have discussed this with a lot of people who were having problems and they tried with a nicotine replacement product and they all said that it worked for them as well.
There are always people who will tell you that 'My grandad smoked all his life and lived to be 90, which is probably true, but these people are very few and far between, most smokers end up with some problem or other, lung disease, heart disease, los of a limb and goodness knows what else, so please do stop.
I hope this is of some help to you, but please don't stop giving up, it will be worth it in the end.
You can't expect to get off scott free. Having a strong, long history of smoking will usually take its toll at some stage as our organs age.
If you hadn't stopped when you did I'm sure you would be much more I'll now.
Well done you fir giving up when you did, you will have added years to your life.
There is much you can do to improve s.o.b, breathing exercises, healthy diet, healthy weight, avoiding colds which can become infections in the lungs.
It will certainly help to get a diagnosis. If you're in the UK it may take some time depending where you live keep at them though because they won't come to you. Those days are over.
Hi, I take it you were very tongue in cheek when telling us you could run 5 miles in 20 minutes.
I have found it hard to do many things since I stopped smoking 27 years ago after 26 years on ciggies and 14 years on a pipe. What I do gather tho' is that I would now be in a wooden box had I not stopped. In two weeks I hit the big 80. Am I glad I stopped smoking? Well what do you think?
Hi Ive been 18 months off the fags, and I suffer shortness of breath everyday, I smoked for 40 years, I'm on inhalers for asthma now, which I never had when I was a smoker, I felt better when I smoked, certainly wasn't short of breath , maybe I should try some nicotine patches , Would they make me want to start smoking again, Does anyone know?
You only mentioned that you'd smoked for 37 years..., not your age; so, if you delayed the evil habit til you were 20 you must be in your late 50s or a bit younger.
With that out of the way, I have no idea what the hell's wrong with you.
However, until I realized a large part of my problem was being out of shape physically in my midsection basically but really all over including the shoulders, until I realized that and started correcting it, nothing else helped. Also, I'm now, after 3 years completely off my oxygen therapy and have cut my inhalers in half, from Symbicort twice to once a day. Two snorts.
Other than that, we're all different; hang in, something will turn up.
Hi there has been a number of people on here who have given up smoking and had the same effects. Apparently smoking provides a sophoric effect on the lungs and also stops so much bacteria going down into your lungs. When you stop this effect stops as well. You can find you have a bit lower lung function as a result, but if you don't stop you run the risk of your lung disease progressing a lot faster.
It does settle down again in time and you have done the best thing by stopping.
The only time I would say don't stop is if you had a very very low lung function and stopping could affect it enough to push you under the minimum level of 6% to survive. I have seen this happen to a couple of friends. x
I would like to hear from people vaping. Does their breathing get worse? That would answer some questions.
Rubyxx 😊
When you smoke a ecig the smoke doesn't go in to your lungs so it is healthier I stopped smoking using a ecig and I still use it my breathing is not any better but that might have something to do with other medical conditions
A bandage won't heal a broken leg...just as stopping smoking won't heal the damage done to your lungs! I finally quit in June this year after 50 odd years. I switched to E-cigs, my breathing is not noticably better, but there has been a massive reduction in the ammount of phelgm I producing. To me this is the biggest benefit as the constant coughing was making me breathless and causing me to have panic attacks.
I read the other day that the NHS will be issuing E-cigs on prescription....at last their actually realising that you can't just stop smoking, we are drug addicts and need help.
And just one more point, I think we all feel ashamed of being a smoker, and are guilty of creating our COPD. but we should accept that guilt and stop trying to blame everyone else.(1960 Movies, TV adds etc)
Thats a good sign, your breathing didn't get worse. If you don't mind me asking,
Whats your fev1? I'm thinking people that switch to the e-cigs breathing doesn't get worse. I said that wrong. Of course it gets worse, but not drastically.
Sorry didn't get straight back to you, been doing the Christmas Shopping thing! Last time I had my FEV checked was 19 June, just after I packed up the fags, My readings then were FEV 1.9L FVC 5.47L Sats 96% Heart Rate 105bpm Bp 132/76. Not been near the Doctors since, so I don't know the current state of play. My breathing will never get better, just hope its a long time before it gets worse
I was diagnosed with COPD & Emphysema 50% lung loss after 45 years of smoking . I had quit smoking a few months earlier in the summer of 2015. I take Advair 100mg daily and rarely need the rescue inhaler (although the Dr. says use the inhaler before exercising with chamber device will help make it easier). I tried many things like most of you to quit even hypnosis, acupuncture with the exception of Chantex due to concerns of depression and failed. One day I found this site whyquit.com a very comprehensive information site and that was the game changer. I read and read and it gave me the mental ammunition and inspiration to over come the addiction "Cold Turkey" I never though I could do. I really didn't suffer any serious withdrawals either. The one page I would go to every day was "Stop Smoking Benefits Time Table". There I would learned just how quitting will effect me from the first moment after I take that last puff to the positives my body will be making at the same time. Knowledge is powerful and understanding exactly what my body would go through put me mentally in charge. I went to that site everyday to check on my progress on the time table. I would tell myself look just one more day and look at what you will have accomplished. After a week of not smoking I would check out what week two says and it made me want to reach that goal so I took it a day, a week at a time and I am now over two years later still free of it and know better than to even think I can just smoke one ever again. It's almost never, but if I have a really stressful situation the old habit gives me a subtle reminder you want a cigarette but in a few seconds, it always passes. I know the warnings signs of how it could suck me back in so I know better.
My COPD did not get any worse either that I can tell. I actually do breath better too and I want to keep it that way. Although I was diagnosed with Emphysema, it did not show up on an X-ray, so I hope that means it was caught early. The one BIG thing I understand most is the importance of keeping from getting upper respiratory illnesses. Washing hands, eating right for resistance to infections, and if you feel the start of one coming on, be aggressive from the get go with 1000 mg C or Zipfizz with 500C and Echinacea, herbal teas, drink plenty of liquids but limit caffeine/alcohol that dehydrates etc., don't let mucus get thick either (Musenx is great stuff for breaking it up), get your vacinations and avoid environmental factors like staying inside when it's real windy out due to dust exposure. Get help cleaning house if you can or wear a face mask. Buy or use Better air filters. I have a pool and I wear a respirator to add chemicals to the pool. Last but not least, exercise is important to build your lung muscle strength up that pumps that oxygen and carbon in and out of your body. Letting the lung muscle atrophy it asking for things to get worse.
A "POSITIVE" attitude and taking good care of yourself is your best weapon to feeling much better than if you don't. Avoid exposure to negatives that create a self defeatist attitude. You can be in charge of your destiny.
I hadn't heard of Never Take Another Puff, but if it's anything like Whyquit.com that's wonderful more chances for someone trying to quit to find some great support.
Why Quit.com founder Is John Polito and Joel Spitzer was an advisor to it. So there is some affiliation but the two sites have very different presentations with the same goal to help people quit smoking.
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I’m so confused! What do my results mean. 
Waiting anxiously for CT results
result!
result of consultant appointment 
Time to stop work?
