Smoking not only damages the lungs, but also makes them "injured", which is difficult to repair even after ten years

When it comes to smoking, many people think of respiratory diseases such as lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In fact, smoking leads to a host of diseases and can cause severe damage to the cardiovascular system. In recent years, the number of deaths caused by cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in my country has ranked first, ahead of other diseases. In this country with hundreds of millions of smokers, the bad habit of smoking has undoubtedly made an important "contribution". Cardiovascular experts point out that even if smokers quit smoking, it will take 10 years to completely repair the damage to the vascular endothelium, and arteriosclerosis cannot be reversed. In order to avoid fatal diseases such as coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction, it is recommended to quit smoking and receive long-term drug treatment. When tobacco burns, it produces a variety of harmful substances. In addition to entering the smoker's lungs and causing damage, they can also enter the circulatory system and damage the thin endothelium of blood vessels. Dr. Tan Ning, deputy director of the Department of Cardiology at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, said that smoking is an important factor in atherosclerotic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. If the cholesterol level in the smoker's blood is high, the cholesterol can easily enter the damaged vascular endothelium and form atherosclerosis.

According to the American Heart Association, smoking can increase blood pressure, reduce exercise tolerance, increase the blood's tendency to clot, reduce high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL, "good cholesterol"), and increase the risk of aortic aneurysm. Women who take oral contraceptives and smoke can also greatly increase their risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. Tan Ning said that generally speaking, even if you don't smoke much, obvious atherosclerosis will appear after 10 years, blood vessels will gradually become blocked, blood flow will slow down, and coronary heart disease will be caused. What’s more dangerous is that once unstable atherosclerotic plaques rupture or fall off, they will block blood vessels in a short period of time, leading to acute myocardial infarction or cerebral stroke, seriously endangering the life of the smoker.

At present, this disease tends to occur in younger people, and male smokers develop the disease earlier than females. Tan Ning once treated a smoker who suffered a myocardial infarction at the age of 22. In addition, smoking can also damage the carotid artery (causing stroke), the renal artery (causing renal insufficiency and hypertension), and peripheral blood vessels, mainly the blood vessels of the lower limbs (causing lower limb weakness, intermittent claudication, necrosis of the toe tips, etc.). If smokers suspect that they have this kind of damage, they can undergo B-ultrasound, CT, MRI, etc. for diagnosis. Tan Ning suggested that men over 40 and postmenopausal women should undergo blood lipid testing every year, adults over 20 should measure fasting blood lipids at least once every five years, and people with ischemic cardiovascular disease and other high-risk groups should measure blood lipids once every 3 to 6 months.

So after quitting smoking, can the damage to the cardiovascular system be restored? Tan Ning said that it takes 10 years after quitting smoking to completely repair the damage to the vascular endothelium. However, this only means that the lesions will no longer worsen, but it cannot reverse atherosclerosis. Some smokers find it difficult to quit smoking, so they comfort themselves by saying that “someone who smoked lived to be over 90 years old.” Tan Ning countered that this idea is incorrect and that the problem cannot be illustrated by individual cases. It should be understood this way: "someone" may live longer if he does not smoke. Moreover, there is currently no drug that can prevent the harm caused by smoking. Some health products that claim to "reduce the damage caused by smoking to the body" fail to meet the requirements of prevention and treatment in clinical studies and are not recognized by the medical community.

Quitting smoking and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are the right ways to avoid cardiovascular disease. In terms of treatment, Tan Ning recommends that smokers should take statins to lower cholesterol and aspirin to prevent platelets - today's enteric-coated aspirin tablets are different from the old dosage form and should be taken before meals. Even if some patients do not have hypertension, taking some antihypertensive drugs can protect the vascular endothelium and heart function. He especially reminded: "The treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases requires a long-term and continuous process. Once the medication is stopped, the treatment effect will be greatly reduced."

What should smokers eat?

1. Vitamin Supplement

Certain compounds in smoke can greatly reduce the activity of vitamins A, B, C, E, etc., and cause a large amount of these vitamins to be consumed in the body. Therefore, smokers should eat more foods rich in these vitamins, such as milk, carrots, peanuts, cornmeal, bean sprouts, cabbage, vegetable oil, etc. This can not only supplement the vitamin deficiency caused by smoking, but also enhance the body's own immune function. Surveys show that smokers who often consume milk and carrots have a significantly lower incidence of stomach cancer and lung cancer than smokers who do not often consume these foods.

2. Smokers should drink more tea

Tea can act as a diuretic and detoxifying agent, and can help to excrete toxins in smoke through urine. Drinking tea can indeed reduce the toxicity of smoke to humans. When nicotine in cigarettes is inhaled into the human body, it promotes vasoconstriction, accelerates arteriosclerosis and reduces the vitamin C content in the human body. Therefore, smokers drinking tea, especially Dexin green tea, can effectively supplement the body's vitamin C. More importantly, tea polyphenols in tea can inhibit carcinogens. So from the perspective of protecting your health, I suggest you drink more tea to reduce the toxic effects of cigarettes. Drinking more tea regularly because some compounds in smoke can cause thickening of the arterial lining, a significant decrease in gastric acid secretion and increased blood sugar, while the catechins unique to tea can effectively prevent cholesterol from depositing on the blood vessel walls, increase gastrointestinal motility and reduce blood and urine sugar. Therefore, smokers should drink more tea regularly to reduce the incidence of these symptoms caused by smoking. At the same time, tea can act as a diuretic and detoxifier, and can also excrete some toxic substances in the smoke with urine, reducing their residence time in the body.

3. Eat more cholesterol-lowering foods

Because smoking can increase the amount of cholesterol and fat deposits in blood vessels, reduce blood supply to the brain, easily cause brain atrophy, and accelerate brain aging. Therefore, smokers should eat less fatty meat containing saturated fatty acids, and increase the intake of foods that can lower or inhibit cholesterol synthesis, such as milk, fish, soy products and some high-fiber foods, such as chili powder, cinnamon, fruits and vegetables.

4. Eat more grapes

Long-term smoking causes a large amount of toxins to accumulate in the lungs, impairing their function. The active ingredients contained in grapes can increase the cell metabolism rate and help detoxify lung cells. In addition, grapes also have an expectorant effect and can relieve respiratory inflammation, itching and pain caused by smoking.

5. Eat milk and carrots regularly

Surveys show that smokers who often consume milk and carrots have a significantly lower incidence of stomach cancer and lung cancer than smokers who do not often consume these foods.

6. Eat more fungi

Such as: shiitake mushrooms, white fungus, seaweed, kelp, laver and other foods. Fungal foods can not only detoxify, but also have outstanding therapeutic effects in inhibiting and preventing cancer.