If at all, how does smoking one cigarette a day harm a COPD patient?
May 5, 2019 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Dr. med. Frauke Gehring
If so, how does smoking a single cigarette/day harm a COPD patient? Please only respond if you are a pulmonologist who can explain the process!
There is a COPD patient in my family who has managed to reduce smoking from 10-20 cigarettes/day to only 1-2/day, taken in stages of 3 draws each, sometimes only "puffed" and not fully inhaled.
Please explain if this still causes harm and what processes may be occurring; please do not give a blanket response like "smoking with COPD is not possible"; this does not help and I will not spend money on it. Total smoking cessation is desired, but there is also real life and that needs an answer. Can an e-cigarette help in this case? Nicotine patches have already been tested and have not overcome this last hurdle. Or is acupuncture also a possibility? Does inhaled cortisone help to limit or prevent potential damage?
Hello,
I am a doctor specializing in internal and general medicine, but I can certainly explain the process to you. We do not have pulmonologists on our team.
While smoking a cigarette, 90% of the blood is contaminated with carbon monoxide; at that moment, there is a higher risk of heart attack and stroke (red blood cells are more likely to take up CO than O2). A cigarette contains more than 200 toxic substances, including arsenic and cadmium. Each cigarette maintains the inflammation of the bronchi present in COPD, which promotes bronchial collapse. That's why, and because people tend to smoke more when stressed or bored, I would like to help you get rid of cigarettes 1 to 3.
Acupuncture (with a "k", it's not a power drill!) helps in approximately 80% of cases when done by a skilled doctor (addresses can be found at www.daegfa.de, having a B-Diploma would be good). E-cigarettes are not an alternative, as their problems (such as mold) are not fully understood yet, and people tend to smoke more of them. Ultimately, cigarettes 1-3 are not a problem of addiction, but a psychological one.
Steroids are only useful for COPD in the (pre-)final stage, as they lower the body's defenses and only have a certain effect if standard therapy with anticholinergics is not sufficient.
In real life, I have guided hundreds through complete withdrawal... Cigarettes 1 to 3 are now a kind of "pacifier," especially when they are smoked. It is important to understand and work on the psychological background behind this. Then, quitting completely becomes possible.
Best regards,
Dr. Gehring
