1. Pictures Of Lungs After Smoking
2. How Bad Is Smoking Crack For Your Lungs Infection
3. How Bad Is Smoking Crack For Your Lungs Heal

1. Smoking inflames and irritates the lungs. Even one or two cigarettes cause irritation and coughing. Smoking also can destroy your lungs and lung tissue. This decreases the number of air spaces and blood vessels in the lungs, resulting in less oxygen to critical parts of your body.
2. Smoking is a leading cause of cancer, including lung, throat, mouth, and esophageal cancer, so it should be no surprise that cigarettes can also increase your risk of skin cancer.

Crack is a slightly different form of cocaine that is mixed with another basic chemical such as ammonia or baking soda. When smoked, crack produces a very fast, very intense feeling of euphoria. Unfortunately, this feeling is extremely addictive. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, around 72 percent of cocaine related drug treatment admissions are due to crack cocaine. This is a startlingly high statistic considering the dangers of smoking crack. Users often underestimate the dangers of using crack cocaine.

Respiratory damage – just as smoking cigarettes damages the lungs, crack also damages these delicate tissues. Unlike cigarette smoking, the damage that crack does to the lung is not reversible. Severe depression – due to the dopamine flood crack causes, the lack of the drug causes the opposite reaction.

Immediate side effects

Many of the immediate side effects of crack cocaine are extremely dangerous. As an intense stimulant, it increases certain functions within the body. When smoked, crack passes through the lungs, into the bloodstream and right to the brain. Many of these reactions lead to seizures, coma, and death. The dangerous immediate effects of smoking crack are:

• increased heart rate possibly leading to cardiac arrest,
• increased blood pressure possibly leading to stroke,
• increased respiration and body temperature possibly leading to unconsciousness,
• hallucinations possibly leading to a psychotic break, and
• erratic and violent behavior possibly leading to risk taking.

As if these short term effects are not dangerous enough, many of these lead to long term problems.

Long term physical side effects

When people think of drug use they do not always consider the lasting damage that a drug like crack cocaine can do. Some of the long term effects of crack are:

• brain damage – crack use floods the brain with dopamine. This chemical causes feelings of pleasure. Because of this flooding, the brain starts to shut down the receptors for dopamine. Once they are shut down, it makes it very difficult for the addict to feel pleasure without the drug.
• neurological damage – because crack acts to excite the nervous system continuously, it can burn the system out. This causes memory loss, seizures, uncontrolled muscle movements, unregulated temperature, and fluctuating blood pressure. This damage is most often permanent.
• circulatory system damage – continuous high blood pressure leads to heart attack, stroke, and other cardiac issues.
• respiratory damage – just as smoking cigarettes damages the lungs, crack also damages these delicate tissues. Unlike cigarette smoking, the damage that crack does to the lung is not reversible.
• severe depression – due to the dopamine flood crack causes, the lack of the drug causes the opposite reaction. Many addicts suffer from treatable but permanent states of depression and psychosis.
• tooth decay – although tooth decay seems like a lesser problem, severe tooth decay causes blood infections which sometimes if untreated can kill.
• reproductive system damage – continual crack cocaine use results in infertility, erectile dysfunction, and the inability to feel pleasure in both men and women.
• Hepatitis C and HIV from sharing paraphernalia.

According to the US National Library of Medicine research into the long term effects of crack and cocaine is still ongoing. There is a lot that researchers still do not know about the long term consequences of this addiction.

Addiction

Addiction to crack cocaine comes with its own dangers. Users describe their first experience with crack as the most profound euphoria that they have ever felt. Unfortunately, they spend the rest of their time chasing that euphoria. This is because crack starts doing damage the first time that it is used. This is partly the reason why it is so addictive. When they start chasing that high, they forget almost everything else. They become emaciated, their teeth rot, their physical appearance becomes sallow and pocked with sores, and they will do anything to get the drug.

The social effects of addiction are just as dangerous as the physical ones. Family and friends who do not use start to avoid the addict. While the addiction is controlling an individual, it is impossible to form lasting relationships or have meaningful encounters. Because crack addicts often steal and lie to get the money for the drug, friends soon find it impossible to trust them. The sense of betrayal that they feel may never go away.

Financial and legal dangers

When people are addicted to a drug, they often show up to work high or in withdrawal. They cannot perform their jobs while in this state. This leads to poor work performance. When the drug starts to take control of their lives, they may be late to work or not show up at all. Usually crack addicts become unemployed shortly after they start taking the drug. An employer will not tolerate a user for very long. The lack of employment leads to a lack of money and financial insecurity. An addict may use rent, food, or utility money for drugs. They become homeless and sometimes resort to criminal activity.

This criminal activity leads to another sort of danger. Prostitution, trafficking, possession, and theft all lead to arrest. When an addict is desperate, they might do any of these things to get the drug they need. Usually these activities lead to arrest and incarceration. Both of which are extremely expensive and dangerous.

Crack is dangerous

Crack cocaine is considered by many to be one of the most addictive and dangerous illicit drugs. It can ensnare the user after only one try. Smoking crack causes irreparable damage to most of the user’s internal organs. Not only can it kill on the first try it starts to consume a person almost immediately. Smoking crack can destroy a person’s life, health, and happiness in very little time.

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By now, it seems pretty clear that using e-cigarettes, or vaping, is bad for your lungs. But research about exactly how vaping affects the lungs is in the initial stages, says Johns Hopkins lung cancer surgeon Stephen Broderick.

“In the last 24 to 36 months, I’ve seen an explosive uptick of patients who vape,” reports Broderick. “With tobacco, we have six decades of rigorous studies to show which of the 7,000 chemicals inhaled during smoking impact the lungs. But with vaping, we simply don’t know the short- or long-term effects yet and which e-cigarette components are to blame.”

Although there’s no definitive answer at this point, experts do have a theory about how vaping harms lungs.

What Happens When You Vape

Both smoking and vaping involve heating a substance and inhaling the resulting fumes. With traditional cigarettes, you inhale smoke from burning tobacco. With vaping, a device (typically a vape pen or a mod — an enhanced vape pen — that may look like a flash drive) heats up a liquid (called vape juice or e-liquid) until it turns into a vapor that you inhale.

“Vaping is a delivery system similar to a nebulizer, which people with asthma or other lung conditions may be familiar with,” says Broderick. “A nebulizer turns liquid medicine into a mist that patients breathe in. It’s a highly effective way of delivering medicine to the lungs.”

The Chemicals You Inhale When Vaping

Instead of bathing lung tissue with a therapeutic mist, just as a nebulizer does, vaping coats lungs with potentially harmful chemicals. E-liquid concoctions usually include some mix of flavorings, aromatic additives and nicotine or THC (the chemical in marijuana that causes psychological effects), dissolved in an oily liquid base. “We think that some of the vaporized elements of the oil are getting deep down into the lungs and causing an inflammatory response,” explains Broderick.

The substance at the center of investigation is vitamin E. It’s often used as a thickening and delivery agent in e-liquid. And, while it’s safe when taken orally as a supplement or used on the skin, it’s likely an irritant when inhaled. It’s been found in the lungs of people with severe, vaping-related damage.

Other common substances found in e-liquid or produced when it’s heated up may also pose a risk to the lungs. These include:

• Diacetyl: This food additive, used to deepen e-cigarette flavors, is known to damage small passageways in the lungs.
• Formaldehyde: This toxic chemical can cause lung disease and contribute to heart disease.
• Acrolein: Most often used as a weed killer, this chemical can also damage lungs.

5 Truths You Need to Know About Vaping

Smoking electronic cigarettes is often considered safer than regular smoking. Learn why vaping is still harmful, and why you should rethink taking it up.

How Vaping Can Affect Your Lungs

Over time, as e-cigarette use continues, experts will gain a better understanding of how vaping affects the lungs. What we do know right now is that several lung diseases are associated with vaping:

Vaping and Popcorn Lung

“Popcorn lung” is another name for bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), a rare condition that results from damage of the lungs’ small airways. BO was originally discovered when popcorn factory workers started getting sick. The culprit was diacetyl, a food additive used to simulate butter flavor in microwave popcorn.

Diacetyl is frequently added to flavored e-liquid to enhance the taste. Inhaling diacetyl causes inflammation and may lead to permanent scarring in the smallest branches of the airways — popcorn lung — which makes breathing difficult. Popcorn lung has no lasting treatment. There are, however, treatments that manage BO symptoms, such as:

• Coughing
• Wheezing
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath

Vaping-Related Lipoid Pneumonia

Unlike the classic pneumonia caused by infection, lipoid pneumonia develops when fatty acids (the building blocks of fat) enter the lungs. Vaping-related lipoid pneumonia is the result of inhaling oily substances found in e-liquid, which sparks an inflammatory response in the lungs. Symptoms of lipoid pneumonia include:

• Chronic cough
• Shortness of breath
• Coughing up blood or blood-tinged mucus

“There’s isn’t a good treatment for lipoid pneumonia, other than supportive care, while the lungs heal on their own,” says Broderick. “The single-most important thing you can do is identify what is causing it — in this case vaping — and eliminate it.”

Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax (Collapsed Lung) After Vaping

Primary spontaneous pneumothorax, or collapsed lung, occurs when there’s a hole in the lung through which oxygen escapes. This can be the result of an injury — such as a gunshot or knife wound — or when air blisters on the top of the lungs rupture and create tiny tears.

Those who develop these blisters are usually tall, thin people who had a period of rapid growth during adolescence, says Broderick. Because of the accelerated growth, a weak point may blister and develop at the top of the lungs. On their own, these blisters don’t typically produce symptoms. You don’t know you have them, unless they rupture. Smoking — and now vaping — are associated with an increased risk of bursting these blisters, leading to lung collapse.

“At Johns Hopkins, we’re seeing a rash of collapsed lungs in younger people,” reports Broderick. “We always ask if they’ve been smoking, and they’ll often say, ‘No, I don’t smoke. But I do vape.’ Now we tell patients not to smoke or vape if they want to avoid another lung collapse and surgery in the future.”

Signs of a collapsed lung include:

• Sharp chest or shoulder pain
• Shortness of breath
• Difficulty breathing

Oxygen treatment and rest may be all that’s need for a collapsed lung to heal. But more advanced cases require a chest tube to drain leaked oxygen from the body cavity or surgery to repair the hole in the lung.

Can Vaping Cause Lung Cancer?

Cancer is definitely a concern, given that vaping introduces a host of chemicals into the lungs. But vaping products haven’t been around long enough for us to learn whether or not they cause cancer.

“We do know that smoking tobacco forces tiny particles to be deposited deep in the bronchial tree and can lead to the development of cancer. The same may be true for vaping,” says Broderick.

Pictures Of Lungs After Smoking

Secondhand Vapor Isn’t Safe Either

How Bad Is Smoking Crack For Your Lungs Infection

It’s a myth that secondhand emissions from e-cigarettes are harmless. Many people think the secondhand vapor is just water, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The vapor emitted when someone exhales contains a variety of dangerous substances, which may include:

• Nicotine
• Ultrafine particles
• Diacetyl
• Benzene (a chemical found in car exhaust)

How Bad Is Smoking Crack For Your Lungs Heal

Although secondhand vapor may not affect the lungs the same way as vaping, it is better to avoid it, if possible.

What to Do If Your Lungs Hurt

If you smoke or vape, don’t brush off chest or lung pain as something that’s normal. If you have pain or other symptoms associated with breathing difficulties, such as shortness of breath and chronic cough, it’s important to see a doctor.