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However, teen and adult users are not safe from nicotine-related lung damage. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center states that smoking causes severe damage to the lungs and airways in a person’s body. Smokers constrict their airways, which can make breathing more difficult. However, the chemicals in tobacco smoke—particularly the nicotine—are poisonous and will slowly damage a person’s lungs. For example, smoking causes an increase in the number of cells producing mucus in a person’s lungs. As these cells increase, a person will find it harder to expel this mucus and will struggle to breathe. Some mucus cells may even cause damage in a person’s lungs and make it even harder to inhale and exhale. However, nicotine itself can directly damage and kill the cells in a person’s lungs. Although lung cells do regrow when given time, enough damage can make this recovery more difficult. As a result, a person may find it more and more difficult to breathe and may experience diseases later in life such as emphysema , which damages the air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs so that the body cannot get the oxygen it needs. Combined with damage to a person’s heart—such as a decrease in muscle mass and more—a person may find that breathing simply doesn’t give them the oxygen that it once did. Heart Damage May Make Breathing Even Harder Smoking is considered one of the worst heart health decisions because it raises the heart rate, increases blood pressure, and can also increase a person’s level of dangerous cholesterol. However, smoking- related heart damage also has a co-occurring effect on a person’s lungs. As heart damage spreads, a person’s body won’t pump blood as effectively as it once did.

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Nicotine Treatments: Fighting to Breathe Again