CHOKING- COUGHING- SNEEZING

CHOKING, COUGHING, SNEEZING

 Large particles of undesirable substances bring, fortunately, an immediate response from the respiratory system. If food accidentally starts down the wrong way, into the lungs rather than the stomach, there are explosive protests from the lungs. 

Normally, swallowing blocks off the glottis, halts breathing briefly, and assures correct division of air and food. It should be noted, however, that this automatic activity may be lacking in an unconscious person, and if a drink is poured through clenched teeth it may proceed straight into the lungs. 

The automatic system is not 100 percent perfect even during consciousness, and many a fruit pit, bite of food, or other object has gone into the windpipe and has had to be coughed up or, in some cases, forcibly retrieved. The protective reflex becomes sluggish after heavy alcohol intake. 

A cough can be a very powerful force. Involved in it are a slight breathing in, closing of the glottis, buildup of pressure, and a sudden release of the trapped air-at speeds of as much as 500 feet per second. A sneeze can be even more explosive. And attempts to muffle a sneeze, to quiet it down, to make it polite, or to avoid it can sometimes lead to nosebleed, ringing in the ears, or sinus trouble. 

Respiratory System - Causes and problems

THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

 MAN CAN survive for weeks without food, for days without water, but for only a few minutes without air. Air must reach the lungs almost constantly so that oxygen may be extracted there and distributed via the blood to every body cell. Even in a relaxed state, you breathe in and out 10 to 14 times a minute, with each breath lasting 4 to 6 seconds. In the space of a minute, you take in 9 to 12 pints of air. The fact is that the body has small reserves of oxygen, all of it consumed within less than half a minute after the start of vigorous exertion. And with such exertion, the need for air increases many fold so that yours breathing rate may speed up to one second per breath and a total intake of 20 gallons of air a minute. 

You can figure roughly that in a normal day you will breathe in some 3,300 gallons of air-enough to occupy a space about 8 feet by 8 feet by 8 feet-and, in a lifetime, you will consume a prodigious quantity, enough to occupy 13 million cubic feet of space. The respiratory system is one, of course, that you will want to under- stand well. It is a system in particular that you can do much to guard through knowledge of how it functions, what can go wrong, and the preventive techniques available for you to use.

THE NOSE

Respiration begins with the nose, which is specially designed for the purpose, although there will be times when you breathe through the mouth as well. As you read this, you are quietly, with little or no awareness, breathing lightly through your nose. When you race for a bus or train, or perform any vigorous activity, and begin to puff and pant, you are breathing rapidly through the mouth to provide the blood with the extra oxygen needed. The mouth, however, is not designed for breathing. You may have noticed this on cold days when you make a deliberate effort to keep your mouth tightly closed, because if you take air in through the mouth you can feel its coldness.

Cold air passing through the mouth has no chance to become properly warmed. But cold as the air may be, you can breathe comfortably through the nose. The nose, acting somewhat like an air conditioning system, regulates the temperature and humidity of air passing through and filters out foreign particles as well. Air enters, of course, through the nostrils. Hairs around the nostril openings catch dust and other impurities. The nostrils are separated by a partition, the septum, which is made of cartilage-a flexible kind of bone -in the lower part of the nose, and of real bone in the upper part. Thus, while you can pull the bottom part of the nose from side to side, the top part is immovable. 

Smoking Cancer and Smoking kills

SMOKING AND CANCER

Smoking today stands indicted as a significant factor in many types of cancer, most notably cancer of the lung. Most researchers believe that there are multiple causes, rather than some single cause, for cancer. 

Many believe that certain human cancers will be proved to be due to viruses which already are known to produce some cancers in animals. No matter what the cause may be, the basic cancer process involves a change in DNA or RNA, chemicals that are part of the reproductive mechanism of cells.

As a result of the change, the cells no longer reproduce in orderly fashion but divide rapidly and, upon dividing, each cell may produce three or more new cells instead of the normal two. Whether a virus is the cause or chemical disturbances are involved, the effect is upon the cell reproductive system. 

And many contributory factors may open the way for cancer by disturbing the balance between viruses and cells or by upsetting chemical processes in cells. Thus, sun- light, soot, and other irritating substances are known to be factors in provoking skin cancer; radiation is known to be involved in leukemia; and cigarette smoke in lung cancer.

Lung cancer today is the leading cause of death from malignancy in the United States. Before World War I, 371 deaths in the United States were attributed to lung cancer. By 1940, there were 7,121; by 1950, 18,313; by 1960, 36,420; and recently the rate has reached 55,300 a year. The increase has been epidemic in its proportions. The association between smoking and lung cancer has been established by many studies. 

One of the largest involved a follow-up of more than one million men and women for a four year period. The study determined that the risk of dying from lung cancer for men aged 35 to 84 who smoke less than a pack a day is 6 times as great, and' for men smoking

Smoking more packs 16 times as great, as for nonsmokers. 

Smoking chemicals- Nicotine- lung cancer - smoking problems

Smoking

Smoke, too, are millions of tiny particles, called particulate matter. It is this matter which, upon condensation, forms of own mass called tar.

Tar contains nicotine and more than a dozen known to trigger cancer when applied to the skin or breathing of laboratory animals. The chemicals are called carcinogenic of their cancer-producing activity. In studies in which one of the chemicals benzpyrene, has been diluted 1,000 times and placed in partition of pellets implanted in the cheek pouches of hamsters, 90 percent of the animals have developed mouth cancer within 25 weeks. 

Nicotine, a colorless oily compound, occurs in cigarettes in a range of 1 to 2 milligrams. In concentrated form, nicotine is a potent poison and 10 milligrams, which form about one drop, will if injected kill an average human. Among the other chemicals in cigarette smoke are phenols, which interfere with the action of the cilia, the hair like projections which line the respiratory tract and have a protective action.

Other chemicals are Irritants contributing to cigarette cough, and some are believed to be involved in the gradual deterioration of the lungs in emphysema. The person just beginning to smoke experiences symptoms of mild nicotine poisoning, such as rapid pulse, faintness, dizziness, nausea, and clammy skin. Sometimes even long-experienced smokers develop one or more of the symptoms. 

Smoking life problems, ageing, breathing problems, cancer, lung cancer etc

By 1967, there was evidence that, including women, there were on any average day 800 deaths in the United States attributable to cigarette smoking: 175 due to cancer, 375 to diseases of heart and circulatory system, 250 to chronic bronchitis, emphysema, peptic ulcers, and other diseases. Cigarette smoking is the major villain, but studies do show some relationship of cigar and pipe smoking to coronary heart disease and circulatory system disease, and to cancers of mouth, pharynx, and larynx. 

The non inhaling mouth smoker, which is what the usual cigar and pipe smoker tends to be, must realize that there is still 25 to 50 percent absorption of nicotine from the mouth (compared to 90 percent from the lungs when smoke is inhaled) and for the heavy mouth smoker this can be a real hazard. But the overall death rate is much less influenced by cigar and pipe smoking. For example, for men smoking only cigars the death rate is 22 percent higher than for nonsmokers between ages 45 and 64, and 5 percent higher after 65. For pipe smokers, it is 11 percent higher than for nonsmokers between 45 and 64, 2 percent higher after 65.

  

THE HARMFUL SUBSTANCES

Tobacco smoke is made up of gases, vapors, and chemical compounds with the proportions varying depending upon the type of tobacco, how it is smoked, and the burning temperature. While a cigarette is being puffed, the burning zone temperature reaches about 1580°F (water boils at 212°F). One of the potentially harmful gases in cigarette smoke is a powerful poison, hydrogen cyanide. Another is carbon monoxide, which is present in a concentration 400 times greater than what is considered a safe level in industry. Carbon monoxide combines with hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying substance in red blood cells.

Studies indicate that as much as 6 percent of the hemoglobin in the blood of an average smoker is taken up and inactivated by carbon monoxide; in a heavy smoker, 8 percent. Taking the place of oxygen, carbon monoxide leads to shortness of breath on exertion.