Smoking damages your lungs' natural cleaning and repair system and traps cancer-causing chemicals in. Smoking permanently damages the alveoli (air sacs) in the lungs, making it hard to breathe.
It's common for smokers to ignore or downplay the symptoms of lung damage:
- Feeling out of breath when walking up a short flight of stairs
- Coughing
- Spitting up mucous
- Repeat chest infections
These are not signs of aging or simply being out of shape. These are real signs of the damage that smoking is doing to your lungs. If you have these signs of smoke damage to your lungs, see your doctor. Unless you do something now, these symptoms will keep getting worse. Smoking doesn't just damage your lungs. It puts you at high risk for dozens of other serious diseases, including cancer.
