PULMONARY MEDICINE

The conditions that affect pulmonary health are usually manifested with coughing, chronic coughing, shortness of breath, exertional dyspnea, fever, secretion, hemoptysis, chest pain, back pain, fatigue, weight loss, tiredness, allergic reactions causing patients to sneeze, runny nose, rashes, itching, snoring, day-time sleeping and smoking. The patients with such complaints or addictions may directly be admitted to our department.

The Pulmonary Medicine Department is mainly specializing in pulmonary diseases, tuberculosis, allergy-immunology, and respiratory sleep disorders. However, we are also rendering healthcare services for obstructive lung diseases (asthma, COPD, bronchiectasis), allergic lung diseases, pulmonary embolism, pulmonary vascular diseases (pulmonary hypertension), pneumonia (lung infection), pleurisy, scanning, diagnosis, and treatment of lung cancer, interventional bronchoscopy (cryotherapy, argon therapy, EBUS), sarcoidosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and interstitial lung diseases such as environmental diseases. Additionally, those who want to stop smoking may also refer to our department.

Smoking causes the death of more than 7 million people every year due to the more than 7000 excessively toxic and carcinogenic components that exist in tobacco products. These components take the lead in preventable death causes. Tobacco products have numerous negative effects on health due to active and second-hand smoking. It is known that smoking is the underlying cause of 90% of deaths secondary to lung cancer. The risk of heart attack increases ten-folds for smokers and the risk of inducing strokes also increases due to the negative effects on blood circulation and vessels. Smoking causes certain diseases in the lungs, such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema (COPD), which substantially lowers the quality of life with considerable shortness of breath and shortens life expectancy.

In addition, smoking can cause cancer of the mouth, tongue, pharynx, esophagus, pancreas, urinary bladder, kidney, prostate, cervix, colon and liver.

Smoking causes miscarriages, premature delivery and low birth weight in women and infertility and erectile disorder in men. Reliable studies show that one of every three smokers dies before the expected projected lifespan.

The heart rate and blood pressure normalize 20 minutes after you quit smoking. The risk of heart attack decreases after the first day and blood circulation normalizes after 2 weeks. Lung functionality starts to improve after 3 months and the risk of heart disease and lung cancer decreases by half between one year and 10 years, respectively, and the risk of heart disease is equal to non-smokers after 15 years have elapsed.

One person dies due to smoking-related causes every 6 seconds approximately. This equals a mean figure of 5.4 million individuals in a year. It has been estimated that 175 million individuals will die due to smoking between 2005 to 2030 if this progression continues. If we review the figures in our country, 85,000 people die due to active smoking every year. For second-hand smoking, the figure is 15,000 people per year. 14.5 million people, including 252,000 children, use tobacco products every day in our country.

Of the 7000 materials included in a cigarette, 2000 are toxic and 70 are carcinogenic.

One of these materials, nicotine, causes addiction; nicotine is absorbed through the cheeks, especially in the first 10 seconds of smoking and reaches the brain starting the cycle of physical and behavioral addiction. Addiction develops quickly; only 100 cigarettes are sufficient for it to be established.

Smoking is responsible for 9 out of every 10 cancer-related deaths, 6 out of every 10 lung-related deaths and 3 out of every 10 deaths secondary to cardiovascular diseases.

Second-hand smoke is more poisonous than the smoke directly inhaled by a smoker from a cigarette; with chronic lung diseases and recurrent respiratory tract infections, children tend to be affected the worst by second-hand smoke.

When it comes to ingesting smoke there is no safe quantity ultimately; our only suggestion is to never use tobacco products in any capacity. In this context, newly established products such as electronic cigarettes and IQOS products, which heat but do not burn, are simply advertising tools that target adolescents. They are regarded as products that aim to maintain the addiction to tobacco products and they are proven as health hazards, even though they are promoted as “less hazardous” options. These products cannot be regarded as feasible alternatives to the clear benefits drawn from the total cessation of smoking. It should always be remembered that electronic cigarettes are addictive products, which mimic the appearance and behavior of regular smoking and contain carcinogenic and volatile organic agents producing negative effects on the lungs.
 

Addiction to smoking can be effectively broken; a smoker can commence the action of “cessation of smoking” voluntarily and comprehensively with medical and motivational support. Informative, supportive and encouraging assistance is essential during the first 7-15 days when the physiological and behavioral withdrawals are at their most severe. This support is structured according to the needs and concerns of each patient and it also makes the action of cessation of smoking considerably more enduring. Studies show that 7 out of every 10 individuals consider quitting; half of these individuals try to quit smoking every year. It has been observed that individuals who cannot locate properly structured support at the necessary time relapse the following year. However if an individual learns to live with the withdrawal caused by the physiological addiction and recognizes the habits secondary to psychological addiction, s/he may positively complete her/his part in the cessation of the smoking process.