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Do I have asthma or something worse?


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I've (regretfully) been a smoker off and on for about 6 years(im about to be 25)...I'm really trying hard to stop now while I'm still young but what concerns me is when i breathe in deep its like a slight weezing and my throat usually feels irritated. Also alot of aerobic type activity kinda makes my chest/throat burn. How bad is this/will it go away if i stop smoking and I heard that a certain diet high in ____ has cured people of certain conditions similiar to what I may have. Can anyone shed any light on this for me? It's got me pretty worried and all I really want is to return to health. Thanks!

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I quit smoking in September 2008 after smoking for approximately 9 years (yikes, didn't realize it was that many years until I typed it out just now!). I was starting to notice, like you, some effects on my breathing, it was expensive, my fiance hated it (I don't blame him!), and I smelled like an ashtray all of the time. I was just sick of it and ready to quit.

 

Have you tried to quit in the past? I read somewhere that the average smoker quits 7 times before it sticks. I think I seriously quit about 4 times througout the years. Finally this last time it stuck. If you've quit before, what method did you use? What method are you planning on using now? I tried gum, the patch...finally cold turkey worked for me. It wasn't pretty for a few weeks though. I would burst into tears and spaz out a lot.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that breathing and what-not often gets WORSE when you first quit...I was wheezing really bad for a couple of weeks. Now I can run no problem without any kind of burning in my lungs.

 

Once you quit (and stay quit for a month or so) your problems should lessen.

 

One resource that helped me a lot was quitnet.com. You can input how much you smoke and how much you pay per pack and then it calculates each day how much money you've saved. Whenever I had a bad craving I would look at that and it would help me out a bit.

 

All the best. Quitting smoking is HARD but it can be done!

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Hey! Thanks for the reply, I've "succesfully" quit like 3 or 4 times for a period of a few months but somehow(probaly bc almost everyone i know smokes) get back into it. Everytime I've quit its been cold turkey, I think im more used to the habit of smoking then the actually nicotine addiction itself lol. I think I need to find some kind of motivation to stay quit..as of now i'm weening off from the usual half pack a day to like 2-3. I plan on doing this for a few more days then stopping...for good this time hopefully. And yes that should be motivation enough for my broke self..ciggz arent cheap

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I know what you mean about people you know smoking. Where I live now nobody smokes. But when I go back home to visit my friends/family, EVERYONE smokes...so I usually end up slipping up and having a few. The actual physical addiction only takes a week or so to break (in my experience anyway), it's the mental addiction that's the bitch.

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Well its been a couple days smoke free so far ! I'm worried that I might have emphysema though..maybe its just a mental thing since im reading up on it... I want to try to be on the safe side though so besides smoking im looking for a natural "cure" for it. Does anyone know about a certain diet/regime I can adhere to ? I tried search engines but its hard to sift through all the b.s.

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Congrats on the couple of days! If you've just quit smoking it makes sense you are experiencing some breathing difficulties...I wouldn't be so quick to diagnose yourself with emphysema...seriously, I was wheezing and coughing up things for about a month and sometimes it would hurt to breathe. It gets better though, after a month or so I didn't have any of those symptoms.

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Yeh, best thing you can do-quit the coffin nails. After 3 weeks the urge is usually almost completely gone for most of us. I quit 26 years ago; smoked some 420 a few times a couple years ago and noticed harder breathing and a cough within a few days. Smoking will chew up your lungs and aerobic capacity. Both my parents are lifetime smokers and now both of them sit in chairs all day watching TV because they can barely walk outside because they have emphysema and COPD. Most of us take a few tries to make it stick, but quitting is very doable.

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  • 3 months later...

This could be of help but don't think it will protect you if you go on smoking. Eat soya but also give up smoking. Be strong. Good luck.

 

From the journal Respiratory Research:

 

Superfood soy linked to reduction in smoker's lung damage risk

 

People who eat lots of soy products have better lung function and are less likely to develop the smoking-associated lung disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). A study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research has shown that consumption of a wide variety of soy products can be associated with a reduction in the risk of COPD and other respiratory symptoms.

 

Dr. Fumi Hirayama and Professor Andy Lee from Curtin University of Technology, Australia, worked with a team of respiratory physicians to poll 300 patients with COPD from six Japanese hospitals and 340 age-matched control subjects from the same areas as the patients about their soy intake. Dr. Hirayama said, "Soy consumption was found to be positively correlated with lung function and inversely associated with the risk of COPD. It has been suggested that flavonoids from soy foods act as an anti-inflammatory agent in the lung, and can protect against tobacco carcinogens for smokers. However, further research is needed to understand the underlying biological mechanism".

 

Soy is a constituent of many Japanese foods, including tofu (soybean curd), natto (fermented soybeans), miso soup (fermented soybean paste), bean sprouts and soy milk. It has been claimed that soy foods reduce cholesterol and can alleviate menopause symptoms. This is the first study to demonstrate the association between consumption of the superfood and a reduction in the risk of developing COPD.

 

COPD is characterized by progressive decline in lung function, and encompasses chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Long-term cigarette smoking causes almost 90% of COPD. This research only shows an association between soy intake and a reduced risk of developing the condition; the best preventive measure is still to abstain from tobacco entirely.

 

From:

Soy consumption and risk of COPD and respiratory symptoms: a case-control study in Japan.

 

BioMed Central (2009, June 28). Superfood Soy Linked To Reduction In Smoker's Lung Damage Risk

 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/bc-ssl062409.php

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