To Book an Appointment

World Lung Day 2024

By Dr. Neeraj Gupta in Pulmonology , Critical Care

Sep 25 , 2024 | 1 min read

Every year on September 25, World Lung Day is organised to raise awareness about lung health and promote better lung care worldwide. It highlights the importance of healthy lungs and addresses the causes and prevention methods of lung diseases.

Basic Functions of Lungs

The lungs perform several essential functions that are crucial for our overall health:

Facilitates the movement of air in and out of the lungs for breathing.
Delivers oxygen to the cells and removes carbon dioxide from the blood, expelling it through the airways.
Sound production
Sense of smell
Filters out dust and microbes, with cilia and coughing helping to clear these particles from the lungs.

Normally, lung function decreases, i.e., reduced ventilation and oxygen intake during sleep and intense activity.

Normally, our lungs contain around 500 million air sacs called alveoli, which help in gas exchange. Oxygen from the airspace goes to the blood, and carbon dioxide from the blood goes to the alveoli, where it is exhaled during breathing.

Now, in the case of smokers, smoking causes the air sacs (alveoli) to be destroyed due to hot air, smoke, and chemicals, which cause irritation and swelling in our air passages, which leads to narrowing of the air passage, and the patient has wheezing (musical sounds), coughing, and excessive sputum production.

Test to Look for Lung Status

Chest X-ray: This is the basic test every smoker must have.
Spirometry: Every smoker must perform this test to determine the function of the lung, i.e., damage or function of the lung.
CT scan: A low-dose computed tomography (CT scan) is used to obtain a better view of areas that may not be visible on a chest X-ray.

Benefits of Quitting Smoking

The best part is if you stop smoking, the damage to the lungs immediately stops, and over time, you notice many benefits, like within 20-30 minutes, your heart rate and blood pressure go down.

In 12 hours, the carbon monoxide levels return to normal, and within one week, a sense of smell and taste improves. After 2–12 weeks, your circulation improves, lung function increases, coughing and wheezing disappear, vitamin C level (an antioxidant) increases, and shortness of breath decreases. One year later, the risk of coronary heart disease reduces to half, and five years later, the risk of stroke is reduced; even the risk of lung cancer (in certain cases) reduces after 10-15 years of quitting smoking.

So protect your lungs by saying no to smoking.