DEEP BREATH
THIS grim video reveals the shocking reality of what smoking is doing to your lungs.
Puffing on a pack of fags a day will leave your lungs black, and riddled with cancer.
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Nurse Amanda Eller, from North Carolina, shared the video showing one set of healthy lungs next to the diseased organs from a smoker.
The contrast is shocking.
On one side, a pair of bright red, healthy lungs - taken from someone who has never smoked before.
Next to the prime specimen, a grossly bigger set of lungs, that are black and almost resemble a pile of charcoal.
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As the smoker's lungs are manually inflated, a nurse is heard in the background explaining: "These lungs are COPD lungs, cancerous lungs.
"The elasticity has gone, they stretch out but the recoil of them just snaps right back because there's nothing to help hold them open."
The experiment highlights how the deadly habit will leave smokers struggling to catch a breath and wheezing, often the result of emphysema developing.
In contrast when the healthy lungs are inflated rather than quickly deflating straight away, they slowly go down.
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Even when reaching for a cigarette smokers know the danger they are putting themselves in.
There's no secret, the habit causes a host of deadly diseases damaging the heart, lungs, and other organs.
Smokers are at greater risk of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which affects the lungs and countless other cancers.
Smoking causes around 90 per cent of deaths from lung cancer, around 80 per cent of deaths from COPD and 17 per cent of deaths from heart disease.
Studies have shown blokes who smoke throughout their lives die 10 years earlier than their non-smoking counterparts.
Cigarettes contain countless toxins that trigger these diseases.
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As well as nicotine - the addictive substance - there are up to 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, most of which are poisonous to the body.
Experts warn at least 60 are known to cause cancer.
Some of the most dangerous chemicals in smoke are:
- tar - the sticky brown substance that stains a smoker's fingers and teeth and is deposited in the lungs. Tar clogs the lungs, coating the fine hairs that sweep mucus and germs - making it harder for you to clear them from your lungs
- carbon monoxide - the main poisonous gas in car exhausts is present in ALL cigarette smoke. It binds to haemoglobin in the blood faster than oxygen, meaning the blood carries less oxygen around the body
- benzene - this used to be added to petrol but is no longer due to health concerns. It damages cells and is linked to leukaemia and kidney cancers
- oxidant gases - these gases react with oxygen and make the blood more likely to clot, increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke.
But, the dangers of smoking can be reversed...if you commit to quitting.
Around one in five Brits smoke in the UK - and there are 90,000 young smokers aged 11 to 15.
But stop for 28 days and you're five times more likely to stub the habit out for good.
The health benefits are almost immediate.
Within just half an hour your blood pressure will fall and your pulse will drop.
Eight hours into quitting carbon monoxide will be eliminated from your body, helping increase oxygen levels.
Two days later your sense of taste and smell will improve.
Three days into quitting and you'll find breathing easier.
MORE ON STOPPING SMOKING
After three months your lungs will begin to clear mucus more easily.
After nine months the tell-tale smokers cough will subside, your lungs will be healthier and energy levels will improve.
A year after quitting and the serious health benefits kick in - the risk of heart disease reduces to half that of a smoker.
Five years post smoking and your risk of stroke is the same as that of a non-smoker.
The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and oesophagus are cut in half.
A decade after smoking your last fag the risk of lung cancer is slashed to half that of a smoker, and your pancreatic cancer risk is about the same as a non-smoker.
Fifteen years later, your risk of heart disease is the same as a non-smoker and your risk of dying young is almost the same as someone who's never smoked.