The Effects of Smoking on Your Lungs

The Effects of Smoking on Your Lungs Travis Stork: So we’re talking about five of these top killer diseases today and right now we have Doddie here from our audience and this is her daughter Janice. So Doddie is a former smoker, Janice is up here because we found out you're a current smoker. Janice: Correct. Travis Stork: Have you heard of COPD? Janice: Some kind of lung disease? Travis Stork: You're absolutely right. I'm going to explain it to you in just a minute. But the first thing I want to do is you're how old Doddie? Doddie: I'm 72. Travis Stork: 72, you look fabulous. You smoked how many years? Doddie: 25. Travis Stork: And how many years has it been since you smoked your cigarette? Doddie: Approximately 27 years. Travis Stork: So 27 years with no cigarettes. You know what we need to applaud that. It’s hard to quit smoking. You know you’ve been on this for a while. You're how old? Janice: I'm 51. Travis Stork: 51 and how many years have you been smoking? Janice: About 39. Travis Stork: So 39 years. So what we did is actually before the show, we had Doddie do a spirometry reading because this right here it is called a spirometer and it’s provided to us courtesy of Midmark. What it does is it measures your lung capacity so that if you have issues with obstructive pulmonary disease it will show that on the test and we actually tested you before the show. Janice: Yeah. Travis Stork: And I have some results I'm going to give you in just a minute but one of the things that I want to do before is have Janice you're to test if you're willing. Janice: Oh I'm willing. Travis Stork: You are willing? Janice: Oh yeah. Travis Stork: Alright, so you got the spirometer right there. I know I should have you used it before the show. I want you to give this your best effort. I want you to show us what you can do okay? Janice: Okay. Travis Stork: You're ready? Janice: Ahuh. Travis Stork: On three, one, two, three. Talk about right now before we even talked about these readings, you know what I just heard there? I heard wheezing I don’t know if any one heard on the audience. But Janice is wheezing. You are wheezing at the age of 51. And this right here this is some objective measurements and I got to tell you Doddie, I'm very proud of you because she had normal spirometry readings. Your risk of COPD is low. That’s because you quit smoking. In fact her actual age is 72 but her lung age is well below that. But Janice based on what you just did so Janice already has mild area obstruction a lung age of 67. 16 years older. So you could argue right now that your mom has younger lungs than you because of one reason, 27 years ago she decided to quit. And I'm going to show you right now what happens in someone who emphysema COPD. Take a look at this animation. It is scary, every single time you inhale one of those cigarettes, what happens is all those carcinogens and toxins in that cigarette smoke, they enter deep into your lungs and I want you to focus on these little sacks, these are called alveoli. That’s where oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange takes place. Crucial to life but when you smoke, it destroys that tissue. It destroys those little air sacks, those little balloons, those alveoli and what eventually happens is you can see there is they completely lose shape and you can even develop on the outside of your lung you see there a black one. That’s why people with COPD I don’t know if you have ever seen people with these barrel chests, their lungs are literally growing and not in a good way. I want you to do this with me for one reason because sometimes it’s too easy when you smoke. I want you to put those on. It’s too easy when you smoke to not think about what it’s doing on the inside. You want nicotine so bad that you're willing to literally destroy your lungs to do it. And I want to show you the difference. Could you grab that for me? So feel that that is a healthy lung. You feel its texture and -- okay. But now, this is a COPD lung, this is someone who died from lung disease you see all those dark combinations deposits from all those years of cigarette smoking? You see how much bigger and thicker it is? Because that destruction was taken place and I want you to feel it. What if I told you right now that your lungs are starting to look that way? Janice: I already want to quit. Travis Stork: So let me ask you something. You just said, “I already want to quit.” Who has the power to quit? Janice: I do. Travis Stork: You can tell me right now, right this very second that you quit? And make this the moment that from this day forward you're done. Janice: I'm done. Travis Stork: You're done? Janice: I'm done.