Emphysema is a condition in which the structures of the lungs suffer irreversible damage, resulting in inability to breathe and shortness of breath. Discover the nature of this disease and new prospects for drugs for treatment.

This condition is not present in the overnight, but gradually, and in most cases is the result of long experience as a smoker, cigarette smoke causes the destruction of air sacs (alveoli) or small “pockets” in which the oxygen we inhale is exchanged for carbon dioxide as waste carries blood cell activity, and then exhale.

The alveoli have thin, fragile walls (alveolar membranes) that damage or destroy, as you can imagine, create loss of lung capacity, a fact that manifests itself in principle with shortness of breath and cough. Because the damage is irreversible, emphysema progresses and problems become more severe, the airways lose elasticity, they have difficulty passing air and minimal exertion fatigue.

Specifically, emphysema is associated with another disease, chronic bronchitis, and together shape a degenerative disease (progressive and fatal) known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). “It is estimated that many people with damage to health are older men, and in Mexico is the tenth leading cause of mortality,” explains Dr. Annie Pardo Semo, coordinator of the Academic Council of the Area of  Biological Sciences Health and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), who led an investigation that delves on the damage to the lungs by cigarette smoking.

According to the specialist in Biochemistry, “at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER), COPD is one of the three leading causes of consultation in the emergency department, took between 4 th and 5 th place of internment, and is between 3 to 4 leading causes of death, also requires the same center invest more than 20% of the budget spent on health care. ”

A problem of such magnitude has demanded the attention of the medical and scientific community, so many works have been undertaken to study in depth the process that causes lung damage and find solutions to the evil in this career fair has helped Dr . Pardo Semo with excellent results, since their work was recognized with an award from the National Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Canifarma) in 2001, in the field of basic research.

credit to: Rafael Mejia

Until recent years, female sex was less likely to smoke, however in recent years have seen a brutal increase of women who smoke. It is increasingly common to find a woman than a man smoking.

According to the World Health Organization, 20 percent of women in developed countries are addicted to snuff. In developing countries towards the low percentage to 9%.

The prize for women smokers is that the death toll from malignant tumors in the lung and breast has grown so much as the habit of smoking among women.

Tips for an intelligent woman to stop smoking :

1. Women who smoke each cigarette makes it more ugly and old. Feminine beauty is deeply affected by smoking. The skin is injured by the smoke of snuff, which produces destruction of elastic fibers and premature wrinkling.

2. Stop smoking Thousands of women will die this year of lung cancer, surpassing even breast cancer. The 90 percent of these deaths will be due to consumption of snuff, experts say. Want to be a more in these grim statistics?

3. Smoking is breathtaking for love and sex. The snuff triggers 75 percent of chronic bronchitis and 80 per cent of cases of emphysema.

4. In women, the snuff is a major cause of coronary heart disease, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

5. The snuff reduces female fertility.

6. Smoking cause menstrual disorders, menopause advances which promotes osteoporosis.

7. Kissing and smoking are inconsistent acts. Your wonderful cigarette destroys your pretty mouth affecting gums, mucosa and teeth. Very often the snuff causes halitosis, in plainer words, bad breath.

8. Pregnant women are at increased risk of placenta and premature rupture of membranes, resulting in other consequences such as hemorrhage, premature delivery and emergency cesarean delivery. Also more likely spontaneous abortion and stillbirth.

9. Children of mothers who smoke during and after pregnancy are more prone to sudden death syndrome, the most important cause of death in children under one year.

10. Children living in households of smokers are sick more often, bronchitis and pneumonia, cough more, have breath, asthma and ear infections more often.