Essay Introduction
Asthma is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affecting the airways of the person suffering from it. People that suffer from this chronic condition are said to be asthmatic. The inner walls of an asthmatic’s airways become inflamed or swollen, causing them to secrete a thick mucus within them. With the narrowing of the airways coupling with the secretion of mucus, the airways begin to become narrower than normal. This makes getting air into the lungs as well as out of them extremely hard.
Research Paper on Asthma
The trachea branches off into the right and left bronchi which then branch into thousands of smaller bronchioles. Within the bronchioles are the lumen and the mucosa, which include the inner lining of epithelial cells, as well as the lamina propria and the submucosa, which is where the smooth muscle lives. In asthma, there are typically lots of eosinophils, which are essentially white blood cells that carry a cargo of granules full of soluble chemical mediators like histamines, leukotrienes, prostaglandin, and platelet-activating factor, just below the epithelium in the lamina propria.
When these eosinophils sense an environmental trigger like cigarette smoke in the airway, they can release their granules, letting those chemical mediators spill out and start degrading lipids, Proteins, and nucleic acids, destroying major components of a cell. This creates a strong inflammatory reaction in the bronchiolar walls and causes two changes. First, the smooth muscle around the bronchioles starts to spasm, which narrows the airways, and second, there is increased mucus secretion into those narrow airways, making them even more narrow, making it difficult to breathe. This means that less oxygen can pass through. Less oxygen means less aerobic respiration.
Argumentative Essay Examples on Asthma
The prevalence of asthma varies widely in different regions of the world due to distinct genet, environmental, and occupational risk factors.
Initially, these inflammatory changes are completely reversible, but over the years, irreversible starts to take place, such as edema, scarring, and fibrosis build-up leading to the thickening of the epithelial basement membrane, which permanently reduces the diameter of the airway. The feeling of chest pain, pressure, or tightness and the sound of wheezing are signs of asthma. Wheezing is the result of air trying to move through the narrowed airways. Coughing could also occur during the morning or evening when the temperatures have dropped.
Thesis Statement for Asthma
Smoking. Carbon monoxide is a result of incomplete burning of carbon contained in fuels. It is a colorless and odorless chemical that can be produced when smoking cigarettes. When inhaled, it can bind to the hemoglobin in red blood cells which is in the blood. When this happens, it is significantly harder for oxygen to bind to the hemoglobin. Carbon monoxide binds much fast to hemoglobin than oxygen, so when it is in the lungs, it takes up the space of oxygen. When there is too much carbon monoxide in the blood in the blood, it can starve the body of oxygen, which can result in death.
Research Papers: Asthma and Smoking
Smoking can Nicotine can be addictive and dangerous, and it increases blood pressure and flow of blood which causes the arteries to decrease in size, meaning they will have to work at an even harder speed because the arteries have narrowed down, causing the flow of blood to be decreased. Nicotine can lead to the development of emphysema in smokers, which lessens the amount of elastin in the lungs. This will increase the volume of the alveoli. This decreases the pressure inside the alveoli, making it hard to breathe. It can also lead to an increase in airway resistance due to bronchoconstriction. It also affects respiration by its effect on the central nervous system causing many respiratory disorders. Just these two chemicals have a negative effect on the respiratory system along with the many other dangerous chemicals that are contained in cigarettes.
Titles: Asthma and Drug Abuse
Drugs. People use two chemical types of cocaine: the water-soluble hydrochloride salt and the water-insoluble cocaine base. Addicts inject or inhale the hydrochloride salt, which is a powder. The base form of cocaine is created by processing the drug with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate and water, then heating it to remove the hydrochloride to produce a smokable substance. Upper respiratory and pulmonary problems of cocaine are reported quite a lot, with most people being addicts that inject the drug directly into their veins.
Cocaine and Marijuana: Impact and Consequences
The harmfulness of cocaine is complicated and is used through multiple central and peripheral pathways. Frequent inhalation of cocaine through the nose can lead to ischemia, necrosis, and infections of the nasal mucosa and sinuses. Pulmonary issues of cocaine toxicity include pulmonary edema, pulmonary hemorrhages, pulmonary barotrauma, foreign body granulomas, cocaine-related pulmonary infection, obliterative bronchiolitis, asthma, and persistent gas-exchange abnormalities. Respiratory symptoms are nonspecific and include shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, hemoptysis, and chest pains. Serious respiratory issues have been reported in neonates of abusing mothers.
Marijuana(weed) smoking is linked with large airway irritation, heightened airway resistance, and lung hyperinflation. Those who smoke weed frequently have more signs of chronic bronchitis than those who refrain from smoking. The research found that those who regularly smoke weed had more medical visits for respiratory issues than those who do not smoke. A few studies have indicated that, because of THC’s immune-suppressing effects, smoking marijuana might increase vulnerability to lung infections, such as pneumonia, in people with immune deficiencies. Smoking marijuana can also decrease the respiratory system’s immune response, increasing the chances of the person acquiring respiratory infections.
Conclusion
All of these factors will lead to a decreased amount of respiration. However, weed is less dangerous than other drugs, such as cocaine, due to it having an upper limit.
