• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FHE Health | Inpatient Rehab & Mental Health Facility in Florida Homepage

Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Treatment

ContactCareers

Call for Immediate Help (833) 596-3502

MENUMENU
  • About
        • About FHE Rehab
          • About FHE Health
          • Our Staff
          • Locations We Serve
          • Testimonials
        • Our Campus
          • Gallery
          • Our Videos
          • The Health and Wellness Center at FHE Health
        • Our Locations
          • Alcohol Rehab
          • Detox Center
          • Drug Rehab
          • Mental Health Center
          • Outpatient Rehab
        • Careers at FHE Health
          • Employment Opportunities
        • Our Expertise
          • Accreditations
          • Educational Opportunities
          • Community Impact Award
          • First Responder Families Podcast
          • First Responder Paws
          • Education Scholarship
  • Addiction
        • Treatment Programs
          • Treatment Program Overview
          • Alcohol Addiction
          • Drug Addiction Treatment
          • Behavioral Addiction
        • Levels of Care
          • Continuum of Care
          • Addiction Detox
          • Inpatient Addiction Treatment
          • Outpatient Addiction Treatment
        • What We Treat
          • Alcoholism
          • Amphetamines
          • Benzodiazepines
          • Cocaine
          • Heroin
          • Opioids
          • Sedative
  • Mental Health
        • Mental Health Rehab
          • Mental Health Rehab
          • Onsite Psychiatric Care
          • Dual Diagnosis
        • Levels of Care
          • Residential Mental Health Care
          • Outpatient Mental Health Care
        • What We Treat
          • ADD & ADHD
          • Anxiety Disorders
          • Bipolar Disorder
          • Depression
          • Eating Disorders
          • Personality Disorders
          • PTSD
          • Schizophrenia
          • Substance Use Disorder
          • Trauma
  • Programs
        • FHE Programs
          • Specialty Program Overview
          • Restore (Mental Health)
          • Empower! (Women's Program)
          • Shatterproof FHE Health(First Responders)
          • Compass Program
        • Support Programs
          • Alumni
          • Family Support
        • Therapies
          • Acupuncture
          • Breathwork Therapy
          • CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
          • DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)
          • EMDR Therapy
          • Expressive Arts Therapy
          • Individual Therapy
          • Group Therapy
          • Gambling Therapy
          • Massage
        • Medical Care
          • Medical Integration
          • Ketamine Infusion
          • IV Vitamin
          • Fitness & Nutrition
          • Medication-Assisted Treatment
          • Medication Management
        • NeuroRehab Services
          • Neuro Rehabilitation
          • Neurofeedback Training
          • Neurostimulation Therapy
          • EEG Brain Mapping
          • Insomnia Treatment for PTSD
  • Resources
        • FHE Guides
          • Understanding Drug Abuse
          • Signs of Addiction
          • The Disease of Addiction
          • Confronting Addiction
          • Staging an Intervention
          • Rehab Success Rate – Does It Really Work?
          • Withdrawal Timelines
          • Life After Rehab
          • LGBTQ+ Community Resources
          • Veteran Resources
          • FHE Podcasts
          • Remote Resources Toolkit
        • Learning Center
          • Help for You
          • Help For Loved Ones
          • Help For Alcoholism
          • Help With Substance Abuse
          • Behavioral & Mental Health
          • Life in Recovery
          • Rehab Explained
          • Addiction Statistics
          • Our Research Articles
          • View All Articles
        • The Experience Blog
          • Addiction News
          • Alumni
          • Community Events
          • Expert Opinions
          • FHE Commentary
          • FHE News
          • Treatment Legislation
          • View All Articles
  • Admissions
        • Insurance
          • Blue Cross Insurance
          • Beacon Health / Value Options Insurance
          • Cigna Insurance
          • Humana Insurance
          • TRICARE Insurance
        • Admissions
          • Steps to Addiction Help
          • Will Insurance Cover Behavioral Treatment?
          • Self-Pay Rehab
        • FAQ
          • Keeping Your Job in Rehab
          • Example Day in Rehab
        • Contact Admissions
          • Contact Us
          • Secure Payment Form
  • Contact
  •  
Home > Experience Blog > Smoking & Lung Health – How Inhaling Drugs Affects the Immune System

July 28, 2020 By Kristina Robb-Dover

Smoking & Lung Health – How Inhaling Drugs Affects the Immune System

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues in the U.S. and worldwide, researchers are learning more about how the virus harms the body and who is more at risk of contracting it and dying from it. For example, recent reports of COVID-19 patients experiencing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) have physicians worried about the long-term ramifications of a coronavirus infection for lung health.

As for the risk factors that increase the probability of developing ARDS, (which in turn substantially increases the chances of dying from COVID-19)? Smoking cigarettes—or inhaling other drugs—is a big risk factor, along with obesity, asthma, and COPD. (Diseases that compromise the functioning of the immune system, like HIV/AIDS and cancer, are also risk factors for ARDS.)

But how specifically are smoking and inhaling drugs connected to poor lung health, including ARDS and a much greater likelihood of dying from COVID-19? We invite you to explore that question in greater depth below.

What Is ARDS?

First, a closer look at ARDS, which is currently the biggest danger of smoking cigarettes or inhaling other drugs during this pandemic. ARDS severely inhibits the ability of your lung’s air sacs to send oxygen to red blood cells. Symptoms of ARDS include labored or rapid breathing, shortness of breath, weakness, abnormally low blood pressure, and cognitive confusion. When ARDS affects COVID-19 patients, it can be a life-threatening condition requiring sedation and immediate placement on a ventilator.

The importance of paying extra attention to your lung health during the pandemic cannot be understated. Your brain and body cannot maintain general health without sufficient oxygen being transported by red blood cells. In addition, most people don’t realize that the lungs have a special relationship with your immune system. Lungs damaged by COVID-19 and ARDS directly impact the ability of your immune system to fight infections.

Does Smoking Marijuana Harm Your Lungs?

Although hundreds of research studies have found that marijuana can damage lungs much in the same way cigarettes do, pot advocates refuse to acknowledge this or simply don’t care. Instead, pot smokers focus on the beneficial medicinal effects of marijuana and ignore the facts indicating pot smoke can damage the lungs.

The same toxic carcinogens comprising cigarette smoke are also found in pot smoke. Moreover, pot smokers are inhaling four times more tar than cigarette smokers do. Tar is the chemical substance that lingers after cannabis or tobacco leaves have been burned. Tar is extremely carcinogenic and coats the lungs with a sticky layer of toxins that can only be reduced if you stop smoking.

Carcinogens identified in marijuana smoke include acetaldehyde, arsenic, formaldehyde, cadmium, lead, and pyrene. Anyone considering the use of medical marijuana should always have an in-depth discussion with their provider of the advantages and disadvantages of smoking medical cannabis to treat their particular disease/disorder.

Smoking Crack and Lung Health

Smoking crack not only damages your lungs but your overall health as well. Crack rocks that are put into pipes and smoked are made using ammonia, a caustic, potentially hazardous substance. People who smoke crack frequently suffer from symptoms of chemical pneumonia:

  • Severe burning sensations in the eyes, throat, and nose
  • Spitting up green mucus or blood-tinged mucus during coughing spells
  • Chest pains
  • Difficulty breathing/painful breathing
  • Fatigue, weakness, loss of muscle control
  • Disorientation or delirium

Be aware that unlike lung damage caused by smoking pot or cigarettes, lung damage caused by smoking crack is not reversible.

Is Vaping Worse Than Smoking Cigarettes or Pot?

E-cigarettes and some vaping products contain nicotine, a chemical just as addictive as opioids. Although nicotine does not directly harm your lungs, it will increase your risk for heart disease, stroke, oral cancer, pancreatic cancer and worsen kidney disease. All these health problems can negatively impact the immune system and make you much more susceptible to a COVID-19 infection.

Vaping products manufactured overseas may contain carcinogens, heavy metals, and other toxic compounds. Some e-cig vapors made in the U.S. could also contain harmful chemicals and manage to slip “under the radar” of industry regulators.

In the past few years, researchers have associated vaping products with long-term lung injuries resulting in over a dozen deaths. The CDC strongly recommends people do not vape or use e-cigarettes to avoid potentially serious health risks caused by unknown toxic chemicals.

Lung Health Is a Predictor of Your Lifespan

Even a minimal 10 percent reduction of your breathing capacity can leave you tired all the time, compromise your immune system, and put you at a dangerously high risk for suffering serious infections like COVID-19. A famous, longitudinal study called the Framingham study stunned doctors when it found that people with sufficient lung volume were overwhelmingly healthier than people with “shallow” lung volume.

The Framingham study regularly evaluated the health of over 5000 adults for 30 years and concluded that people with healthy or near-healthy lungs lived much longer than those with reduced lung capacity. In other words, they determined that lung condition is likely the “number one predictor” of premature death by illness or disease.

If you vape, smoke pot, or smoke crack regularly, your lung capacity right now is significantly decreased. A consistent lack of oxygen in the brain and body will lead to impaired metabolic functions, increase the risk of stroke and heart attack and debilitate cognition and memory. More importantly, your immune system will stop sending white blood cells to fight viral and bacterial infections. Without enough oxygen, every system in your body will literally start shutting down.

COVID-19 Pandemic is not “Going Away” Any Time Soon

The coronavirus pandemic is now thought to have begun in the fall of 2019 in Wuhan. A highly infectious, airborne disease that can live on surfaces for as long as two days, COVID-19 will continue infecting people worldwide until a vaccine is developed and administered to three billion global citizens. If you smoke cigarettes, smoke pot recreationally, smoke crack, vape or inhale other chemicals to get high, you are at a significantly higher risk of contracting COVID-19. Without healthy lungs, your immune system cannot protect you from life-threatening illnesses and diseases. In more blunt terms, an addiction to smoking and inhaling drugs can kill you.

Get Help for a Smoking Addiction by Calling FHE Health Today

Addictions are overwhelming and inescapable compulsions to engage in behaviors that are detrimental to your physical and psychological health. If you have tried to stop smoking cigarettes, crack cocaine, marijuana, and vaping products and can’t because withdrawal symptoms made you feel too sick, you may have an addiction that could benefit from treatment.

FHE Health’s medical support staff are experts at diagnosing and treating lung problems caused by a smoking addiction. It’s never too late to reverse most of the lung damage caused by smoking cigarettes, pot, or vaping products. It’s also never too late to get help for a crack addiction. The sooner you start allowing your lungs to heal from a smoking addiction, the better your immune system starts working to fight against infections like COVID-19.

For more information about how to quit a drug that’s damaging your lungs and making you more susceptible to COVID-19, please—call us now. We’re here to help.

Filed Under: Experience Blog

More Questions about Treatment?

More Questions about Treatment?

We offer 100% confidential and individualized treatment

Contact Us

About Kristina Robb-Dover

Kristina Robb-Dover is a content manager and writer with extensive editing and writing experience... read more

Primary Sidebar

The Experience Blog

  • Addiction News
  • Alumni
  • Community Events
  • Expert Columns
  • FHE Commentary
  • FHE News
  • Treatment Legislation
  • All Articles

Sign up for the Blog

Our Facilities

Take a look at our state of the art treatment center.

View Our Gallery

Learning Center

  • Help for You
  • Help For Loved Ones
  • Help For Alcoholism
  • Help With Substance Abuse
  • Behavioral & Mental Health
  • Life in Recovery
  • Rehab Explained
  • All Articles
Contact Us
  • Call Now:
  • Best Time to Call:

Footer

FHE Health

© 2025 FHE Health

505 S Federal Hwy #2,
Deerfield Beach, Florida 33441
1-833-596-3502
youtube facebook instagram linkedin twitter
  • Contact
  • Careers at FHE Health
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
A+ BBB and Top Places to Work - Sun Sentinel

Copyright © 2025 · FHE Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care.

If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at marketing@fhehealth.com.

833-596-3502

Text/Call Me