Hey. So recently, I visited a college with some friends, and I realized that I could most likely make their swim team. I have swam competitively all year round since I was about 11 and last year, I got a hernia, so I had to stop momentarily. I haven't swam in a year. Anyways, I started smoking last year, and while I don't smoke much I'm worried that will impact my lung capacity, so I am quitting cold turkey. I swam last summer, and I smoked about a pack that entire summer, and it had no noticeable impact on my lung capacity. However, in choir, I noticed that my singing voice is getting deeper. So, my main question is: do your lungs/voice/stamina repair itself after you quit smoking? I really want to make a swim team in college, and I definately am quitting right now, but do you think that smoking about 2 packs a year did any damage? And if so, how can I repair that?
No, smoking two packs in a year almost certainly didn't damage you. And your lungs start repairing themselves almost as soon as you smoke your last.
I smoked 20 a day (at least) for over 10 years. When I quit I was told that my lung functions would return to that of a non-smoker within 2 weeks - 3 months. I think if you smoked just 2 packs over the course of 1 summer, you'll be fine. If you feel like its affected you, maybe there is an underlying health issue that may need to be investigated.
2 packs a year is veeeery little. You probably didn't do much damage to yourself, and the person above me is right...as soon as you quit, your body starts repairing itself. Within a few weeks, cilia in the lungs will be regrowing and functional. I quit smoking 3 years ago, and it has been amazing. I can breathe and sing SO much better now.
Sorry if this is slightly off-topic but doesn't smoking give you a raspy edge to your singing? For example, the raspiness that adele has in her voice from smoking and isn't that a good thing?
2 packs a year is nothing to worry about at all. I smoke about 15 cigarettes a day and don't really want to at all though. I could go without smoking as long as I don't have that first one in the morning and believe it or not, I wouldn't even think about it during the day. Here is a benefits time table. http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/22775/Quit-Smoking-Recovery-Timetable
I quit smoking three years ago with an electric cigarette. I felt better, and had better lung function within weeks. Plus the flavors helped to curb the snacking that I had an issue with, when I tried to quit before.
I read a stat somewhere that if you've quit smoking for at least five years, your risk of most smoking-related health issues is no different from someone who never smoked.
The answer depends on how much damage has been done when the person quits. There's two types of damage that occurs from smoking- inflammation and scarring. Inflammation improves quickly, so the person who stops smoking will have an improvement in ease of breathing, improved athletic performance, less risk of infections, etc. But if the person has smoked for a long time to the extent that the lungs have developed scar tissue and structural changes, there may be a limit to how much healing can occur. Smoking two packs a year is not enough to do permanent damage, but you're better off quitting now if you're interested in athletics and singing.
I've noticed this a lot with heroin-addicted singers like Kurt Cobain and Matt Schultz. For example, if you listen to Cage the Elephant's first album (it's a self-titled album), Schultz sounds very, very different in terms of tone to how he does in their other album (Thankyou, Happy Birthday). Apparently, that's because Schultz got addicted to heroin between the two albums. Not that smoking or shooting heroin is a good thing, though.
good luck quitting cold turkey. i tried that once. and it was.... the worst like, 4 days of my entire life.
It depends. In Adele's case, the problem was a vocal cord polyp and overuse. In contrast, here's an example of the more extreme affects of smoking, drinking and drug use on the human voice: [YOUTUBE]Jf9w2hJIqUk[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]YANUIa_bHoU[/YOUTUBE] The second song is a great song and her style of singing suits the song but ultimately, it's more croak than singing.
This applies to people who smoke regularly though and 2 packs a year is defiantly not regular. But yeah really stop now, i'm only 17 myself and i can't even got more that two hours without smoking, and it feels horrible because i'm still so young. I had to leave my swim team because of smoking You will be able to totally reverse the changes of it, and with how little you smoke it should happen in a matter of weeks and your lung capacity will be back to normal, and you throat will repair so yeah your voice will go back too.
