To the editor:
The year 2020 has given many of us time to pause and think about what is most important to us. Health is topping that list for me and others who I have talked to in recent months.
The term “underlying medical conditions” has played a significant role in the COVID-19 outcomes for many of those infected. Understanding those underlying conditions may save your life, in the short and long- term. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has identified many underlying medical conditions they see that are affecting many patients. The CDC defines an underlying medical condition as “adults of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19. Severe illness from COVID-19 is defined as hospitalization, admission to the ICU, intubation or mechanical ventilation or death.”
Here is a list of conditions that are at an increased risk of severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19: cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies, immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from a solid organ transplant, obesity, severe obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2), pregnancy, sickle cell disease, yype 2 diabetes mellitus, smoking, and the list continues to grow. All the conditions are not a small health problem to push aside, however, I will talk largely about how smoking is an intricate piece of the puzzle.
University of California Los Angeles research has discovered smoking cigarettes can worsen the COVID-19 virus. Many of the studies coming out on the COVID-19 risk factors have indicated that current smokers are at increased risk of severe infection and death.
We all know smoking cigarettes is the common cause of lung disease. So what is creating the correlation between COVID-19 and smoking? Researchers determined that smoking resulted in more severe COVID-19 infection, at least in part, by blocking the activity of immune system messenger proteins called interferons. Interferons play a critical role in the body's early immune response by triggering infected cells to produce proteins to attack the virus, summoning more support from the immune system, and warning uninfected cells to prepare to fight the virus. Cigarette smoke is known to reduce the interferon response in the airways.
A co-author of the study Dr. Brigitte Gomperts puts it this way: "If you think of the airways like the high walls that protect a castle, smoking cigarettes is like creating holes in these walls. Smoking reduces the natural defenses and that allows the virus to set in."
2020 should not only give smokers pause to quit but health professionals need to create a strategic plan to help them quit. Quitting smoking is essential to a person’s well-being. Why is it not a top priority in a health provider's care plan? Tobacco cessation is crucial now more than ever before.
I know it takes time to determine a person’s motivation to quit, but there are avenues to help a pre-contemplation (not looking to change) smoker to become, at least contemplative (thinking about change) in their decision to quit. Cognitive and behavioral counseling along with pharmacotherapy increases a person's ability to quit.
I call on health professionals to, please, at least give smokers, who are highly addicted to this drug, a chance by taking a few minutes to discuss their willingness to quit, then refer them to a Tobacco Treatment Specialist or the nearest pharmacy to confer with people trained to talk to smokers, instead of a checkmark on their chart.
For immediate local resources: 1-800 Quit-now, Parkview Health’s Center for Healthy Living — Freedom from Smoking classes, and Lutheran Cancer Resource Center’s Tobacco Cessation Program.
Tammy Taylor
Tobacco treatment specialist
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December 02, 2020 at 12:00PM
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