The immune system is, of course, the system which protects from interference in the course of normal body-function by outside influences such as viruses, bacteria, and other parasitic organisms. As far as I know, none of the constituents of tobacco-smoke are living things that fall into these categories.
In fact, foremost among the informational resources I came across in searching the internet for immune system-related effects of smoking are suggestions that there actually are notable benefits to the immune-system resulting from smoking tobacco – although it certainly remains that the few benefits thereby suggested are far outweighed by the many disadvantages involved in habitually inhaling such a toxic cocktail as tobacco-smoke…
The health-effects/dangers of smoking aren`t like those of parasitic living organisms – instead, the many chemicals in tobacco smoke are simply present in the body, interrupting and influencing other natural chemical reactions going on in the course of ordinary body-function. A virus infects a living cell and usurps its reproductive-power in order to proliferate within the body; a bacterium actively lives it’s life in whatever part of the body of the host-organism it finds suitable, either in a symbiotic relationship to the host, (such as the sorts of pre- and pro-biotic bacteria advertised as being a beneficial constituent of healthy yogurt, aiding in optimal digestion), or as a harmfully exploitative agent, such as occurs when the salmonella bacterium invades the human body from an altogether different origin… (I’d like to be able to discuss in greater detail the various classifications of infectious organisms and the ways that they affect people, but there’s simply too much various information out there to put it all together into a single blog-post concerning the effects of tobacco-smoke on the human immune-system).
Based on yesterday’s discussion of how carbon-monoxide infects red blood cells, the matter of simple chemical-interaction becomes clearer, (at least to me – I sincerely hope I’ve been successful so far in relating my growing understanding to you) – the various operations of various cells and the like in the human body are driven by the naturally occurring chemical reactions of the constituents of those cells, which is why the lungs cannot do much to prevent CO from binding to the hemoglobin in the red blood cell, even though the whole organism obviously prefers that the blood cells perform their ordinary function unimpeded… Similarly, the effects that the constituents of tobacco-smoke have on the operation of the human immune-system are likewise chemically-autonomous in nature – it is not a particularly ‘willful’ effect of the poisons in tobacco-smoke that causes it to threaten the normal operation of the immune-system, it is simply a natural chemical-process that the body cannot intrude upon. Indeed, the body relies on these sorts of autonomic chemical-interactions!
The various exchanges performed by the various cells of the body are only made possible by those cells’ being composed in such a way as to facilitate or inhibit the autonomic chemical interactions unavoidable when suitably reactive chemicals come into contact with one another. Hence the cellular membrane of some particular cell is composed of such material as to inhibit the intrusion of unsuitable material, until the suitable material comes along, (which the cellular membrane is capable of recognizing, given the nature of the cell’s own arrangement of the constituent molecules of that membrane…), whereupon a needed nutrient is accepted into the cell in exchange for waste materials, (these sorts of things go on constantly in regard to the exchange of O2 and CO2, and also with proteins needed for maintaining the physical structure and general constitution of the cell itself).
Anyway, we’re getting too far from the central point here…
It seems as though, considered by itself, the immune-system is somewhat unaffected by smoking cigarettes, given the fact that the constituents of tobacco-smoke are non-living and thus not falling under the jurisdiction, (if you will), of the agents of the immune-system… But what of the side-effects of smoking on the immune-system? I cannot go into greater detail at this time, I’m disappointed to report. Suffice to say that the presence of toxic chemicals in the body causes many different chemical-interruptions, perhaps inhibiting the types of cellular communication that enable the immune-system to respond properly when and where it is needed. I can certainly report from direct experience that I`m more vulnerable to colds and flu when I`ve been smoking too much over two or three days.
Anyway, the discussion being thus unsatisfactorily concluded, let me get back to the more temporal report of my progress – I didn’t make it today in spending six waking hours between first waking and smoking my first cigarette. Needless to say, I’m even more disappointed in reporting this unfortunate truth than I am about the inconclusiveness of this day’s cue-card description – but the day’s experiment was merely a testing of my gradual progress in coming to give up the habit, and my other reports on how my tobacco-addiction manifests itself remain unaltered. I skipped breakfast this morning, and found myself less occupied with day-to-day affairs as I expected to be – all of which culminated in my breaking down and smoking a cigarette by myself on the balcony of the apartment I live in with my third small cup of coffee…
As I’ve maintained, my continuing habit of smoking cigarettes takes more the form of routine habits than the compulsive striving for a “fix” that typically characterize the tobacco-addict (as I further consider this fact, inebriated as I am with alcohol and concomitant sleepiness, I wonder whether I might be kidding myself a little, projecting the expected effects of my efforts further than the effects they`ve thus far had of their own), but I must report that the conscious effort of trying to use a cigarette to feel at ease not only doesn`t work anymore, but isn`t expected to – a sure-enough sign that the technique is working as expected… As I`ve said earlier, my natural problems with addiction in general tend to encourage me to pursue activities (such as smoking cigarettes and drinking way too much beer), are issues that significantly underlie the simple matter of my lifelong relationship with tobacco. Or maybe they stem from my pre-disposition to tobacco, or, (as I`m more inclined to believe), they find their origin deeper than any particular substance-association.
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