Emphysema continues to progress even after people stop smoking. However, quitting smoking helps reduce symptoms and improve quality of life and life expectancy.
It takes several years to progress to the final stages of COPD or emphysema, but lifestyle factors play a role. Quitting smoking can significantly improve the outlook. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , COPD can progress quickly in people with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency who also smoke.
Stop smoking
If you smoke, quitting is the single most important thing you can do to improve your health, lung function and slow the progression of your COPD. If you continue to smoke, this will affect your health and respiratory symptoms, so the sooner you quit, the better your chances of living well with COPD.
Within the first month after you quit smoking, your lung function will improve, and this will increase circulation, too. Within nine months, the cilia begin to function normally and symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath become less frequent.
Your lung function improves within two weeks to three months after the last cigarette. During the first year after quitting, coughing and shortness of breath decrease, and your lungs become better at cleaning themselves to reduce the risk of infection.
After 9 months
Nine months after quitting, the lungs have significantly healed themselves. The delicate, hair-like structures inside the lungs known as cilia have recovered from the toll cigarette smoke took on them. These structures help push mucus out of the lungs and help fight infections.
As the alveoli break down, your bronchial tubes can start to collapse, too. Emphysema can't be cured. It's progressive, so over time it will get harder and harder for you to catch your breath. But you might not know you have the disease for the first few years unless your doctor tests your breathing.
Emphysema has no cure, and patients live with severe shortness of breath that makes daily activities like walking or showering difficult.
Stage 1: 0.3 years. Stage 2: 2.2 years.
Approximately 80 percent of the patients with mild emphysema lived more than four years after the diagnosis. 60 to 70 percent of patients with moderate emphysema were alive after four years. 50 percent of patients with severe emphysema were alive after four years.
Prognosis. There is no cure for emphysema. But the condition can be controlled. People with mild emphysema who quit smoking have a normal life expectancy.
Doctors don't know exactly how smoking destroys air sac linings, but studies show that smokers are about six times more likely to develop emphysema than are nonsmokers. Doctors don't know why some smokers get emphysema and others don't.
“This test tells people you are developing early emphysema, and it's like a smoke alarm—when it goes off, it doesn't necessarily tell you there's a fire, but you have to pay attention to it.” Fifteen to 20 percent of smokers develop emphysema, and the longer one smokes, the higher their risk of developing the disease.
That's why lung doctors (pulmonologists) say COPD patients should not smoke cigarettes, use e-cigarettes (vaping) or use smokeless tobacco. But even if you are still a smoker, it's not too late to quit – and to reap the health benefits of a smoke-free life.
People who have emphysema are also more likely to develop: Collapsed lung (pneumothorax). A collapsed lung can be life-threatening in people who have severe emphysema, because the function of their lungs is already so compromised. This is uncommon but serious when it occurs.
A person who receives a diagnosis of stage 4 emphysema can live for a decade or more following the diagnosis. The outlook is typically better for those who quit smoking and manage their symptoms well with medication.
Emphysema gets worse over time. You cannot undo the damage to your lungs. Over time, you may find that: You get short of breath even when you do things like get dressed or fix a meal.
Especially if your COPD is diagnosed early, if you have mild stage COPD, and your disease is well managed and controlled, you may be able to live for 10 or even 20 years after diagnosis.
How Serious Is Your Emphysema? Stage 2 is also called moderate emphysema. But that doesn't always mean that your disease is moderate. If you're young and otherwise healthy, you could have severe lung damage and still be at stage 2.
When a person has stage 1 COPD, their symptoms may be so mild that they do not even realize that they have it. Over time, symptoms can include shortness of breath, chronic cough, and frequent respiratory infections. These will generally become more severe as the condition progresses.
While lung tissue cells do regenerate, there's no way a smoker can return to having the lungs of a non-smoker. At best, they will carry a few scars from their time smoking, and at worst, they're stuck with certain breathing difficulties for the rest of their lives.
After the cessation of smoking, the lungs of the smoker start to heal and regenerate. Cilia in the lungs start to grow again and cleanse the lungs, thus reducing the risk of infection.