Smoking helps the COPD patient with pneumonia

[La'sBlueSky]

Had a senior nurse tell me that a COPD patient we are treating for pneumonia may smoke because it helps her breathe easier. REally?? Thoughts?

[smf0903]

Many moons ago I personally heard the same thing from the mouth of a doctor. I do remember him saying it was a "bad combination" to have someone not smoking combined with pneumonia, and that having a cigarette would help calm the cough since the body was trying to hack up all the junk from both smoking and from the pneumonia. As much as people hate to hack their brains out, I always thought it better to get all of the garbage out, not try to quit the cough. I'll be curious to read what others have heard through the years!!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

I've had patients tell me that smoking helps their cough. That's not necessarily a good thing. You want the crud out. Doctors have said that smoking will calm a cough, but none of them have said it was a good idea.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

Well, when FDR was a kid, he had asthma, and the treatment he was subjected to was sitting in a room full of cigar smoke to submaximal dencity. When it did not work, he was sent to Long Island... and that probably saved his life

I heard it, too. It can be either the positive mental effect, so patient doesn't feel SOB and cough that much, or stimulation of cough, which brings up sputum and so provides relief for a while.

[Glycerine82, LPN]

respiratory alkalosis?