Symptoms May Occur After You Quit Smoking

Q:  I am 71 years old and quit smoking 3 years ago. Can you please explain why I am having all of these changes? My eyesight is unchanged (I wear glasses for reading), but my eyes are watery and feel like sand is in them. My voice is hoarse and I cough, which I never used to while smoking. Sometimes I feel off-balance and some things smell musty. My deodorants don't seem to work anymore and I smell. My hands and feet itch, and I have seborrhea of the scalp. My weight has been around 180-190 lbs. for the last 9 years. I've gained about 40 lbs. and lost 8 lbs. so far just this year.

I've had a hysterectomy, cancer and gall bladder surgery and also have diverticulosis, hiatal hernia, edema, low thyroid, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and now high blood pressure which was always low in the past. I take care of my 91-year old mother. I hope you can give me some answers.

A:  I'm not sure I have any good answers for you, but I do want to congratulate you on quitting smoking. It's usually much harder when you're older and you've smoked for many years, so you must be a very strong woman! The irony is that your health didn't dramatically improve after quitting and indeed seems to be worse. It's hard to say if some of your new problems are just coincidence and would have occurred even if you were still smoking.

Some of the symptoms you are experiencing are pretty common in people who quit smoking, such as weight gain. Nicotine does serve to depress appetite somewhat and also increases metabolism, so most ex-smokers gain at least 10 pounds. Since smoking decreases your ability to taste and smell, it may be that your deodorants are still working as good as they always have, but you can just smell better!

You're not the first person who told me that they started coughing AFTER they quit smoking for several months. Maybe it has something to do with the tiny hairs in the lining of the airway passages beginning to heal. Since your voice is hoarse and the cough is persisting three years later, I think you should see an ear, nose, and throat specialist fairly soon. Even though you quit smoking, the higher risk for cancers of the throat, lung, and esophagus will remain for several years.

Eyes can get watery for a number of reasons, but a common cause in older people is blockage of the tear ducts that empty into the nose. I have nothing brilliant to say about the itching and cannot connect it to your smoking. Maybe the higher blood pressure has to do with the stress of taking care of your 91 year-old mother? You have quite a few health problems of your own to deal with. I hope you have some help from other family members.

"Dear Doctor" is a compilation of patient questions answered by doctors from the Medical College of Wisconsin.