By Jessica Jewel, MD | WSU Healthcare

If you smoke cigarettes, you have likely heard the warnings about how it can harm your health. Everything from your lungs to your blood vessels can change. What you may not know is that there are important screenings that should become part of your healthcare journey if you smoke cigarettes. Even if you quit, there may be some examinations that your doctor recommends looking for smoking-related health changes.

Smokers are between 15 and 30 times more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer compared to non-smokers. If you are between the ages of 50 and 80 and have smoked a pack a day for 20 years or more, you should have a yearly low-dose CT scan to look for lung cancer. If you smoke two packs a day, you should be screened if you smoke 10 years or more. If it has been more than 15 years since you quit smoking, this screening is no longer needed.

If you are a man between the ages of 65 and 75 and have ever smoked, it is also recommended that you have an abdominal ultrasound once to make sure your abdominal aorta isn’t getting bigger. This is the large blood vessel that takes blood from your heart down towards your feet. Smokers are 10 times more likely to have the abdominal aorta enlarge in diameter, called an aneurysm. If one is found, sometimes it can just be monitored with a yearly ultrasound. If an aneurysm gets bigger than about 5 cm in size, it may require surgery to stop it from rupturing. The more you smoke, the higher this risk becomes.

If you are a current or former smoker and have not yet had these screenings, consider reaching out to your doctor to schedule them. These scans are most often covered by insurance, including Medicare.

It is important to know that quitting smoking does lower risk of these conditions, as well as other health issues such as heart attacks. If you are a current smoker and thinking about quitting, your doctor is a great resource for support and can provide options that may increase your change of success.