4. Smoking
Smoking isn’t as fashionable as people might have considered it a few decades back, but this doesn’t mean that people have stopped smoking by any means – and there are still a considerable group of people who consider themselves “smokers”, whether they choose to opt for tobacco, cannabis or anything else such as vaping e-cigarettes.
Unfortunately, smoking remains one of the biggest potential risk factors for developing lung infections and conditions like bronchitis, which can all be long-term causes for pleurisy – particularly for lifelong, chronic smokers who are on a few packs a day (and have been for years).
If you smoke, you are more at risk: Not just for pleurisy, but for many other conditions that surround it including bronchitis, lung cancer and chronic asthma that’s either caused or made worse by being a smoker.
The irony is that stopping “cold turkey” as a cigarette smoker after several decades might be hazardous to your health. See your doctor before proceeding on from being a habitual smoker.