Posted on 04/06/2017 9:04:34 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
I started smoking in 1971; bought 3 packs of Camels one day (unfiltered) for a total of 99 cents plus tax.
But now, 46 years later, I no longer use tobacco. You see, seven years ago I switched to Electronic Cigarettes. Just pour in a little nicotine liquid mixed with vegetable oil—your choice of potency—and you’re all set to “vape” away. No lung-threatening, tarry chemicals. No smelly, annoying smoke to attract nasty looks. In fact, the “discharge” from these pricey little, battery-driven machines can be blown around your doctor’s consulting room and neither he nor his staff will be any the wiser.
It was the best of all possible worlds. I could continue to infuse myself at will with my favorite drug and risk no ill effects.
And did I take careless advantage of my discovery? I did not! In fact, to be extra cautious, I stopped inhaling the vapor altogether. Instead, I began drawing in the nicotine-laced smoke, rolling it around in my mouth and spitting it right back out with my next little bit of air. I had invented a thoroughly safe method of smoking—that is, of enjoying nicotine. Damn, I was clever!
Then suddenly, a few weeks ago, I couldn’t breathe. It was very late on a Sunday night and as I walked from my bathroom into my bedroom, I found I couldn’t get any air. Collapsing in a chair I began panting, gasping, sitting doubled over. I remembered a small, Albuterol inhaler I hadn’t used in quite some time, still laying on my night stand. I grabbed it and took 2 or 3 puffs. In a short time I began collecting a bit of oxygen; enough, at least, to be rid of some of the panic which had overtaken me. I’m not too proud to admit that I was scared as Hell.
I spent the rest of the night staring straight ahead, afraid to move lest that awful, complete loss of air should overtake me again. I scheduled an appointment with my doctor of 25 years and underwent a series of chest X-Rays. Getting to my car, walking into Eric’s office and later through the hospital; each was a more difficult and physically demanding task than anything I could remember taking on in decades. Of course, I finally had to ask that I be taken by wheelchair through the endless hospital corridors to X-Ray. I couldn’t walk the distance. I remember the X-Ray tech told me to take a deep breath and hold it as she pressed the button. Christ, if I’d been able to take a deep breath, I wouldn’t have been there. Standing quite still against the X-Ray backdrop, supported by nothing but my legs…and she wanted me to breathe too?
A “large pneumothorax” or collapsed lung. That was the diagnosis. And strangely enough, it was damned good news. For I hadn’t been home 30 minutes from X-Ray when the telephone rang and I read Eric’s name on the receiver. In 25 years he had never called me at home. Not once. I expected him to say, “Sorry Doug, but you have stage 4, lung cancer. With aggressive treatment, you could live a year, maybe more.” Talk about blood running cold. Seeing that name on my phone was the definition.
But my collapsed lung was very treatable. And that's why Eric had called--to recommend, strongly recommend as my friend and doctor that I head to the emergency room right away. A chest tube inserted to help the lung re-inflate, 2 ½ days in the hospital; a follow up visit with the surgeon and I’m still breathing just fine; or at least as well as I have for the past several years. And it all came with a free lesson in medicine and humility. For nicotine is the real culprit in cigarette tobacco, not tar or those other evil chemicals smokers have heard about for years on end. It’s nicotine that’s the real killer. As for my clever decision to switch to Electronic Cigarettes and avoid inhaling—I was kidding myself. I didn’t know. It seemed a damned good idea at the time. But not after talking with half a dozen doctors, each telling me just how dumb I was (in a very pleasant way, of course.)
The lesson is a simple one.
Anyone who smokes is a moron. I’ve seen the pictures of my lungs. So take my word for it. And there is NO way to game the system. There are no safe cigarettes—electronic or otherwise. And there is no safe method of infusing nicotine. Of course, nicotine-free liquid is available for those who wish (for whatever reason) to appear that they are smoking. But I’ll still guarantee that even that won’t be good for you.
So no preaching. Just quit and live longer or continue the intake of nicotine and die sooner. Enjoy.
You don't have to tell me how bad cigarette smoking is for you. It's a tremendous accomplishment to be able to quit, and I'm glad I (and you, FRiend) did.
But other than the addictive effect, nicotine is not what's harmful in tobacco smoke. We shouldn't be trying to get people to quit by promoting bad science.
We need vitamin B. We don’t need Nicotine. It’s a relatively new substance as far as human evolution goes. This is a common theme with anything new, by the way. Radiation was once thought to be completely harmless until Madame Curie died of the very thing she was studying. It takes a very long time and many generations of related deaths to adapt to something that an organism is exposed to.
That is strange, because unless there is a family history of lung cancer from non-smoking related causes, or environmental factors — mesothelioma, for example — after twenty years a former cigarette smoker’s risk of lung cancer is not much higher than the general population.
Up until I had quit for ten years, I found the second hand smoke of other people pleasant. And only then did I stop having dreams about smoking. The common dream was that I had forgotten that I quit smoking and managed to smoke an entire pack of cigarettes before suddenly realizing that I just reversed the ten years of effort that it took to quit.
I am now nearly forty years free of tobacco. More significantly I am nearly forty years free of alcohol. I realized back then that it took just a couple of drinks and the resolution to quit smoking would disappear.
I’m only referred to nicotine overdoe and the negative effects when compounded with high cholesterol. That little assertion about heart disease risk was uncalled for—wherein was my mistake. I do know that overdoses happen, however, resulting in heart failure.
Many people develop lung cancer, without smoking. In all likelihood, after 20 years, the lung cancer had nothing to do with his smoking. But, as with many of these things, we really don’t know for certain.
I quit in about ‘72. I did it by scaring myself into thinking I would get cancer of the larynx if I did not. It worked I quit !!! Smoking is stupid can’t imagine why I ever started.
I forgot about those dreams. I would wake up disgusted until I realized it was only a dream.
“I don’t smoke, but I am curious.
The story doesn’t say why or how the collapsed lung is related to his oral swirling of the nicotine vapor. Or was it that vaporized vegetable oil gave him a chemical injury to the lung?”
The collapse was due to 45 years of smoking. The point is, switching to electronic cigarettes had no real positive effect.
True advice. The nicotine acts as a blood vessel constrictor, which is why smoking can cause hypertension, strokes, kidney disease, heart disease, and peripheral vascular disease. Yes, tar is bad for your lungs, but nicotine narrows and stiffens the blood vessels. Not enough oxygen due to narrowing of those arteries? (they carry oxygen in your blood, to every part of your body) The heart is a muscle, and like every part of your body, demands oxygen. Narrow the supply line, there goes your oxygen carrying ability.
“[[Smoked unfiltered Camels for 39 years, but it’s the 7 years of vaping that’s the culprit?]]
exactly- Very likely the culprit is the real ciggs even though he’s been quit on them for 7 years- Folks wanna blame something, anything, rather than themselves- it was almost surely his choice to smoke real ciggs that caused the damage AND made his lungs more susceptible to collapsing later in life—”
No, no, no! It was 45 years of smoking that caused my problem, not electronic cigarettes. The point of the article is the fallacy that electronic cigarettes would somehow be less damaging; that those who switch to “vaping” will no longer face the perils of all people dumb enough to smoke.
Comments on the occasional cigar?
Nothing is better than unfiltered Camels.
My father and father-in-law were both heavy smokers and both died of throat cancer. My mother-in-law never smoked, but contracted emphysema from secondary smoke.
Years past, your post could have brought the wrath of the FR "smoker posse" that would attack anyone suggesting smoking was foul or harmful.
They seem to have dropped away, imagine that.
My high school baseball coach back in the day smoked unfiltered Camels. I guess about 2 packs a day. He was rail-thin - I think the Camels were the only nutrition he needed. He had Yellow fingers, a raspy voice, and a wicked sense of humor. He was a good guy.
You don't.
The same thing happens when you make easily refuted nonsensical claims about anything else. Science -- especially real, verified, reproducible science -- should be the most important tool in the box for an advanced technological society. Unfortunately, too many "scientists" have gotten on board the alarmist bandwagon. Result: large parts of the public don't trust scientists any more.
How many people have been killed by a popular (read: schlock) science book that claimed DDT was the root of all ecological evil?
The no-nicotine-ever-at-any-dosage-for-any-reason crowd is one of the worst when it comes to brandishing fake studies, or even no studies at all, because "with so much we don't know we shouldn't be allowing people to buy e-cigarettes." Right. It would be so much better for them if they just kept smoking.
The truth is nicotine has uses. One of them is as a replacement therapy for keeping people off cigarettes. I personally didn't need it, but lots of people do. Would it be better to gain 80 pounds after you quit smoking than to vape or use a nicotine fix? Personally, I highly doubt the extra weight could possibly be good for you...
The truth is there is even a (very, very, very small) group of people for whom the self-medicating antidepressant effects of a cigarette habit are probably better for them than blowing their brains out or taking up some other form of addictive behavior to fill the hole in their lives. Adults recognize trade-offs. Only immature people insist on the purity of (invariably, other) peoples' behavior.
And, as we see from this article, they have no scruples about using whatever means are necessary to persuade the gullible.
“So no preaching. Just quit and live longer or continue the intake of nicotine and die sooner. Enjoy.”
84 here——still smoke.
Much of life is just a roll of the dice——and genes.
.
The point of the article is BS, because there is very real science that says that nicotine replacement therapies are a healthy alternative to tobacco use.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.