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How Could a “Clever” Smoker Possibly Become Ill?
The Coach's Team ^ | 4/6/17 | Doug Book

Posted on 04/06/2017 9:04:34 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax

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To: Telepathic Intruder
I was addicted to tobacco for 25 years [on the 24th of this month I will have quit 25 years ago; my oldest child, not coincidentally, will be 25 in July.]

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.

81 posted on 04/06/2017 10:20:52 AM PDT by FredZarguna (And what Rough Beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Fifth Avenue to be born?)
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To: Telepathic Intruder
But do the hypothetical benefits outweigh the known risks?

Actually, you have that exactly backwards. The benefits are known. It the risks that are, in general, hypothetical.
82 posted on 04/06/2017 10:22:06 AM PDT by jjsheridan5
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To: jjsheridan5

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.


83 posted on 04/06/2017 10:22:53 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Yaelle

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.


84 posted on 04/06/2017 10:23:23 AM PDT by FredZarguna (And what Rough Beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Fifth Avenue to be born?)
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To: Bob434
Bob434 said: "3 years later and I still get them [urges to smoke]..."

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.

85 posted on 04/06/2017 10:23:36 AM PDT by William Tell
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To: FredZarguna

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.


86 posted on 04/06/2017 10:28:03 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: FredZarguna
We shouldn't be trying to get people to quit by promoting bad science.

Thank you for saying this. This is ultimately the bottom line. My question is this: when it comes to bad science (relative to tobacco), little has been more harmful than the blatantly untrue assertion made by the pseudo-scientific community that all forms of tobacco are equally bad. As a result of this bad science, snus have only been available in Sweden, even though there is little evidence that they result in any increase in cancer, or any other major health issue.

The unanswered question is: how many people chose to smoke, or use non-salt cured dipping tobacco, as a result of this bad science, and the bad policy decisions which resulted? It is not inconceivable that, had the truly scientific community jumped up and said "use snus instead of smoking, or ammonia-cured tobacco", there would be millions if not tens of millions of people who would have not died prematurely.

Bad science kills.
87 posted on 04/06/2017 10:29:54 AM PDT by jjsheridan5
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To: Yaelle

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.


88 posted on 04/06/2017 10:31:35 AM PDT by jjsheridan5
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To: Bob434

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.


89 posted on 04/06/2017 10:33:34 AM PDT by Ditter (God Bless Texas!)
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To: William Tell
The common dream was that I had forgotten that I quit smoking and managed to smoke an entire pack of cigarettes

I forgot about those dreams. I would wake up disgusted until I realized it was only a dream.

90 posted on 04/06/2017 10:41:17 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: Pearls Before Swine

“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.


91 posted on 04/06/2017 10:47:53 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
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To: Oldpuppymax

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.


92 posted on 04/06/2017 10:49:13 AM PDT by Flaming Conservative
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To: Bob434

“[[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.


93 posted on 04/06/2017 10:53:59 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax
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To: Oldpuppymax

Comments on the occasional cigar?


94 posted on 04/06/2017 10:58:28 AM PDT by Dr. Pritchett
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To: PGR88
All true - but vaping is still far better than unfiltered camels.

Nothing is better than unfiltered Camels.

95 posted on 04/06/2017 11:05:09 AM PDT by Little Bill (VN 65 - 68)
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To: mbynack
I had a friend in college who switched from cigarettes to snuff. He ended up with cancer in his mouth and had to have his lower jaw removed.

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.

96 posted on 04/06/2017 11:07:02 AM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Little Bill
Nothing is better than unfiltered Camels.

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.

97 posted on 04/06/2017 11:09:26 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: jjsheridan5
When you tell adolescents, already inclined to rebel against authority as a natural part of the separation instinct, that one hit on a joint is going to turn them into depraved maniacs and they discover it doesn't, how do you get their trust back when it comes to drugs that are extremely dangerous? (Reefer Madness was actually shown to my eighth grade Catholic school class in the late 1960's).

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.

98 posted on 04/06/2017 11:10:34 AM PDT by FredZarguna (And what Rough Beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Fifth Avenue to be born?)
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To: Oldpuppymax

“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.

.


99 posted on 04/06/2017 11:13:30 AM PDT by Mears
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To: Oldpuppymax

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.


100 posted on 04/06/2017 11:13:46 AM PDT by FredZarguna (And what Rough Beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Fifth Avenue to be born?)
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