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5 Health Benefits of Smoking
Live Science ^ | July 19, 2011 | Christopher Wanjek

Posted on 07/29/2011 6:16:58 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Who says smoking cigarettes is so bad ... well, aside from the World Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and every medical board and association on the face of the Earth?

But should smokers be fortunate enough to dodge all that cancer, heart disease, emphysema and the like, they will be uniquely protected — for reasons unexplained by science — against a handful of diseases and afflictions.

Call it a silver lining in their otherwise blackened lungs. Although long-term smoking is largely a ticket to early death, here are (gulp) five possible benefits from smoking. Breathe deep.

1. Smoking lowers risk of knee-replacement surgery

While smokers might go broke buying a pack of cigarettes, they can at least save money by avoiding knee-replacement surgery. Surprising results from a new study have revealed that men who smoke had less risk of undergoing total joint replacement surgery than those who never smoked.

The study, from the University of Adelaide in Australia, appears in the July issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism. What could be the connection? Knee-replacement surgery was more common among joggers and the obese; smokers rarely jog, and they are less likely to be morbidly obese.

After controlling for age, weight and exercise, the researchers were at a loss to explain the apparent, albeit slight protective effects of smoking for osteoporosis. It could be that the nicotine in tobacco helps prevent cartilage and joint deterioration.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: aging; benefits; health; smoking
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To: mass55th

So, she’s much more than an alcoholic who hasn’t drunk in 40 years. Your original post was amusing in that narrow context provided by the absence of necessary information.


81 posted on 07/30/2011 7:23:33 AM PDT by Rudder (The Main Stream Media is Our Enemy---get used to it.)
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To: Gabz; annelizly; Eric Blair 2084; Drango; y6162; USFRIENDINVICTORIA; TigersEye
Another little known discovery in the second link (by Tigers Eye) story is that exposure to secondhand/environmental cigarette smoke had an IMMUNIZING effect on children, reducing the likelihood of pulmonary disease of all types in later life.

Part of the study itself is linked HERE, but the W.H.Org managed to get most of it dumped down the memory hole.

Funny how the only statistically significant result in a huge study by state-funded super nannies ended up disproving their very premise. No surprise that they hid it, is there?

Regarding childhood asthma, I noticed a huge jump in asthma after the removal of tetraethyl lead from gasoline, which leads me to think that whatever they replaced the lead with is a significant asthma trigger. When I went to school i had heard of asthma by the 5th grade or so, but never knew anyone with it until grade 11. Now it seems that every other kid has it. Have we made our environment TOO clean?

82 posted on 07/30/2011 8:08:12 AM PDT by Don W (You can forget what you do for a living when your knees are in the breeze.)
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To: Don W

I earnestly encourage you to go with this message. Sell it! SMOKING IS GOOD FOR YOU!!!!

Dang it I never thought I’d be advise smokers how to market death but there you go. This is a winning campaign. Go for it! Just do it.

SMOKING IS GOOD FOR YOU!!!!


83 posted on 07/30/2011 8:11:48 AM PDT by Drango (NO-vember is payback for April 15th)
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To: Don W

In Ct, the eco zealots closed six power plants they called the “sooty six” based on asthma stats. Now, ten years later, and after the tripling of our electric bills, asthma rates are the same.

We were ripped off.


84 posted on 07/30/2011 8:15:53 AM PDT by y6162
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To: Drango

85 posted on 07/30/2011 8:31:02 AM PDT by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
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To: Drango; Chet 99; Willie Green
As seems your wont, you react and shout without actually reading the information presented.

Not only did I make a statement, but I posed a question, and linked to information from a source that would be considered wholly reliable, since it links direct to the National Institute for Health and shows the whole study I referred to.

I know, I know, I can't convince you with facts, your mind is made up.

Nonetheless, I will post a link to the PDF file of the entire study so you can read it at your leisure.

Perhaps you can find something that supports anything you've claimed about smoking.

I do find your visceral hatred for something that gives so many pleasure very rude, though. If these threads so offend you, why do you insist on opening and commenting on them, and insulting, demeaning and generally being a real twerp towards others who don't share your viewpoint? You're like the un-Willie Green for train threads, or Chet99 on pitbull threads.

Both of them ended up getting banned for their antics, btw.

86 posted on 07/30/2011 8:31:49 AM PDT by Don W (You can forget what you do for a living when your knees are in the breeze.)
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To: Don W

Jeepers I was just trying to help. Just trying to give you marketing points...No need to go all postal.


87 posted on 07/30/2011 8:37:26 AM PDT by Drango (NO-vember is payback for April 15th)
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To: Drango; Eric Blair 2084

No, they shouldn't. Freedom is more important that any one issue on its merits. Not just for the basic principle, as if that weren't enough, but because once you start tearing exceptions in freedom on whatever issue it's deemed acceptable, then you get to the marginal issues, and THEN to the clearly egregious cases. Like we are now. Oh, wait...

Why do you seem incapable of grasping this?

88 posted on 07/30/2011 8:41:59 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Drango

Oh, and I say that as someone who’s never been a smoker.


89 posted on 07/30/2011 8:43:28 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Drango

Nice try. I present facts, references, and information; you spout vitriol and insult, calling it “marketing suggestions”.

That makes me the aggressor and you a victim? Puh-leez!


90 posted on 07/30/2011 8:49:54 AM PDT by Don W (You can forget what you do for a living when your knees are in the breeze.)
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To: Don W
Nice try. I present facts, references, and information; you spout vitriol and insult, calling it “marketing suggestions”. That makes me the aggressor and you a victim? Puh-leez!

Hmmm. Based on behavior, I conclude that "Drango" is the FR screen name of...wait....

...Barack Obama! NOW he's got something to complain about.

91 posted on 07/30/2011 9:07:25 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Still Thinking

Which is exactly why I posted what I did at post #79.


92 posted on 07/30/2011 9:34:19 AM PDT by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
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To: Drango

You’re a busybody statist who doesn’t care about the facts.


93 posted on 07/30/2011 11:13:48 AM PDT by TigersEye (No dark sarcasm in the press room ... Hey!, Barry!, leave them bills alone.)
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To: Drango

I have been smoking for 41 years and I have never once coughed up black phlegm. In fact I haven’t had a cold in over 38 years and I haven’t had the flu in over 28 years. Can you say the same?


94 posted on 07/30/2011 11:20:43 AM PDT by TigersEye (No dark sarcasm in the press room ... Hey!, Barry!, leave them bills alone.)
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To: GOPJ
“I bumped it - good call - great memory...”

Well, I do drink a lot of coffee. :-)

Actually, the article triggered me to think about it — Google did the rest.

95 posted on 07/30/2011 12:01:54 PM PDT by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: Judith Anne

That’s the dirty little secret that “they” don’t want you to know about. Smokers are thinner, not only because it is an appetitie supressant, and has some natural thinning properties, but because they get their oral fixation that way. You’re not filling the void with chips while smoking. IMHO, it’s completely un-PC, but with the advent of smoking bans everywhere, you had the astronomical weight gains in the population as a whole. One theory is that humans were designed to take a low level of smoke every day. Not from cigarettes necessarily, but from campfires, cooking, etc. It kept our lungs “exercised” and our weight down. Now with no real challenges for our lungs, they become immunologically weak and therefore the INCREASE in asthma since smoking was banned in public. We’re going to see increases in obesity and asthma from now until forever.


96 posted on 07/30/2011 12:59:31 PM PDT by boop ("Let's just say they'll be satisfied with LESS"... Ming the Merciless)
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To: boop

I have tried to explain the “smoky caves” theory to several people over the years and all I get is disbelief and denial that such a thing is even possible.

I try using logic, and all I get are ‘talking points’ spewed back at me.

Following the evolutionists’ own story, we started off dodging fire, then tamed it. We took fire and brought it into our living quarters, giving us warmth, light, and: smoke-filled caves, then smoke-filled tents, then smoke-filled huts, then smoke-filled houses, then smoke-filled towns, then smoke-filled cities, where we finally got too much smoke, so we started cleaning up the air. Now we have cleared the air so much that nobody can tolerate any smoke exposure whatever.

We’re going to have a huge die-off one of these years when something triggers a massive asthma attack among those weakened by their susceptiblility. Who knows what or when it’ll be, but I worry for them.


97 posted on 07/30/2011 1:15:51 PM PDT by Don W (You can forget what you do for a living when your knees are in the breeze.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The reason the govt went after the tobacco companies is because they spent campaign money HEAVILY on Republicans.

If they were mostly democrat supporters we would all be hearing about the “benefits of bathing your lungs in healthful smoke”

98 posted on 07/30/2011 1:18:46 PM PDT by Mr. K (CAPSLOCK! -Unleash the fury! [Palin/Bachman 2012- unbeatable ticket])
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To: Gabz
Which is exactly why I posted what I did at post #79.

You're confusing your FRiend. Post 79 isn't from you, it's from His Royal Hiney. Which of your posts were you referring me to?

99 posted on 07/30/2011 1:43:32 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Don W
I think that's why we have seen the rise in "sick-building" syndrome in recent years. They build a new, pristine artificially sterile structure that doesn't allow natural air flow. So we become a victim of our "success". You can keep your child in a bubble to prevent them from infection, but when a real virus comes through, the kid's immune system hasn't been tested, therefore is weak and can't fight it off.

Face it, we're dirty creatures, who used to be covered with all kinds of dirt and bacteria. And "hazards" like smoke.

100 posted on 07/30/2011 1:44:55 PM PDT by boop ("Let's just say they'll be satisfied with LESS"... Ming the Merciless)
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