Posted on 08/28/2018 8:04:16 AM PDT by kathsua
I'm tired of hearing the myth that cigarettes kill people. It reminds me of the old myth that cold temperatures cause colds.
The smoking issue is not as simple as the anti-smokers portray it. It can involve more than just addiction to nicotine.
If smoking kills people why do so many smokers live to be over 60?
Looking at substances that sometimes kill people demonstrates how substances can kill people directly.
For most of us peanuts are a delicious and nutritious snack. However, for some people with a peanut allergy peanuts can be one of the world's deadliest poisons.
College fraternity hazing incidents sometimes have someone die from drinking too much alcohol. Combining sleeping pills and alcohol creates a deadly cocktail.
Overdoses of prescription drugs and drugs like heroin kill thousands a year.
I have never had any connection to the tobacco industry. I have never smoked, owned any tobacco company assets or worked in a facility that sold tobacco products. People I cared about have died from medical conditions associated with tobacco use. On a personal level I don't understand how people can enjoy smoking, but then smokers might not understand why I like jalapeno slices in my breakfast eggs. On the scientific level I recognize a genetic condition that many smokers have may make smoking a virtual necessity for them.
Smoking is blamed for causing lung cancer even though fewer than 10% of smokers get lung cancer. In an extensive British study only half of smokers died of conditions associated with smoking. If cigarettes killed people why would they kill some, but not others?
Cold temperatures don't automatically cause colds, but may make the body more vulnerable to colds. Cold temperatures can force the body to divert energy to keeping warm which may reduce the body's ability to fight the cold virus.
Perhaps cigarettes merely increase some smokers' vulnerability to certain medical disorders. For example, smoking may not actually cause cells to become cancerous. Instead, the nicotine in cigarettes is capable of aiding the growth of cancers caused by some other factor, such as asbestos. Smokers may be more likely to take jobs which expose them to carcinogens. Smoking may accelerate aging of some body parts in older smokers.
Evaluating the relative health impact of smoking isn't as straight forward as tobacco critics assume because smokers often have a significant genetic difference from non-smokers. Smokers tend to have what is called the"risk taker" or "trill seeker" version of the DRD4(Dopamine Receptor D4] gene. Comparing risk taker smokers to non-risk taker non-smokers could produce an inaccurate result. Risk taking smokers conceivably could have a higher life expectancy than non-smoking risk takers, particularly those who are alcoholics or drug users. .
Research is mixed on the existence of risk takers because how people take risks can vary. Individuals may not consciously choose activities because they are "risky". An individual may instead choose activities that they describe as "exciting" or "challenging".
Most people aren't athletic enough to participate in obviously risky activities like mountain climbing or skiing. Some people take risky jobs like fire fighting. Others prefer to take risks by gambling or having multiple sex partners. Some men seek thrills by going out in public dressed as women. The portrayal of smoking as a dangerous activity makes smoking attractive to young risk takers who don't feel they could physically or mentally handle other "risky" activities.. Young people often feel they can avoid the negative affects of whatever actions they take. Alcohol and drugs like heroin appeal to other risk takers.
Criticism of smoking focuses on physical health. The risk taker gene and smoking may also impact mental health. The risk taker gene that smokers often have has a connection to mental health problems such as ADHD. (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Nicotine can have a calming effect and reduce anger.
Risk taking isn't the only potential threat to a person's health. The opposite of risk taking is boredom which can have a strong negative impact. It might even be possible to be bored to death. People who attempt to quit smoking sometimes experience depression and suicidal thoughts attributed to nicotine withdrawal. For risk takers these conditions might also indicate boredom due to removal of risk generated excitement
Anti-smokers treat smoking as just a "nasty" unhealthy habit. However, smoking is actually a complex behavior that some may need because of a genetic brain condition.
- Yul Bryner
It’s not like drinking arsenic. It’s more like getting an X-ray every week. X-rays cause cancer, we know that. Some people are just lucky, or made of the right stuff, and they survive the exposure.
Smoke cigarettes and you’re playing roulette with your life. The black lungs of dead smokers convinced me that smoking is a health risk.
“Liberals are so hypocritical on this issue.”
On ANY issue! They want what they want, and they don’t want you to have what they don’t want. They claim we must be tolerant of every demented behavior they can pull out of their demented little....minds, but their tolerance is a one way street.
I was a pack and half a day smoker for 50+ years. I used to get 1 cold and 1 flu over the course of a winter season (Nov.- Feb).
I quit over two years ago and now I have been getting “something” almost every month. Sometimes it knocks me on my butt and sometimes, like right now, I'm functional but contagious. I've been scoped and examined 6 different ways from Sunday - they found lots of stuff, but nothing related to these “flus & colds”
I’ve been around too many relatives dying of cancer to dismiss the premise of this article.
No, not everyone is going to get cancer.
But then again, my R8 M&P revolver has eight chambers. Only one of them will kill me.
Shall we put in a round, spin the wheel and see what happens when we pull the trigger?
That is the logic you are proposing.
Spot on.
Spot-on. Ridiculous premise masquerading as something resembling “scientific”...
I remember when William Talman, Jr, (Hamilton Burger) of PERRY MASON fame, was diagnosed with lung cancer. He spent the last few months of his life on public service announcements warning people not to smoke.
A co-worker of mine, ten years younger than me, smoked like a chimney for years. Barely forty, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and died leaving a wife and two kids.
Anti-smokers treat smoking as just a “nasty”
I don’t have a problem with those e-cigs.
Regular tobacco cig smoke, even a small ammount, causes me to gag.
And i am an ex-smoker!
Plus, i never realized how much stale cig smoke STINKS.
In conclusion: e-cigs
Is the argument that: Inhaling smoke is not harmful? Seriously.
I’ve never smoked, but over my lifetime I have seen how smoking apparently looked so very cool. Just about every movie from the 40’s through the 70’s showed everyone smoking. Sometimes there was no scene throughout the movie where a character wasn’t smoking. Now it’s unbelievable how foolish the act of smoking looks.
Yes, some people are genetically lucky and survive decades of inhaling poison, but just on the face of logic if you spend much of your life deeply inhaling toxins and poisons your body is simply going to break down and react negatively. Whether that’s a heart attack, stroke, aneurism, or any multiple health maladies, it’s likely traced back to continually putting toxins in your body.
How foolish to think one can injure their body in this way and have no consequences.
I wonder if the author ever met a smoker suffering from emphysema? I have my doubts that the author has.
Ever see how nasty a bongo gets in short order?
Bong not bongo. Damn autocorrect.
I don’t care if you smoke pot or cigs but don’t blame pot smokers for cigarette Nazis
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