Posted on 11/12/2007 6:51:35 AM PST by fanfan
According to three doctors at the KS Hegde Medical Academy in Mangalore, India, writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, giving up smoking can kill you. Arunachalam Kumar, Kasaragod Mallya, and Jairaj Kumar were "struck by the more than casual relationship between the appearance of lung cancer and an abrupt and recent cessation of the smoking habit in many, if not most, cases."
In 182 of the 312 cases they had treated, an habitual smoker of at least a pack a day, for at least a quarter-century, had developed lung cancer shortly after he gave up smoking.
They surmised a biological mechanism protects smokers against cancer, which is strengthened by years of determined smoking. When the smoker quits, "a surge and spurt in re-activation of bodily healing and repair mechanisms of chronic smoke-damaged respiratory epithelia is induced and spurred by an abrupt discontinuation of habit," and "goes awry, triggering uncontrolled cell division and tumour genesis."
An evolutionary argument could support this hypothesis. Man is the only animal who cooks his food, and thousands of generations of our ancestors, pent up in smoke-filled caves, could easily account for this biological mechanism.
Since the findings of Kumar, Mallya, and Kumar coincide with my own medical hypothesis, based on my own anecdotal evidence, I hasten to embrace them. Several deceased friends and family, starting with my paternal grandfather, perished shortly after they quit smoking -- not only from lung cancer, but from other causes ranging from previously undiagnosed heart disease to industrial accident.
The same general principle would apply: that a body long accustomed to a (frankly addictive) substance, goes haywire when the substance is removed. In the good old days, people instinctively understood things like that, without the need for medical research. And it was inconceivable that, for instance, hospitals would prevent patients from smoking, who were already medically challenged on other fronts.
Other medical literature has documented other risks of non-smoking, that include neurotic depression, violent irritability, and obscene weight gain. But these tend to be discounted because they lead to death only indirectly.
Likewise, indirect evidence for the dangers of not smoking comes from the 150th anniversary number of Atlantic magazine. P.J. O'Rourke points to (actual, serious) U.S. historical statistics showing that, in the period 1973-94, annual per capita consumption of cigarettes fell from 4,148 to 2,493. In the same period, the incidence of lung and bronchial cancer rose from 42.5 to 57.1 cases per 100,000 population.
In the past I have flagged UN statistics showing that life expectancy was nicely proportional to tobacco consumption, internationally -- so that, for example, Japan and South Korea were respectively first and second in both life expectancy and tobacco consumption. The lowest tobacco consumption was in Third World countries, where we also found some of the shortest life expectancies.
I think we could also find historical statistics showing there is a reliable, worldwide relationship between rising tobacco consumption, and rising life expectancy, nation by nation, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
As Al Gore likes to say, "the science is irrefutable."
The weakness in that last statement being, that there is no such thing as irrefutable science. There is nothing in the whole history of science that is not tentative. And while, in astronomy, I remain convinced that the Earth revolves around the sun, I would not put all my money even on that proposition, but, given attractively long odds, reserve a penny bet on the sun going round the Earth.
If my reader is planning to give up smoking in the face of what I report, then courage to him, and I will avoid saying, "Go ahead, make my day." I am not in the pay of the tobacco lobby -- on the contrary, I seem to be paying them -- and am in principle indifferent to what substances others decide to use or abuse. My dander rises only when they try to interfere with my own freedom, through the childish, petty, and essentially totalitarian public campaigns against harmless smokers -- buttressed by scientific claims weaker than the above.
There is one more hypothesis with which I would like to leave my reader. It is that the kind of quack "science" that was used to ban smoking has now mutated into the kind that is used to flog global warming. It should have been resisted then; it should certainly be resisted now.
I have had two very bad chest colds since. One dragged on for almost a month. Could it have happened while I was still smoking? Sure.
A friend of mine died several years ago. She had quit smoking about 18 months before her death. She died of a of a cancer that had just riddled her insides with tumors.
“The only two people I know personally who got lung cancer never smoked at all.”
And all the ones I know DID smoke and were still smoking when they were diagnosed. My grandfather died of emphysema after smoking three packs a day for years. I think that had something to do with it.
I have said over and over again here that the rude insistence of ‘some’ smokers to have things like they were in the 40’s 50’s 60’s etc. (the good old days) was the reason for the total bans that they are experiencing now.There is just simply more of us than there is of them and the majority rules.
The tobacco smoke really does stink, it gets on your clothes and smells seriously bad but, one that smokes never knows this until the stop smoking
I think a lot of it is genes AND diet.....my Uncle smoked (and CHAIN smoked...ewww) from the age of 16 until the months before he had heart surgery (and died) the day before his 80th birthday.....but, he also ate lots of grapefruit and thought that helped him prevent cancer....FWIW.
Perfumes and fragrances do it to me, also. No scented anything in our house and it smells fine, but then again, there’s no odors to cover up either, and you know the two major sources of that.
I hate smoking and Mr. CGG smokes BUT I compare his smoking to my mom’s addiction to her anti-anxiety drugs. Both are used to make them feel better, both are addictive, both are expensive. It’s just that addiction to prescription drugs is more socially acceptable than smoking but there’s no taxable income to the state from the drugs.
I don't believe there are any known cases.
It really is strange how all of that works. I quit Feb. ‘06, now I am thinking of going to have to go see an oncologist. Story obviously planted by the oil industry.:-)
I still bowl and, as you probably know, bowlers smoke. The smell is so strong that more than once when I’ve come home my wife has asked me if I started smoking again.
It may be that people who can finally kick the smoking habit are already sick even though they haven't been diagnosed yet, and so they're more likely to be able to resist the habit.
I don't know. It certainly was strange and a terrible way to die.
I’d prefer the anti-anxiety drugs. Cheaper and they don’t smell bad.
“My dogs (and my husband) are the major source of bad smells around here. He chews but that doesn’t stink. LOL!”
One of our cats just fumigated the room. Ugh.
The headline is wrong, as are most.
“Giving up smoking can kill you”.
No. How about:
“Cancer appears when smoking is stopped”.
Not the same thing.
This should open up a path for research on prevention of cancer. Perhaps a gradual withdrawal is the answer.
Not only Junk Science but Nonsense in that the "researchers" failed to use a sample size that was statistically significant.
But, as I have seen on this thread and many others many are more than willing to buy into junk science and grasp onto even more Anecdotal evidence .
LO! We have 4 dogs and some times~~~~~~~~~~~
Giving up chocolate probably isn’t hazardous to the person doing the giving up but those they encounter who tick them off. The following is not mine but sent to me by my sister.
*************************************************************
Subject: Hormones
The Hormone Hostage knows that there are days in the month when all a man
has to do is open his mouth and he takes his very life into his own hands!
This is a handy guide that should be as common as a driver’s license in the
wallet of every husband, boyfriend, or significant other!!
DANGEROUS: What’s for dinner?
SAFER: Can I help you with dinner?
SAFEST: Where would you like to go for dinner?
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.
DANGEROUS: Are you wearing that?
SAFER: Gee, you look good in brown.
SAFEST: WOW! Look at you!
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.
DANGEROUS: What are you so worked up about?
SAFER: What did I do wrong?
SAFEST: Here’s fifty dollars.
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.
DANGEROUS: Should you be eating that?
SAFER: You know, there are a lot of apples left.
SAFEST: Can I get you a glass of wine with that?
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some chocolate.
DANGEROUS: What did you do all day?
SAFER: I hope you didn’t overdo it today.
SAFEST: I’ve always loved you in that robe!
ULTRASAFE: Here, have some more chocolate.
13 Things PMS Stands For:
1. Pass My Shotgun
2. Psychotic Mood Shift
3. Perpetual Munching Spree
4. Puffy Mid-Section
5. People Make me Sick
6. Provide Me with Sweets
7. Pardon My Sobbing
8. Pimples May Surface
9. Pass My Sweatpants
10. Pissy Mood Syndrome
11. Plainly; Men Suck
12. Pack My Stuff........And my favorite one...
13. Potential Murder Suspect
Pass this onto all of your hormonal friends and those who might need a good
laugh! Or men who need a warning! And remember: Money talks...but chocolate
sings.
Another thing to giggle about... My husband, not happy with my mood swings,
bought me a mood ring the other day so he would be able to monitor my
moods. When I’m in a good mood, it turns green. When I’m in a bad mood, it
leaves a big red mark on his forehead. Maybe next time he’ll buy me
diamonds. Here have some chocolate.
Everybody........they’ll call it the carbon tax.
We’re very allergic to animals so that’s one down.
Even as a teenager, I somehow knew that with my allergies, smoking would do me in, and that was in the 60’s and 70’s before all this came out.
BTW, it’s not my cooking either, nor do I let my garbage pile up enough to stink (as all those commercials would have you believe).
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.