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Smoking out the facts (Giving up smoking can kill you)
The Ottawa Citizen ^ | Sunday, October 28, 2007 | David Warren,

Posted on 11/12/2007 6:51:35 AM PST by fanfan

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To: fanfan
I smoke, but have never smoked a lot. One after dinner, or sex, or perhaps a couple if I go out drinking on the weekend. I never understood how people could chain smoke though. One is enough to make me a little dizzy if I stand up too quickly.

On the other hand, I never get sick. People will be catching colds or flu's all around me but for some reason I never catch them.

I have often wondered if my light smoking was the reason. My hypothesis is that my body produces more white blood cells than normal in order to get rid of the smoke. Stopping completely would probably shut down the excess white blood cell production, so i can see why smokers who stopped completely would be more susceptible to disease, especially after years of damage that heavy smoking causes. I could be all wrong of course. Perhaps I never get sick for other reasons?

One other observation, also anecdotal. It seems that recently there are record numbers of people who have allergies, especially to smoke. It makes one wonder how these peoples ancestors survived during the thousands of years where it was common to live in a smoky environment not only for cooking, but for heat. Before the invention of electricity, virtually everyone heated with wood or coal.

I wonder if growing up in an essentially smoke free environment has crippled some peoples immune systems so that as adults, they get inappropriate responses when exposed to even the tiniest amounts of smoke?

121 posted on 11/12/2007 11:04:40 AM PST by monday
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To: fanfan
Hope all the former smokers who have cancer and the families who lost a loved one to cancer shortly after the smoker quit --> sue the crappola out of the American Cancer Society, the government busybodies, and others of their ilk.

Because just like breast cancer may be linked to abortion, the American Cancer Society and Planned Parenthood did nothing to warn those women that there is a link.

American Cancer Society also knows that second hand smoke does NOT cause cancer as proven by two 35 year old research reports from UC - Berkeley and UI - Urbana/Champaign

122 posted on 11/12/2007 11:19:02 AM PST by xtinct (I was the next door neighbor kid's imaginary friend.)
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To: sweetiepiezer
...had a friend who gave up smoking and ten years later died of lung cancer.

Are you saying your friend wouldn't have died of cancer if they had kept smoking? If not, then what's the point? Everyone who quits smoking will die of something eventually.

123 posted on 11/12/2007 11:25:19 AM PST by GATOR NAVY
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To: Trailerpark Badass
Certainly that's possible, except that, given the length of time my father smoked (probably closer to 50 years), it is probably statistically more probable that the disease would have become apparent while he was still smoking, not shortly thereafter. Also, my father didn't have breathing troubles or any other significant health problems. He was actually quite healthy for a 67 year-old.

I agree. Some folks just can't think outside the box or think that anecdotal evidence is just stupid. They are really the people that go thru life with their head up their rear; the ones that can't see the forest thru the trees.

While I think that folks who die 5, 10 or 20 years after quitting smoking may be stretching this theory a bit, I think there are too many of us with first hand "anecdotal evidence" that this can be discounted with the wave of a hand.

124 posted on 11/12/2007 11:25:49 AM PST by VeniVidiVici (No buy China!!)
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To: fanfan

We should also remember something - lung cancer is and has been for quite a while the number one cancer killer worldwide - among those who smoke AND THOSE WHO DON’T!


125 posted on 11/12/2007 11:27:15 AM PST by djf (Send Fred some bread! Not a whole loaf, a slice or two will do!)
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To: DeFault User

Chocolate didn’t work?


126 posted on 11/12/2007 11:33:05 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: metmom

Nope. I almost thought of taking up a less dangerous vocation, like snake handling.


127 posted on 11/12/2007 11:38:56 AM PST by DeFault User
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To: fanfan

I’ve noticed this too, and always figured that somehow (over time) the tars and stuff somehow formed a protective layer in the lungs.


128 posted on 11/12/2007 11:40:48 AM PST by Cementjungle
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To: fanfan

Haven’t heard that one. It’s interesting to think about those men making it to retirement.


129 posted on 11/12/2007 11:54:49 AM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists...call 'em what you will...They ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: DaGman

“...And my wife quit smoking 3 months ago and I’m wondering now if that was a good idea rather than to just cut down and then gradually quit to avoid a system shock.”

My wife quit cold turkey in 1996 with absolutely no ill effects to date. I wish I could do the same. This article does make one wonder though.

I ceased smoking in the house twenty years ago along with in the car at the same time, and have always made certain to not smoke around others all because of the stink of the damned things. I’ve smoked for 47 years, but despise the smell of it, so I think if I don’t like it others don’t as well LOL.


130 posted on 11/12/2007 12:00:43 PM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists...call 'em what you will...They ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: Cementjungle

Probably forms a nice protective layer against oxygen, too. Seems to keep water out pretty well when it’s used in other applications.


131 posted on 11/12/2007 12:05:48 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: HamiltonJay

Jeeze Now I’m a USA tobacco whore...

Kentucky’s Best cigarettes are made with top quality whole-leaf tobacco. Around here, we refuse to use dust, puffed tobacco or reconstituted tobacco. Other companies may call that stuff their “profit margin” – we call it trash.

We’ve found that you don’t have to add artificial “flavor enhancers” when you start with quality tobacco. Maybe that’s why our customers tell us Kentucky’s Best cigarettes give them a taste they remember from long ago, back when quality was the rule, not the exception.

*Other* cigarettes may contain any of more than 500 chemicals, including arsenic, ammonia and chemicals used to make weed and bug killers, car batteries, paint stripper, lighter fluid and mothballs. Kentucky’s Best cigarettes don’t add chemicals to “improve quality.”


132 posted on 11/12/2007 12:09:31 PM PST by listenhillary (You get more of what you focus on)
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To: fanfan
The reasoning in this article is perfectly rational.

It has been long established that liver cancer develops in former alcoholics about 10 years after cessation of drinking. It has to do with the cell repair process - exactly as the article surmises in the case on smoking.

BTW, not to pile on the anecdotes but my FIL as well died two years after quitting smoking - of lung cancer.

133 posted on 11/12/2007 12:11:05 PM PST by Lexinom (Your hopes and dreams rest on your right to life. GoHunter08.com)
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To: AZLiberty
What goes into a Kentucky’s Best cigarette?

Whole-leaf, top-grade tobacco – the best that we can find. A little chocolate that’s a key ingredient in just about every major brand. Plus quality craftsmanship and a lot of pride in what we do. You’ll taste the difference the first time you light up.

134 posted on 11/12/2007 12:12:48 PM PST by listenhillary (You get more of what you focus on)
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To: monday
I smoke, but have never smoked a lot. One after dinner, or sex,

After dinner, you either have a smoke, or sex?

I'm glad I'm not your wife.

*rimshot*

Good post. ;-)

135 posted on 11/12/2007 12:17:29 PM PST by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: rockinqsranch; SheLion

Maybe you are doing them a favour.

If our ancestors almost always had some smoke around them, maybe light smokers have a therapeutic effect on those around them in modern times.

It’s for the children, you know. ;-)


136 posted on 11/12/2007 12:25:50 PM PST by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: monday
One other observation, also anecdotal. It seems that recently there are record numbers of people who have allergies, especially to smoke. It makes one wonder how these peoples ancestors survived during the thousands of years where it was common to live in a smoky environment not only for cooking, but for heat. Before the invention of electricity, virtually everyone heated with wood or coal.

I wonder if growing up in an essentially smoke free environment has crippled some peoples immune systems so that as adults, they get inappropriate responses when exposed to even the tiniest amounts of smoke?

Nobody is allergic to cigarette smoke because it's physically impossible. An allergy is caused by an over reaction of your body's immune system to a protein. Cigarette smoke does not contain any proteins. These same people who cough at a cigarette being lit 100 yards away outdoors never seem to have a problem walking by the back of their idling SUV with the stop global warming bumper sticker on it

Cigarette smoke and smokers give people with miserable lives an excuse to believe they are morally superior to someone else. They are not happy people and sad to say the only joy they get in life is to try and make other people miserable.

Take banning smoking in bars for instance, why would they care what adults do in a bar as they (the anti-smoking gnatzies) don't go to bars because people there are having fun and they are not fun people. Well that's it, other people are having fun and they aren't so the only joy they can get is trying to make people as miserable as they are.

137 posted on 11/12/2007 12:26:45 PM PST by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: listenhillary

Do you ship to Canada?


138 posted on 11/12/2007 12:27:31 PM PST by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: listenhillary
hahahah

better watch out.. you're starting to sound like Jack Larson...

This year, Laramie is sponsoring the Little Miss Springfield Pageant. You see, government regulations prohibit us from advertising on TV. [takes a puff on a cigarette and holds up the box] Ah, that sweet Carolina smoke! But, they can't prohibit us from holding a beauty pageant for little girls aged 7 to 9.

139 posted on 11/12/2007 12:28:24 PM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: fanfan

They don’t ship directly at all.

http://www.farmerstobacco.com/


140 posted on 11/12/2007 12:39:39 PM PST by listenhillary (You get more of what you focus on)
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