Do You Smoke?

[Faustus]

Yup one pack a day. If you don't want me to smoke around you thats fine, give me a section. When you take my section away (Your here me city of DALLAS?) I stop going to your businesses.

If I'm at your house I'll go outside, if your at mine I'll stop or cut back depending on how much I like ya.

I may ask if its ok to smoke in your car a few times, its because I forgot the answer not because I'm pressing you. If you have a problem with my smoking in your car I'll offer that we take mine, I'll crack the window and all the smoke will blow right out on my side. If you got a problem with that your likely to anal to hang out with anyway.

[daamon]

I didn't know that respectful smokers existed.

You are a very decent chap, Mr Flaystus.

[kissvid]

There's a lot of us respectful smokers out there. I have smoked for 20 years. I have always respected those around me, If you don't like it just tell me. I don't smoke in anyone's car or house without asking 1st. My only beef is that when someone is coughing excessivley in the background because i lit up...that pisses me off. Just ask me to put it out. Don't cough it up expecting someone to talk for you. And please don't tell me to put it out because your allergic. I have never seen an allergic reaction to smoke. Hives, breaking out, loss of vision, lumps on skin. What allergic reaction? I would rather you just tell me that it bothers you. People have been smoking for 100's of years and I have never seen a or heard of a medical study that showed allergic reactions to smoking.

Marc

[Capmaster]

I'm the same way. I'm courteous too, but don't get in my face lecturing me or screaming about how I'm "invading your space" or I'm liable to really invade your space by extinguishing it in your left nostril

Funny too, that nobody was "allergic" to cigarette smoke until it became politically correct to persecute smokers. A medical phenomenon, if you ask me :P

[saladonyourlincoln]

There has been so much negative publicity about smoking the past several years that I don't even doubt why so many people out there are just rehashing the same BS they've heard over and over. All I can say to all of those people is "Take your heads out of your collective A??ES" and have an unbiased look around. There are more people dying today of cancer and lung diseases that have "NEVER SMOKED A CIGARETTE IN THEIR LIVES, NOR BEEN IN OR AROUND ANYONE THAT DOES!!!" Where does this leave your preconceived notions and opinions? Just have a look around and use your brain. I am not going to try and convince anyone that smoking is good....just that it's not as bad as all the publicity has made it out to be...AND especially, those in the medical community that have the "EVILS OF SMOKING" branded into their brains so much that they can NOT even consider any alternatives whatsoever. Hey...I wonder if they would support a "NO FAR?ING" section in restaurants? Or would they stop driving their Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus's because that is poluting our air 100 times more than us simple little cigarette smokers?

[tompika]

All right, suckers:

Go ahead tell us about your first cigarette and analyze the situation, please

[Capmaster]

All right, suckers:

Go ahead tell us about your first cigarette and analyze the situation, please

Why are you trying to "enlighten" us? Do you think you are in possession of some rare tidbit of information that we haven't heard already a thousand times? Or is it a crusade to "convert" us stupid smokers?

Dismount the high horse please

[tompika]

No, nothing like that, Cappy, no horses involved I just wanna hear what you smokers felt when smoking the first time and how you got into it?

[Capmaster]

No, nothing like that, Cappy, no horses involved I just wanna hear what you smokers felt when smoking the first time and how you got into it?

Peer pressure all the way. Made me sick the first time, but all my friends were doing it, soo ..... Stupid ....but it was "accepted" back then

[tompika]

Make it fifty words instead of five, I wanna learn about it

Edit: ok I accept the twentysix...

[tompika]

Next, please...

[kiki]

Same as cap.
I use to shoot competitive snooker.
Everbody smoked in the pool halls.
So I started as well. STUPID.
Got hooked in a VERY short period of time.
Still smoking 35 years later.

kiki

[vitualis]

All I can say to all of those people is "Take your heads out of your collective A??ES" and have an unbiased look around. There are more people dying today of cancer and lung diseases that have "NEVER SMOKED A CIGARETTE IN THEIR LIVES, NOR BEEN IN OR AROUND ANYONE THAT DOES!!!" Where does this leave your preconceived notions and opinions? Just have a look around and use your brain.

You know the funny thing is that all the above actually applies to you.

1. Take your head out of your a?? and have an unbiased look around.
2. There are more people dying today of cancer and lung diseases because of smoking cigarettes than ever before.
3. Where does that leave your preconceived notions and opinions?
4. Just have a look around and use your brain.



It's like convincing someone that the Earth is actually round.

Regards.

[p_l]

All right, suckers:

Go ahead tell us about your first cigarette and analyze the situation, please

As a grad student in Paris. It was politically incorrect not to smoke.

[ricky1756]

it doesn't matter, Bush's enviromental policies are going to kill us all anyway

[tompika]

Looks like Ricky wants to have this thread closed doesnt he

[macleod]

Howdy All. I have recently Quit for the final time. Had been a smoker for 16 years to a family of smokers (started at 16-inhaling and quit at 32).

For tompika-started because I was told that I shouldnt and to look cool/tough.

This thread actually got me to quit Cold Turkey (the reference to www.whyquit.com). Been quit for almost 3 weeks I guess.

Here are my reasons:
1. the 34 yr old guy that died in 2 months from oat cell lung cancer (left behind a wife and a kid)
2. Smokes are 3.00, so at a pack a day, I am spending around $100 a month on this "pleasurable" habit
3. Wife said smoking or broadband
4. Not getting any younger and want to hold off the reaper

Vitualis, maybe you can help me (and provide some information for the other folks). I know that there isnt a magic formula here, but from my research, here is what I found with quitting:

Quit by 35, and 90% of the effects of smoking can be reversed (another doc said that at 30, all effects). Another report said that qiot at 30, save 10 years, quit at 40, say 9, quit at 50, save 8, quit at 60 and save 3...

I am trying to find some accurate information on the subject of quitting and the repair process. A confusing question that I have is why is it that it takes only 1 cig to give you X, but if you quit, you can still get X cancer or whatever years later??? That doesnt make sense to me. I was hoping that you could provide some information.

[vitualis]

Vitualis, maybe you can help me (and provide some information for the other folks). I know that there isnt a magic formula here, but from my research, here is what I found with quitting:

Quit by 35, and 90% of the effects of smoking can be reversed (another doc said that at 30, all effects). Another report said that qiot at 30, save 10 years, quit at 40, say 9, quit at 50, save 8, quit at 60 and save 3...

I am trying to find some accurate information on the subject of quitting and the repair process. A confusing question that I have is why is it that it takes only 1 cig to give you X, but if you quit, you can still get X cancer or whatever years later??? That doesnt make sense to me. I was hoping that you could provide some information.

The chances of you getting lung cancer because of smoking a single cigarette is minimal. Of course, we can never exactly follow the molecular chain of events that leads to a malignant cell, but needless to say, the contributory risk of that single cigarette to you developing lung cancer is essentially zero.

The risk of developing lung cancer and smoking is very much a dose related effect. Culmulatively, the more you have smoked (i.e., more cigarettes per day or have smoked for a greater number of years), the higher the risk.

I think that on average (though you will probably need to check my numbers since I'm quoting them from memory), a pack-a-day smoker from adolescence has a life-span of 9-10 years less than a matched non-smoker. In general, I think that the increased risk of mortality is reduced to almost baseline after 20 years cessation from cigarette smoking.

Smoking cigarettes doesn't cause lung cancer right away. It is from prolonged exposure. The reason is relatively simple. The path to cancer involves damage to DNA on multiple levels. Your body also generally has pretty good DNA repair mechanisms. What most likely occurs is that the cells in your lungs accumulates genetic damage over time. If you stop smoking, then the chances of cells with existing genetic damage from prior smoking getting the vital few mutations to become malignant are reduced. But since the damage is already there, you don't reduce your risk of getting cancer instantly back to baseline.

Smoking is of course a major risk factor in atherosclerotic disease as well and this is not reversed by simply stopping smoking (though its progression is probably reduced).

Regards.

[macleod]

So what you are saying is that with me smoking a pack a day and quitting now at 32 (16 years worth), is that the damage has already been done.

I hear on one hand that quit smoking now and repair the damage and then on the other hand I hear, the damage, if there, is already done....

From what I have read, the repair process is not 20, but rather 5 to 15 years, but who knows. I have been trying to do a lot of research on the effects of smoking and the repair process, but I guess I keep getting mixed messages. This website says this, that website say that.

That is probably why a number of people have not quit on their own (if they even want to).

I am looking for factual information and EVERY website says something different. With regard to atherosclerotic, One study I read said that stopping really helps things out.

I dont want the sunshine version of anything, I just want to see the raw facts. I cant seem to locate them. I think you know what I mean. The old saying. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.....

Any help or realy numbers would be a big help.

[ZAPPER]

Macleod

I hate to be the wet rag here, but nobody lives forever. To think that there is a mathmatical certiany in a biological existance is absurd. Nobody can say how long you will live if you do or don't do anything. The doctor may tell you that you will only have six to 10 months and you could live 50 more years, who knows? The thing is that if you quit smoking sooner than later you should have an improved quality of life. With the extra cash that you save you may be able to join a gym and increase your hearts strength or the ease that you find in breathing, after you quit, may induce you to jog a bit more. On the other hand the first molecule of the first puff you ever took may have been the one to start the chain reaction that will kill you in five or seventyfive years. Who knows? Different bodies heal at different rates and different bodies fail at different rates. There is no magical cross reference chart to say how long you will live if you do or don't do this or that. The best you can do is quit smoking, eat right, exercise and above all live life. Spend time with your family, try all the things that you and your family can or want to do. Living and dying are the natural order of things. The best that you can hope for is to leave a legacy and to be remembered by those that you knew and loved.

You got to snap out of this death thing you are going through. It is depressing the hell out of me.

[macleod]

Hmnmm, that is what my wife keeps saying. Maybe I am going through my mid-life thing or maybe it is a result of quitting (have read that it causes depression). Kinda weird that at 32 I am feeling my mortality. I am a self proclaimed hypocondriac (sp?) and that is playing a lot into this. It is driving me nuts as well. Pains that I have felt in my chest at different times for years are concerning me (although I had went to the hospital and was told that I was in great shape) and this nagging pain in my stomach (switches sides). Just recently moved a 2600 sq ft home from Indiana back home to Texas. Either that or oat cell lung cancer. I can see you rolling your eyes, that is what my wife did when I told her.

Just looking at my son and realizing how much time has passed since I was his age. I do need to "snap" out of this. Part of me wishes that I never went to whyquit.com and read the 34 year old guys story (but most of me is glad that I did).

I am a little depressed because when I left Indiana to go back home, it was w/o a new job already lined up and I have been off for 1 month (too much time with the wife and son, LOL) and I am going a little nuts.

Have been trying to cheer myself up. Visited www.farts.com and laughed so hard I cried and I just watched some old Robin Williams comedy stuff. Purty funny.

This thread has been pretty important to me and I am sure that ex-smokers that visit (and even smokers that are thinking about quiting) would like to see some factual stats on quiting and not some BS that someone comes up with.

[p_l]

macleod,
You sound how I felt when I quit. I thought a lot about death and statistics. Beyond that though was family and triumph of the will. You hang in there.

[ZAPPER]

Macleod
A lot of your trouble could be the withdrawl from smoking. Too many changes at one time in your life. I quit for six months one time and I remember being disoriented at times. Smoking is not an addiction where you just take a pill to get your fix. It is a major change in lifestyle for some to quit. If you are not taking a break every 30 minutes or hour to smoke, what do you do with the time that you were used to taking? If you used to step outside four times a day at work to smoke do you still need to get up and strech your legs or give your brain and eys a break. The list could go on and on.(and so could I here lately) The moral of the story is if you can beat smoking, you are closer to being superman than you may realize. As long as something else doesn't kill you first, quitting will help you live a bit longer. Just don't try stopping a train or anything like that, I said that you are closer to superman not that you are superman

[mpack]

I'm the same way. I'm courteous too, but don't get in my face lecturing me or screaming about how I'm "invading your space" or I'm liable to really invade your space by extinguishing it in your left nostril

For the first ten years that I smoked, I didn't drive. Which was very handy: if someone suggested that they didn't like breathing in my secondhand smoke I would say that I didn't like breathing in car fumes: I would give up smoking if they gave up their car... I drive now, and I miss being able to use that argument...

[macleod]

s in an altered reality or something. Pretty f'd up. Cravings werent bad, each one was associated with "the guy" (pavlov's dog basically).

I have been doing more and more reading about smoking/cancer, etc. I have also been doing some reading at www.forces.org (vitualis????) and they have some VERY interesting information. Someone's lieing and I dont know who it is......

For me, I am done freakin about it. I quit and I am pretty happy with that fact. For me, the best way to feel good about the whole thing is that I will be saving $3 a day for smokes, which will in turn get me the broadband I have always been wanting (wife made a deal with me awhile back on the smoking and broadband thing). If smoking doesnt do shit to me, great, if quitting saved me life, AWESOME, if staring at this f'ing monitor has given my DNA cancer, OK, if I get hit by a car tomorrow. bummer.

It really isnt worth worrying about. I think overall my health will be better, not going to be a martyr and will enjoy the cash that I am saving.

[vitualis]

I have been doing more and more reading about smoking/cancer, etc. I have also been doing some reading at www.forces.org (vitualis????) and they have some VERY interesting information. Someone's lieing and I dont know who it is......

Yes, they are. Misrepresenting facts. Minimising risks. Talking about how reduction of smoking will cause economic collapse. Etc.

The internet has become filled will these passionate wackos.

It is quite simple:
1. Smoking reduces the average person's lifespan by about 9-10 years
2. It increases your risk of AMI, CVA, COPD, PVD and lung cancer
3. It probably increases your risk of other cancers as well.
4. In essence, it is BAD for your health at an individual level
5. It is definitely bad for health at a population level

And let's take away the bullshit that these "pro-choice" people (read: pro-smoking people who don't want to quit and are grasping at anything to "justify" their position) will tell you:
- smoking does not help with your memory (except that you may feel like crap when you stop taking it)
- smoking does not help reduce the risk of dementia or Parkinson's disease
- cessation of smoking probably does on average increase your weight (but by itself, it does not help you lose weight).
- it is extremely unlikely that putting nicotine, hot gas and hydrocarbon debris in your lungs on a regular basis does ANY good for you on a health basis
- people exposed to high levels of passive smoking DO suffer from health consequences

Regards.

[macleod]

Daddy always told me not to believe everything I hear and read on the innernet', but some of the information that is on that forces website seems to be very interesting.

After reading that stuff, I am still going to stay quit, but in all fairness to the site, they are taking statistics that are reported....

The one that I found most interesting was that when they said that the 53,000 deaths is actually 3,000 and that that information was incorrect.

I did think it was a little far fetched that smoking is actually healthy for you (but isnt that what all the doctors told us several years ago????).

[Tranceaddict]

yup, weed and smokes..

[vitualis]

Several years ago? You've been going to the wrong doctors.

The one that I found most interesting was that when they said that the 53,000 deaths is actually 3,000 and that that information was incorrect.

That is called BULLSHIT. "Put your head in the sand" type of nonsense.

Lung cancers are one of the most common cancers in the Western world. Over 90% are directly related to cigarette smoking. Lung cancers are actually RARE if you don't smoke.

Regards.

[macleod]

no seriously, Doctors told people years ago that smoking was actually good for them and did wonders for clearing up colds (At least in America).