.

[LAOLONG]

.

Edited July 17, 2017 by SHINTO

[Marblehead]

Makes me wonder:  Is that why so many health freaks have become liberals?

 

[Nungali]

another reason ;   to   balance damp cold .

 

Its damp and cold here today .....   And still fogged out at 9:30 am  .... I need a smoke !  

 

 

 

[silent thunder]

Agni!

[thelerner]

From the article in OP

'Dr Winzer-Serhan said: “I want to make it very clear that we’re not encouraging people to smoke.

“Even if there weren’t any preliminary results, smoking results in so many health problems that any possible benefit of nicotine would be more than cancelled out.   “However, smoking is only one possible route of administration of the drug and our work shows that we shouldn’t write-off nicotine completely. 

“We haven’t proved that this addictive drug is safe and it certainly isn’t during childhood or adolescence.”

The study was published in the Journal of Toxicology.

 

 

Me- On one very large hand, Smoking is addictive and a leading cause of many cancers, emphysema and heart disease.  I believe it's been scientifically proven to be the leading cause of preventable death in the Western World. 

 

On the other hand, in the right amounts poisons can act as medicine.. in certain doses, in certain situations.  I do believe nicotine may well help in the prevention of Alzheimer.  Hopefully such studies take into account the shortened life span, on average of smokers, ie less Alzheimers cause they're dead.  

 

If a person smokes (most things) a few times a month, that seems (mostly) harmless to me.  Ie I'm assuming the body can repair the damage smoking does.  But if one gets addicted or smoking daily, its a killer demon on your back one that kills 100,000's in the U.S a year (480,000?) 

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm

Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.¹

• More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.
• For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness.
• Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
• Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.
• Smoking is a known cause of erectile dysfunction in males.

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death.

• Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 6 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.²
• Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.¹
• On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.³
• If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.¹

[LAOLONG]

.

Edited July 17, 2017 by SHINTO

[thelerner]

8 minutes ago, SHINTO said:

Great minds smokers

Baal sem tov ,

Yang lu chan 

I won't argue that point.   Done infrequently it may have benefits, but if addicted or using multiple times a week, not a good thing.  I like to think the wise men of the past weren't heavy users or if they were didn't know the increased risks. 

[LAOLONG]

.

Edited July 17, 2017 by SHINTO

[thelerner]

That is a man who won the lottery in the genetics game.  For every such lucky winner there are millions of graves.  Putting smoke into fluffy white lungs is not ideal.   I'm not even saying nicotine can't be used medicinally or occasionally recreationally, but long term use makes you many times more likely to get lung cancer, emphysema and whole host of other deadly diseases. 

 

In the simplest statistics, smokers en masse, die 10 years earlier then non-smokers.   Speaking of smokers, my grandfather was a proud smoker til his death, minus one amputated lung and leg.  He's a better representative of a smoker imo then the veteran, who's lungs inevitably blackened by the smoking. 

 

I'll add that a cigarette or cigar or joint infrequently isn't a killer boogie man.  But regularly.. you're playing with a demon. 

[Seatle185]

I agree its not something to be done multiple times a day every day like most smokers do. Your not really even fully enjoying it anymore at that point, its just a habit that you do unconsciously.

 

The people of the past i think used it as a tool for awareness. The native americans thought of the plant in a spiritual way and had its uses. So they didnt use it in the same way most do today. Another thought is most tobacco these days is grown with all sorts of pesticides, dangerous fertilizers and then after that loaded with tons of other additives to " help it burn more even" or whatever.. an interesting thing is when people switch from smoking to vaping with high nicotine they will still go through some withdrawals, which i take to mean the other additives they add are addictive in their own ways.  

 

So i think there are good uses for nicotine but its not something to be indulged in regularly, and if you choose to administer, there are better ways than smoking.

[Nungali]

 

' buds'  

 

Spoiler

Moxa     

 

[Gerard]

I have to reply to this nonsense thread because it is outrageous. 

 

Express.co.uk? The new wisdom of the West? Or are they paid by the big tobacco companies to make people (especially the young ones so they buy cigarettes for life!) addictive again?

 

https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/content/what_we_do/industry_watch/product_manipulation/2014_06_19_DesignedforAddiction_web.pdf

 

Bad Karma.

 

China's ancient wisdom:

 

http://maciociaonline.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/view-of-tobacco-in-chinese-medicine.html?m=1

 

Good Karma.

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Gerard

[blue eyed snake]

well...I'm again addicted to the stuff and can add that ist's very bad for the function of the liver.

 

I so hope I can find the power to end this dirty habit. 

[Marblehead]

Well, I started smoking when I was eleven years old and am now seventy-six years old.

 

I have been told that smoking will kill me.

 

I reply that living will kill me.

 

[silent thunder]

6 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Well, I started smoking when I was eleven years old and am now seventy-six years old.

 

I have been told that smoking will kill me.

 

I reply that living will kill me.

 

Indeed.  Turns out it's the leading cause of death.

[cold]

For me its a quality of life over quantity of life issue.

 

I grew up when most adults smoked including television doctors. The dangers of smoking was not known and I began smoking around twelve years of age. I smoked on and off mostly on for almost forty years, after beginning again I almost always smoked more than I did before. Going from a pack a day and quitting just to start smoking again at a pack plus a day, and quitting once again for awhile before smoking again now a solid pack and a half a day...

 

When I was hospitalized with pneumonia two different doctors (from same practice but could have been Drs. Jeckel and Hyde, their bedside manner so different one had none and the other was warm and friendly) diagnosed me with emphysema and predicted I would die within a year... if I continued to smoke. That was almost a decade ago so yup I quit again and so far so good.

 

I am whom I am because of my many life choices and overall would not change much  but boy oh boy if I could have avoided smoking altogether the $ I would have saved and the quality of life I face today and in the future would most likely be so much better.

 

I'm kind of a canary in the mine, when the air quality brings me to my knees its getting bad out there. My Aunt smoked her entire life and was on oxygen the last ten twelve years of her life before suffering greatly towards the end and succumbing to COPD.

 

At the risk of sounding like Jack Crab advising Custer in the movie Little Big Man,

Jack Crab : General you go down there.

 General Custer : You're advising me to go down into the coulee.

Jack Crab : Yes sir

 General Custer : There are no Indians there, I suppose.

Jack Crab : I didn't say that. There are thousands of Indians down there. And when they get done with you there won't be anything left but a greasy spot......

 

So yup smoke em if you got em or not the choice is yours!

[cold]

9 hours ago, blue eyed snake said:

well...I'm again addicted to the stuff and can add that ist's very bad for the function of the liver.

 

I so hope I can find the power to end this dirty habit. 

 

You can!

I did and If I can You Can!

Positive thoughts on the way!

[26sol]

smoke sth without the getting high part?now why would I do that?

smokers say its a good feeling/taste but is it?Speaking for myself I hated the feeling of my first cigarettes,felt like shit,but I wanted to look cool.And the second and third time I started smoking I had to force this horrible feeling to myself,had to teach myself again to tolerate it.Why?maybe nicotine's reward to the monkey brain or sth else idk.Now I only use tobacco in a spliff(cheap way) rarely and always have solar plexus blockages afterwards.

 

[thelerner]

My sister-in-law smokes, and coughs quite a bit.. summer and winter.  From my limited understanding I recommended to her to try vaping.  Seems like you get the nicotine without the smoke in your lungs and some of the harsher addons in cigarettes.  Not great, but better. 

 

Most of the time.. better is a good direction. 

 

FWIW I'm dropping my drinking from a glass (or two) a day, mostly wine with dinner, to 3 or 4 glasses a week.  I can tell myself its got benefits (and it does), but in the long run, it shrinks the brain.  And sooner or later I'm gonna need mine. 

[blue eyed snake]

the strange thing is, i stopped drinking in a week, was no problem at all. ( and I did like a glass or two..three...fo...  )

sugar easy too, a week ( not the same week though)

 

dairy and gluten was hard...3 weeks...

 

smoking I had stopped, for about a year, with help of nicotin tablets which i used for about half a year, in ever lower dosages.

and then I started a supplement that was advised to me by a therapist...and o men, i just needed that smoke so bad... she didn't get it at all, neither did I. Shortly afterwards I went to another therapist who did get it and has been a great help for me ever since.

 

that's about a year ago now. But it's good to write it here, make it public so to say.

 

and thanks @cold , that's a remark that gives me a boost. Searching for the willpower right now.

[Stosh]

Frankly I think the nicotine aspect of smoking has little to do with the habit , its the carbon monoxide and tar that's so appealing.

"Healthy " Low tar cig ? who the heck wants that? Its almost as ridiculous as sucking on an embarrassing tube. 

No, the attractions are to feel the labor of ones own breath , and to subdue a flaring mind.

It makes one satisfied to simply be (otherwise) still.

Its a ritual pause , a moment of reflection ,temporary escape from a situation , and a vice to indulge oneself with. 

I've quit and re-began , my experience was that it really wasn't all that difficult to quit.

The problem was that the same issues arose, again and again , one hundred times a day,  one has to say no to ones-selfs indulgence. 

It was by sheer persistence that the infernal habit re-emerged, and IMO the fix is just a solid consistent refusal, a toleration of the sensation that things suck ,, until you forget to bring it up. There isn't such a thing as quantities of will power , you hang tough , you limit the amount of times you entertain the notion to pick up a pack, and in the meantime , you divert yourself long enough to evade failure. 

I have liked it , never really wanted to quit, but entertained that I should.