another reason to stop smoking

“Two ambulances were out front a while back. They were at my neighbors (again). Our neighbor had a biopsy today on his lung (cancer) and the doc left a tube in to help him breath. He was told to not smoke at all. Did he listen? no. He couldnt breathe, his poor mom (almost 80, whom he is supposed to be caring for) had to call 911. He claims that his smoking was unrelted to his trouble, he blames the tube. His poor mom is an absolute wreck.

This is the same guy who literally died in his drive (outside my window) 2 years ago and took 45 min to resusitate.

I cant imagine smoking after that.

If you dont quit this is what you have to look forward too.”

“Some people just won't quit. I know a guy that had a heart attack and nearly died on his living room floor. They got his heart beating again and he now wears a defibulator to keep it beating. He still smokes 2 packs per day.”

“I know a lot of smokers that will stoop to any level to rationalize their smoking, from claims that it is "medicinal" to the all to common boast that "you have to die of something". And everyone knows someone that knows someone that smoked until they were 99. Any law passed against smoking is somehow an assault on our personal freedoms, it's a stepping stone, first it's the smokers then who will they try to control next!

My dad used a lot of those excuses hisself. He had emphazema so bad he could hardly talk and circulation was so bad he was in terrible pain the last 15 years or so of his life.

The link between illness and smoking goes much further then lungs and heart though. Surgery and bones don't heal as well in smokers as non-smokers. I work in a hospital and it amazes me at how many patients and family members smoke. The spot right outside the ER (people congragate there) is littered with ciggarette butts.

A simular but different topic is general health and fitness. It's "uncool" to be fit in the US these days. When I was much younger, like in the 70's it wasn't unusual to exercise on purpose and eat right. Fad diets and fast food has distorted the very notion of what a healthy diet should be. I blame the food pyrmid myself, "complex carbohydrate" became a fad that made the concept of stuffing ones face with bread and other highly processed food a healthy notion. Calories didn't count anymore, if you didn't eat fat you wouldn't get fat. Then we had the knee jerk atkins reaction.

I had switched jobs a few years ago that involved working in the middle of the day, I wasn't active, didn't watch my diet, put on some pounds, then changed jobs again and came to my senses. I went on a diet and whipped myself back into some semblence of shape again. A few people were supportive but for the most part coworkers try to sabatage my efforts. Some of my fat friends became jealous and bitter.

What does this have to do with smoking? The total lack of responsibility for ones well being. People would rather blame genetics or something out of their control than try to control the factors that are within their own relm of control. I don't see many triathletes in the hospital, I really don't.

The right to keep and bear arms is in the constitution, tobacco isn't mentioned once.”

“I smoked for 18yrs and quit 13yrs ago, one of the best things I've ever done for myself too!
The last few years before I did quit, I would get bronchtis every year, coughing up blood streaked flem.
The doctor told me that as long as I continued to smoke I'd probably have this re-ocurring.
That was all I needed to hear, I quit cold turkey the same day.
Looking back now, I can't believe, I was so dumb.
Both my parents did smoke though and where do you think I got some of my first cigarettes?
I thought it was cool too, being like my dad.”

“I too have also smoked but not for long lengths of time. I started for the buzz but quit soon after, this was a long time ago. Then I smoked for a short time on those crappy hours. It wasn't much but it amazed me at how bad I would feel the next day. I didn't even get my own smokes, I would bum them.

I think most people start for the buzz but get hooked. The longer you smoke the harder it is to quit.

During the short period I smoked some of my old bicycle injuries flared up. Because I didn't smoke near as much as a regular smoker I didn't make the connection. At most I'll bet I smoked a pack or so a month. That went on about a year or so. I didn't make the connection between joint pain and smoking but the joint pain went away when my bad habits did.

In the other lab where I worked the techs that had to have carpel tunel surgery were all heavy smokers. I mentioned this to a friend and they noticed the same thing where they work, not that it doesn't happen to non-smokers, it just seems to be worse if you smoke.”

“I don't know which is the worser. Smoking or obesity. I am a serious people watcher and it seems, that here in the deep South, we have the greatest incidence of the afore mentioned ills. Every visit to a buffet, I look at the patrons there and marvel that there are so many overweight people. Many are smokers. We, as a nation, are killing ourselves with our bad behavior. Thank God, I never cared to smoke when I was young. I could never quit anything I liked! It is just crazy to me that we live in a society that depends on the health/drug industry to solve its health problems, when the solution is as simple as eating healthy and exercising and avoiding the poisons of tobacco and excessive alcohol, not to mention illicit drugs.”

“I'm looking at a pile of fruit on my desk right now--three clementines, two bananas and an apple.

Usually it's just bananas and apples but clementines are in season and my family and I are guzzling the dang things.

I haven't eaten a processed snack cake in I don't know how long.

I'm also in the "water club" here and drink 2-3 liters at work, that's in addition to at least that much at home.

My co-workers comsume insane amounts of soda/pop every day, I drink none.......EVER.
Most of them eat processed and carry out food and it shows.

I get moderate exercise throughout the day including a one-mile commute on foot and lunchtime power walking.

Last spring when I had a physical the doctor told me he was not checking cholesterol on my blood work because it is always perfect.
This is very responsible of him because every item that is checked costs the insurance company more.

My first colonoscopy ever was last May.
They told me to come back in ten years, I'm 53 now.

I have hiked with Pennsy and EarthNsky and even the Legend Of The Adirondacks, lumberzac.
My goal is to be able to keep up with those nuts.
last edited: 12/14/05 7:45:33 AM”

“I'm up to a pack a month...”

“This is very responsible of him because every item that is checked costs the insurance company more.

Sure hope he checks you for colon and prostate cancer, even though "they've always been perfect".”

“I quit for good 8 years ago tomorrow.

About 15 yrs ago I started getting fat around the middle. I attributed it partly to age slowing down my metabolism. I was mostly a couch potato, and had gone from hard physical work to a desk job.

So I started eating better and exercising. I felt so much better I started enjoying the exercise, and smoking was holding me back. I quit multiple times, once for 2 years, before finally kicking it in '97.

This year, I've run over 1200 miles and will have run in 28 races. I feel better than I have since being a teenager, maybe ever.

My point is IT'S WORTH THE STRUGGLE.

I have a pile of fruit on my desk, too.”

“No sweat, R L's Crack.

They always do check for cancer markers with the blood work.

And just for you pal, I had the colonoscopy last May and they told me to come back in ten years.

Oh yeah, I got the finger too, and it's A-OK.”

“they told me to come back in ten years

10 YEARS? I think my doctor is screwing with me. He asked me to come back every week for a re-check. I thought something funny might be up when I was getting that exam and I noticed both of his hands on my shoulders!”

“MarkO, glad to hear you are in good health. My wife loves those clementines, too. Has to buy several boxes this time of year.”

“We're knockin' off a box of clementines each day.”

“I'll eat two or three a day. I adore clementines!!

Margo, regarding this part of your post:"In the other lab where I worked the techs that had to have carpel tunel surgery were all heavy smokers. I mentioned this to a friend and they noticed the same thing where they work, not that it doesn't happen to non-smokers, it just seems to be worse if you smoke.�

The scalene and pectoralis minor muscles are known as the "entrapers". They tighten up and impinge the brachial plexus (nerves coming out of your neck region that serve your hands and arm). most people who have carpal tunnel surgery could avoid it w/ a bit of massage therapy on these particular muscles. Guess what action the scalenes help do? Deep inhalation, like a nice drag on a cigarette. That would make the smokers more suseptable to issues invilving that nerve plexus.”

“Wow, that's a lot of clementines. Now if only they would make them the same size as oranges... I always need 2 or 3 in my lunch.”

“i love clementines.

i hate smoking.

I've tried to quit for the last year and a half with moderate success. right now, I'm a non smoker and feel better than I have in a long long time. maybe it'll stick this time.”

“Keep it up roam! It does get easier. Its been almost three years for me and I couldnt feel better.”

“yup it is time to stop. I may not even wait till new years. I feel like crap and it is not worth it.”

“Jan 2nd will be my 1 year anniversary as a non-smoker and this January I will quit dipping!I've been doing that since I was 10 years old and I'm 43 now. Wish me luck!”

“...by a city just past the edge of the known universe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/us/19smoking.html?th&emc=th

Do you think we're going to start seeing more legislation like this, especially as the public health care issue moves more into the spotlight and most likely becomes more of a taxpayer burden?

Maybe this is fuego; maybe it's not (sorry if it becomes so). But it just doesn't make much sense to me to ban kids from smoking if we're free to keep exposing them to secondhand smoke...”

“i HATE big government!!! having said that, i & my husband NEVER smoke around our kids. we never smoke in the house or in the truck. we go outside on the porch, rain or shine or cold. the temps might be in the 20's or 30's lately, but we grab a jacket, blanket, (and for me a hot rice pad and still freeze my little tushie off). i've stood against the side of my apartment and gotten a little wet in the rain, just to make certain i was sparing my kids. just because i'm an idiot to smoke doesn't mean my kids have to smoke too.

still i don't like the government telling me how to live on smaller issues like this. they have bigger fish to fry.”

“Pamela,

I quit smoking when I realized those were the kinds of things I was putting myself through. I was outside at school one day in the freezing cold and rain. All of a sudden I realized how stupid the whole thing is. Not only was I killing myself, but they were charging me for it and making me stand in the rain.

It only took a few days to realize that I had felt like #&%!$ all the time. Now when I think about it my thoughts are "how did I live like that?"

**EDIT**
Also, this thought always makes me chuckle. Why was it ok to put it in my body, but god forbid it get into the furniture?
last edited: 1/19/07 1:02:54 PM”

“It's just a matter of time before they take kids away from smoking parents.”

“Bill would ban puffing in cars with kids aboard
Friday, January 19, 2007
ASSOCIATED PRESS

TRENTON -- During a recent drive, Sen. Ray Lesniak caught a glimpse of the driver in the next lane. She was puffing on a cigarette, windows rolled up, two kids in the car, enveloped in a smoke cloud so thick he could see it from his car.

The sight led Lesniak, a Union County Democrat, to propose legislation that would prohibit smoking in a car with a child under 16.

The bill dovetails with a movement nationally to limit children's exposure to secondhand smoke. It is scheduled to be introduced in the Senate on Monday.

"I know that such reckless behavior is more the exception than the rule and that many parents put the health of their kids on a pedestal. But we need strong penalties, and a strong message, that endangering your kids with secondhand smoke cannot be tolerated," Lesniak said.

If approved by both houses of the Legislature and signed into law by the governor, the bill would make smoking in a car with a minor a disorderly persons offense. It would be punishable by a maximum jail term of 30 days and a $500 fine for a first offense, with stiffer penalties for subsequent offenses.

"This is good news for kids who are getting sick in cars from people smoking around them," Regina Carlson, executive director of NJ GASP, or Group Against Smoking Pollution, said of the proposed law.

Besides the obvious health benefits to children, Carlson said the law would benefit vehicle passengers by lessening the number of accidents caused by smoking while driving.
_____________________

Do you think we're going to start seeing more legislation like this, especially as the public health care issue moves more into the spotlight and most likely becomes more of a taxpayer burden?

You don't even want to know some of the bills that are being introduced. In answer to your question though - it's already started (at least in NJ) and I'm up to my eyeballs in it. ;)”

“Believe me, I know exactly what I am doing to my body. I know ALL of the research, I am far from unintelligent on this. I started when I was 15, just a once and a while smoker. I didn't smoke at all when I met and eventually married my husband who is a pack a day or more smoker. I began smoking off and on after a few years with him. I didn't begin to smoke in earnest until 14years ago. I have quit many times, and always while pregnant. I have stayed quit 2weeks, or 4months or 2years and once up to 11years. Where I am at now is that I don't really want to quit all that much. I have got it down to 4 or 5 a day, I smoke them by halves, but I like my Djarm Vanillas. When I do try to quit I turn into a major bit** within 24 to 48 hours, everyone pi**es me off and I become majorly angry and I go around biting heads off. It's ugly, you don't wanna go there.”

“It seems like this is just another law like the talking on a cell phone while driving ban here in New York, which is hard to enforce.”

“People should know better than to fill a car with smoke and repeatedly expose children to it.”

“Ohio recently passed a no smoking in public places law. It's not enforced and I don't think anyone even knows exactly what the law means. I thought it meant no smoking in public places period, even outside. Other people have said it states, no smoking adjacent to public buildings. What does that mean?

I've been to a couple of bars and people were smoking. I've been to a couple who didn't let people smoke. Theres a hotline to call and report lawbreakers, but the polic don't handle it. It's the Board of Health's job to enforce the law.”

“here in Cali, you can't smoke in restaurants, bars, on the beach, or within 20 feet of a doorway. i haven't seen it enforced, but then i don't light up in these places. i do resent the beach thing. i ALWAYS fieldstrip and pocket my butts, i think it's rude to throw them on the ground, the world is not our ashtray.”

“I'm not a fan of big government myself either, but with the increasing burden on taxpayers of healthcare -- especially care for kids -- this kind of legislation is hardly a surprise.

I would imagine that seat belt requirements were initially put in to ease the burden on the insurance industry -- and consequently our premiums, no? And yeah, in turn it does make us safer -- but you really can't use that as a primary reason for legislation.

That said, I wonder how many of us still feel comfortable riding around in a car without a seatbelt on. I, for one, wouldn't feel comfortable; feels like getting on a roller coaster and no pulling that harness thing down. But with the aggressive crackdown on it (at least here in NJ), I guess many people still do...”

“Can't smoke on the beach in CA? I wonder what the reasoning behind that is? Bad social influence maybe? That's nuts. I mean a beach is just as ventilated as any other outside place...

That said, the 20' rule I can understand -- sort of. As a non-smoker, it is rather intimidating to approach a bar/restaurant/other building with a whole army of cigarette smokers "guarding" the doorway. They tried to put that into the NJ public smoking ban, but fortunately no one would even want to hear about it.

On a side note, the casinos in Atlantic City are the only public (commercial) establishments that are exempt from the NJ smoking ban -- but only on the gaming floor -- elsewhere in the hotel, smoking is prohibited.”

“As a nonsmoker, I really really enjoy California's laws. The beach does seem a little ridiculous, but for me, a person who lives on the beach and is out there several times a day, it makes a huge difference to not have to see butts everywhere and smell smoke on the boardwalk and beach when I am out enjoying a nice ocean breeze.

Saying that, I do think the law is a little ridiculous
last edited: 1/19/07 2:54:55 PM”

“public health care issue moves more into the spotlight and most likely becomes more of a taxpayer burden?

Gimme a break, K?

Smokers aren't the problem. Lung cancer is SWIFT AND SURE!. Smokers die right quick.

It's the folks that linger for freakin' ever that are the burden.

There's a huge element of society that hates smoke - especially pipe and cigar. They always have and always will. They make it their business to bash tobacco at every turn.

I don't even bring my cigarettes from the truck anymore. I can do Chili's, etc, w/o them.



SMOKERS DO NOT OVER BURDEN THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY!”

“Most red lights have a left turn lane down here. Look over at the ground from your car window at one of them and you see thousands of nasty cig butts on the ground.
Seems the smokers dump the ash trays right there while waiting for the light to change.”

“Stovey -
You should see the rainbow of butts I remove from my pocket after a day on some trails. Smokers are terrible diplomats, that's for sure...”

“i think it was the butts on the beach, (ciggarett butts that is, :O) LOL) that made it so easy to pass. we smokers have become the enemy. like i said though, i always field strip and pocket.”

“For some reasons smokers tend to think Lung Cancer is the only killer. And somehow smokers think it won't get them and if it does, it will kill quickly.

Some have an odd definition for "quickly".”

“I don't assume any of that bearmagnet.”

“I am aware that smoking affects numerous physiological functions. So? Cigarettes may ultimately bring about my demise. So?

Prediction:
Something will bring about everyone's demise.

"I do not want to achieve immortality by my work, I want to achieve immortality by never dying."
~Woody Allen”

“"Lung cancer is SWIFT AND SURE!. Smokers die right quick.

SMOKERS DO NOT OVER BURDEN THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY"

Is this a serious post, or did I miss the sarcasm?”

“lung cancer is anything BUT swift - it is for sure though.

but then there's also enphyzema (spelled wrong, but you know what i mean), increased susceptibility to flu and pnumonia, increased risk of gum disease and the list could go on an on.

Its one thing to assume the risk and continue to smoke - its another entirely to continue to smoke and try to convince people that its ok.”

“Cigarette smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer deaths (1). Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women (3). Smoking is also responsible for most cancers of the larynx, oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, and bladder. In addition, it is a cause of kidney, pancreatic, cervical, and stomach cancers (2, 4), as well as acute myeloid leukemia (2).

The health risks caused by cigarette smoking are not limited to smokers. Exposure to secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), significantly increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease in nonsmokers, as well as several respiratory illnesses in young children (5). (Secondhand smoke is a combination of the smoke that is released from the end of a burning cigarette and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Science’s National Toxicology Program, and the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have all classified secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen—a category reserved for agents for which there is sufficient scientific evidence that they cause cancer (5, 6, 7). The U.S. EPA has estimated that exposure to secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers and is responsible for up to 300,000 cases of lower respiratory tract infections in children up to 18 months of age in the United States each year (5). For additional information on ETS, see the NCI fact sheet Environmental Tobacco Smoke, which can be found at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/ETS on the Internet.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/cancer

I hope I stopped in time.

Peace”

“I agree Roam. I was going to wait for an answer from Gojo before jumping on my soapbox, but after reading the other smoking thread I see that apparently he is serious.

I didn't know there was anyone left who thought that way. I just assumed smokers continued because it's hard to quit, they don't care, etc, but I didn't know that kind of ignorance still existed.

**EDIT**

Cancer is undisputedly the number one preventable cause of death. Even if people dying of lung cancer spend only one week in the hospital dying, that is still an enormous amount of time and money spent on a preventable illness. To say that this isn't taxing the healthcare system is just crazy.
last edited: 1/20/07 1:07:09 PM”

“I am not an idiot, I do know the risks, it is the reason I have managed to get myself down to 4 or 5 1/2 cigs a day. I do NOT smoke around my children, or anyone else for that matter. I smoke outside only and only in the company of other smokers. I have quit before and ended up by picking up the ciggarettes again. Quitting is a bit**! I am addicted.”

“Yes. It is a #&%!$. I smoked for 10yrs, from 86-06. The other 10yrs I spent clean. All intervals were @2-3yrs.”

“"Its one thing to assume the risk and continue to smoke - its another entirely to continue to smoke and try to convince people that its ok.”

I don't recall saying that smoking is ok. Trust me, I'm not likely to fire one up in your tent (but I will smoke around the campfire), but I have every right and liberty to smoke. I make an effort to be courteous to non-smokers.

I'm getting pretty peeved by the amount of lecturing and fingers-wagged-in-my-face about how I should or should not live my life.

If I drive my truck, I am required by law to "click it or ticket". Just another excuse for the cops to pull you over as they wage their hopelessly lost war on drugs.

If I want to get a job, I am required to pee in a freakin' cup! Noper. If a look in the eye and a handshake ain't good enough for you, you're no good for me...
Besides, the local drugstore sells a bottle of stuff that'll take care of the pee thing. Give me a freakin' break.

States are outlawing transfats! I'm an adult American Human being capable of making my own nutritional decisions. Go raise your own children - my mama's done with me!

Get your nose out of my business! Give me my God dammed liberty!


Okay. I feel gooder now...


Oh crikey! This just in:
100% of deaths result in dying!

"but I didn't know that kind of ignorance still existed."

LOL!

Failures, my best friend is a PA - youn's can't possibly get up early enough to tell me anything I haven't already heard. And heard, and...”

“To say that this isn't taxing the healthcare system is just crazy.
~Ductape

Okay. So they quit. But they die anyway.

To say that whatever the means of their death isn't just as taxing is just as crazy!

So what if they spend the last eight years of their life in fulltime care due to alzheimers?

What is they have a stroke and spend a year under scrutinious medical care before they die?

What if they get mugged and go into a twelve year coma?

What if they fall off a cliff and lose their head and are kept on cranialysis for a thousand years?

Gimme one, guys -
break me!”

“My dad's 80. He's a nonsmoker - never did. He's "taxing" the system as we speak! His wife, a nony, had quaddruple a couple years ago - very taxy!

Their medicine chest "chachings" on the eights...”

“I don't see how people can be so preachy about one vice yet so blase` about others. I'm just thankful we live in a country where we can all choose what we want to do. Wanna smoke? Smoke. Wanna drink? Drink. Wanna do monster bong hits? Hit it. Wanna go to a strip club five days a week? Go ahead.”