just as big tobacco companies have an interest in selling their product, so anti-smoking and health organizations have an interest in justifying their existence and making careers out of fighting smoking, and they do that by being as alarming as possible.
I’d be interested in hearing what doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are trying to sell when they discuss smoking cessation. These people don’t work on commission when working with the general public. When people go to the doctor they pretty much know they’ll get a lecture on smoking if they do smoke. As well they will get a lecture on healthy eating and exercising(they aren’t just targeting smoking, its entire lifestyle changes that are encouraged. Smoking isn’t being “scapegoated” for all of life’s problems). When doctors have sometimes as little as 15 minutes scheduled per patient including paperwork, it would be a lot easier to not include discussion about smoking, but they do. Maybe because its their jobs to make people healthy, not look for ways for repeat business. There is no magic number of cigarettes that you can stay under and not have any risk. The medical community isn’t just big organizations(no, they’re not 100% altruistic, but, the research
heavily favors antismoking). In order to get any sort of treatment or preventative care you go through the human element: a health care professional. They tell you what you need to know to make informed choices for your health care.
Smoking seems to cause serious health problems in many people, but it is far from the majority. Most people, like my parents, seem generally unaffected.
I’d like to see where you got your information that most people are unaffected by tobacco smoke. Some people won’t show obvious signs of detriment by smoking just by looking at them across a table. Things like proper diet and exercise can help reduce negative effects from other areas of one’s life. Look deeper - what is their blood oxygen level? What does their skin look like? How many flights of stairs can they walk before feeling out of breath? Are they often fatigued? Have you listened to their lungs through a stethoscope? Intermittent leg pain? Frequent colds? Do they wake up in the morning with headaches? Do they ever have tingling in extremities/fingertips? Do they sleep on more than one pillow, or, even sitting up in a recliner? Is a cough there? Do hospital tests show atelectasis etc, etc. Oftentimes too the changes can slow over time so that one may not realize that the cause is smoking. You can’t just look at a person to ascertain that smoking hasn’t affected them negatively.
most smokers die of unrelated causes.
What unrelated causes? Smoking causes detriments in other areas besides the lungs. When the medical community says that smoking can kill you, they are not just talking about lung disease. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and the world. And a big risk factor/contributor to that is smoking. The three biggest modifiable risks are smoking, physical inactivity and poor diet.
My father smoked 7 (yes, seven) packs of cigarettes a day for more than 40 years.
So during waking hours he smoked a new cigarette every 6.86 minutes…? Wow, how did he have time to get anything done? If what you say is true, he is indeed incredibly lucky. I have listened to the lungs of a man with a long history of smoking and they have been clear. But just because there is a story here or there about lucky cases, doesn’t mean it applies to many or most cases. I’ve listened to far, far more lungs which showed the negative effects of smoking clearly.
The way you hear some people talk, they claim, that if at one point in your life you were exposed to cigarette smoke foir only 5 minutes, you are going to die off lung cancer. Don’t believe me, look at this link.
I see them talking about aorta stiffening, vessels, and cholesterol in that section. I don’t see them talking about dying or about lung cancer anywhere in that “it only takes 5 minutes” portion of your linked article. If you think that link sensationalizes the issue, go to a medical website for your information instead.
Until the 20th century everyone cooked with wood fires. Did all those people die of lung cancer. No.
Do people stand there and intentionally try to breath in cooking smoke? No. People often did not live long enough to develop cancer anyways. Breathing in that type of smoke is not good for you either. The leading cause of death from fires is smoke inhalation. Other documented complications because of non-cigarette inhalation include coal miners with Pneumoconiosis.
The risks of smoking are many. Doesn’t mean every one will 100% always happen to the smoker but the risk of complications is high. It is not a healthy habit and does damage the body.
(hundreds $ over the past year) on his talks; DVD’s, CD’s and VHS tapes. :whacky: