Is smoking in moderation really that bad?

[speed dawg]

I know, this could have gone into Health and Fitness. But oh well. Second, I like to smoke, so let's stay away from the "it's soooo gross, your breath will be like an asstray etc. etc. etc. LOLOLZZZ" type comments. Let's keep it to health-specifics. I don't care what other people think about the taste of cigarettes. But I do care about your opinions on health.

If you keep the smoking level down, let's say, to 5-6 cigarettes a week, typically with my whiskey or gin, is it that big of a deal? Are the carcinogens THAT bad, that makes it so much worse than walking in the city or inhaling some car exhaust?

I read an article that says smoking just one cigarette can kill you. I think that's obsurd. I think what they are trying to do is keep people from smoking at all since they are so addictive. That I can agree with it. Takes alot of will power to smoke in moderation.

Thoughts?

 

[Vice]

I never picked up smoking, and I've noticed that in High School kids would always try to get me to start. Now I'll be hanging out in the smoking area (read: quiter area) and I'll mention that I've never smoked before and that I would like to try, and I'll have a bunch of people tell me not to do it.

Funny.

But I'd kick it before it becomes a habit. My buddy was the same way as you. Now he's addicted.

 

[Alle_Gory]

I don't smoke but I will have a cigar once in awhile for special occasions.

I'm not going to get addicted to some cheap tar filled garbage that smells like ass. And it becomes addiction if done regularly.

 

[ArcBound]

No one starts using a substance thinking that they will be addicted, and they do end up being addicted anyways.

My dad is addicted to cigs and he always tells me to never try them, or I'll end up in his position. You'll smoke in moderation now, but when major stress hits you, you might amp up the number of cigs you smoke easily. If you can quit, you should, might as well limit how much carcinogens enter your body no matter how little.

 

[Deep Dish]

In the 1860 edition of Atlantic magazine, an essayist wrote "We have proved to our own satisfaction, and we hope to theirs, that tobacco in moderation neither affects the health nor shortens life; that it does not create an appetite for stimulants, but rather supplies their place; and that it favors sociality and domestic habits more than the reverse" (source). However, about 150 years later, we now find:

[It’s] a myth to believe that if you smoke only two cigarettes a week for example, or just on the weekends, that it won't affect your health. Even a few cigarettes can increase your blood pressure, and put you at a slightly increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Some studies show that young smokers who light up only occasionally have signs of artery disease. And though their risk of developing cancer is nowhere near that of a regular smoker, compared with a non-smoker, the risk is elevated.

—Dr Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical correspondent

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/25/is-an-occasional-cigarette-that-bad-for-you/

A 2005 study in Norway found smoking 1-4 cigarettes a day increases men's risk of heart disease and lung cancer by three times (source). A 2009 study found a 64% increase of heart disease for three cigarettes a day (source). Men generally have a 3% lifetime risk of heart disease, so increasing the chance by 64% to 5% would seem of marginal difference, but three times (200%) to 9% could prove significant. Men generally have a 8% chance for lung cancer, so the increased risk would be 24% (if the 2005 study is right; 2009 study didn't consider lung cancer).

I always like to say that if you're going to smoke, do weed. It doesn't cause lung cancer (source), shrinks lung tumors (source), and the risk of getting a heart attack in the hour after smoking a joint is barely measurable (source). Plus, it feels really, really good.

 

[horaholic]

Here's why it's bad: If only smoke five cigarettes a week, you will spend your time craving that next cigarette, making you more addicted. Its why weaning yourself off cigarettes slowly, almost never works. you end up 'treasuring' the thought of the next cigarette. The only way to not be a smoker is to not want a smoke. limiting yourself, makes the smoke more valuable to you. I haven;t had so much as a drag in a year and a half, because I finally figured out that to stop smoking, you need to not only STOP smoking, but not to want to smoke in the first place. In many ways, people who limit their smoking are more of a slave to nicotine as a two pack a day smoker.

For more information, google Alan Carr's easy way to quit smoking. He explains it WAY better than I can.

 

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

Carcinogens affect everyone differently. There is no set amount of toxins that will suddenly make you have cancer. What we do know is that the more you expose yourself to carcinogens the greater your chance of developing cancer and other health problems. Some people are lucky and will smoke every day of their life and never develop cancer but most people will have some health consequences.

And car exhaust, although it smells bad, is not even close to what cigarettes are putting off into the air.

 

[speed dawg]

Interesting replies.

For you guys talking about addition, you are right. I was addicted to smoking very much. So much they I have now quit. But I still crave the act of the smoking, especially on football Saturdays or when I'm at parties and want to take a break or something. And even more when I'm driving for work. I know full well the dangers of 'just smoking here and there' and how it turns into full blown addiction because I've been through it.

Deep Dish, thanks for the insight and stats. Good info. I'd love to smoke weed and used to all the time, but unfortunately a career and the possibility of being piss tested stops that in its tracks. Plus, smoking a joint isn't quite the same as a cigarette ie I smoke them for different reasons.

 

[PDubb75]

Takes alot of will power to smoke in moderation.

This was the line that just had me stop and think. Even if smoking in moderation wasn't "that bad", why not use that will power to just stop all together?

I agree with everyone that it is still horrible for your body. It's a deadly, expensive habit with no real purpose.

 

[Quiksilver]

Smoking in moderation is only moderately bad.

If you don't physically exert yourself on a regular basis then you won't notice the 'moderately bad' effects, until you do.

I read a statistic once ... That each cigarette takes around 7 minutes off your life. Is that legit or is it a quip that it takes around 7 mins to smoke a cig?

 

[SgtSplacker]

I think that most things in moderation are ok. Just be careful your not building an addiction. When your taking things into your body that are addicting you have to really watch how you take these things. You must focus on not taking these things on a schedule or the same time every day. Quitting for a random period of time just to clean up is good every once in a while. These little exercises keep your addiction under control. I have a very liberal outlook on substance abuse that is not very common. There are things I enjoy in my life every so often and I want to enjoy these things for years to come. Not binge on them, then have to cut them out altogether later on...

 

[Thalowass]

Here's why it's bad: If only smoke five cigarettes a week, you will spend your time craving that next cigarette, making you more addicted. Its why weaning yourself off cigarettes slowly, almost never works. you end up 'treasuring' the thought of the next cigarette. The only way to not be a smoker is to not want a smoke. limiting yourself, makes the smoke more valuable to you. I haven;t had so much as a drag in a year and a half, because I finally figured out that to stop smoking, you need to not only STOP smoking, but not to want to smoke in the first place. In many ways, people who limit their smoking are more of a slave to nicotine as a two pack a day smoker.

For more information, google Alan Carr's easy way to quit smoking. He explains it WAY better than I can.

You should ask this question to your mind. we all know cigarette is injurious to health so why you are waiting for. you just make sympathy on your mind. you need to give up this.

 

[backseatjuan]

Man, dealing with my smoking habit which got bad since I moved to Russia, and I tell you, smoking even 1 cigarette in a year is bad, that's my opinion. Better to smoke weed with your whiskey, it's all natural, than those cigarettes, which are chemicals.

 

[backseatjuan]

but I recommend you find a brand that's not loaded with chemicals.

These http://www.cigbuynow.com/cigarettes/belomorcanal.php.html
and Cuban cigars aren't packed with chemicals, everything else is packed with chemicals.

Marijuana is packed with chemicals too, called THC, but I heard it's good for you.

 

[dasein]

Longtime smoker, was very difficult to quit. What finally did it wasn't heart or cancer scare, but gum, mouth and bone scare. Your mouth is the gateway to your overall health, and gum disease is often the first step of dread disease let alone tooth loss and facial structure problems. If your gums are inflamed, tender or receding at all, you are in high risk for all kinds of diseases. Tobacco wreaks hell in your mouth and on your gums... in small amounts. If you have a history of arthritis, joint or bone issues in your family, you WILL in all likelihood get arthritis early as a smoker. That's constant pain, my mother has to take the equivalent of 20 Tylenols a day just to -walk- without crying.

And the big thing for men seeking women is that there are lots of women out there now who absolutely will not f or even kiss a smoker of any type. Some of them will never tell you this, and some of them will even smoke while drinking themselves. My estimate is about 30% of women will immediately turn off a guy when they see him smoke. Yet smoking doesn't give you any advantage with any women at all IME. This becomes more pronounced the older you get. Is that the kind of handicap you want to inflict on yourself in a dating pool full of weak options already?

 

[Bible_Belt]

The tobacco plant is radioactive. That's why smoking it causes cancer.

 

[backseatjuan]

The tobacco plant is radioactive. That's why smoking it causes cancer.

Yep, simpsons is a nice cartoon.

 

[Bible_Belt]

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/forum/218/radioactive-tobacco.2012-07-15

It's a well established but little known fact that commercially grown tobacco is contaminated with radiation. The major source of this radiation is phosphate fertilizer. The big tobacco companies all use chemical phosphate fertilizer, which is high in radioactive metals, year after year on the same soil. These metals build up in the soil, attach themselves to the resinous tobacco leaf and ride tobacco trichomes in tobacco smoke, gathering in small "hot spots" in the small-air passageways of the lungs. Tobacco is especially effective at absorbing radioactive elements from phosphate fertilizers, and also from naturally occurring radiation in the soil, air, and water.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/so-about-that-glowing-cigarette/
the industry was well aware of the presence of a radioactive substance in tobacco as early as 1959.

 

[user43770]

Yes, smoking in moderation is bad for you. So is having sex with strangers, drinking alcohol, eating processed foods, talking on cell phones and driving motor vehicles.


If you think about it, being alive is basically bad for you. We're all slowly dying, no matter what we do.


Live life to the fullest, however you see fit.

 

[speed dawg]

Live life to the fullest, however you see fit.

Funny enough I see this old thread bumped, but in the spirit of your reply, there really is nothing better than riding down the road with a brew in the console and a scig in my left hand on a spring day with the windows down. Living life well, IMO.

And yes, sometimes I do drink and drive down the backroads of rural southern America. I like to party n sh*t.