I have a question for those who smoke or used to smoke

originally posted by: danielsil18


Basically what I want to know is why do people start smoking?

Swiped my first cigarette at around the age of 7.
Being kids we went and hid in the woods and smoked it.

Then we were swiping packs after that, and the rest is history.

As to why? I do not know, perhaps we were all trying to be cool back then.
I blame it on the movie The Warriors...
cause we all watched it then started a gang and started smoking...

lol

I started smoking when I was about twenty eight. I always had a persistent cough, I noticed I didn't cough around smoke. So I started to smoke. I only smoke about a half a pack a day usually, I increased it up to a pack one time, but it negatively effects me if I smoke that much. It helps me to think clearer most times also. My biggest problem with lungs came from working with dust all the time, insulating and carpentry work. Cutting block or cement isn't the best either, neither is sanding drywall before priming. The high calcium dusts seem to be the worst.

I think people smoked for self medication and to suppress their appetite. Nicotine does increase insulin, this can give people more energy sometimes. It also can open cells like acetylcholine can to allow uptake of the sugars. Look at all the people now that are type 2 diabetic, maybe if they didn't quit smoking they might not have type two diabetes. Tobacco does stop the apoptosis of damaged cells though, You should drink coffee when you smoke. Certain caffeic acids help with that.

I'm not trying to say that anyone should start smoking or quit smoking, that is a personal choice. It all depends on the state of each person's body. Some people do better when they quit, others do worse and wind up taking medicines within a few years since they quit self medicating. Now, I can't say that pharmaceuticals are any safer than cigarettes half the time. It all depends on each person. Usually the good benefits of tobacco use start to diminish after a half a pack. Over a pack and it is almost always negative.

Even if I were to quit, I could never say that cigarettes are bad for someone, I know too much about this subject.

a reply to: Aldakoopa

Don't mind him/her. Tiredof thinks you are also working for "big pharma" in this huge conspiracy where we are making propaganda against smokers.

originally posted by: TiredofControlFreaks
a reply to: Aldakoopa

Aldakoopa

See now - this is a primary example of how anti-smokers get the script wrong!

Smoking aggrevates asthma and makes it worse - right? And that is right because you all have read the studies and that was the conclusion right?

Except that smokers - particularly smokers with asthma know that smoking a cigarette actually helps asthma (it may have to do with temperature)

www.booksie.com...

Smokers also know that it is not smoking that makes you cough - its quitting smoking~

Tired of Control Freaks

Right, but sometimes a certain herb when smoked makes people calm and mellow, and others it gives anxiety and panic attacks. Not every chemical we put in our bodies affects everybody the same way.

a reply to: Aldakoopa

Well I certainly have to agree with you there.

So how old were you when you picked up that pack of Marlboro's
Tired of Control Freaks

originally posted by: danielsil18
a reply to: Aldakoopa

Was it pleasurable to you?

Yes, it was. I enjoyed smoking the entire time up until I couldn't put up with the cough anymore.

Which, by the way, has finally gone after I quit smoking for good, no matter what Tiredof says.

originally posted by: TiredofControlFreaks
a reply to: Aldakoopa

Well I certainly have to agree with you there.

So how old were you when you picked up that pack of Marlboro's
Tired of Control Freaks

22

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks
My Uncle being a 40+ year firefighter could probably weigh in on this as he used to tell me that the firefighters who smoked handled the smoke days better than the "sissy non smokers". (his words not mine).
Kind of akin to how being a plumber and always exposing myself to filth, I never get sick.
Building up an immunity or something.
Anyway my uncle died when he was in his 70's....due to a non smoking related cause that we will not put here on ATS.
Possibly because it would be in bad taste and probably against the T$C.

a reply to: rickymouse

You were very matured by the time you started, but you did it as a medication.

Nicotine does increase insulin, this can give people more energy sometimes.

Actually what I learned is that it cause insulin resistance, which is basically prediabetes.

a reply to: Aldakoopa

Did anyone in your family smoke a lot?

Beasically my question is if you were around a lot when someone else was smoking?

a reply to: danielsil18

eating and jogging are exactly the same as smoking - its all human activities. Eating is for survival but also for pleasure. Jogging is for cardio but also for pleasure. Smoking has many immediate benefits but is also for pleasure.

Its all activities that human beings do!

The fact that you said you were only here to ask a question but immediately provided a description of smoking that is 100 % negative without any recognition of the pleasure and the fact that even when people tell you its for the pleasure is what really gives you away.

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: danielsil18

Nope, not the same thing at all. It also opens the cells to use the product. The insulin created can make you constipated though.

Edit: Now if you smoke a real lot, it can overload the cells and possibly cause temporary resistance. Any nitrogen product can do that. Like putting red hot on a sore muscle. Basically it is the nitrogen. Think nitrous oxide

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

eating and jogging are exactly the same as smoking

Of course

Smoking has many immediate benefits but is also for pleasure.

Right, it has many benefits and it doesnt harm the cells throughout your body.

Its all activities that human beings do!

Difference is that we benefit from some and other harm us.

The fact that you said you were only here to ask a question but immediately provided a description of smoking that is 100 % negative without any recognition of the pleasure and the fact that even when people tell you its for the pleasure is what really gives you away.

The question was why people start since mostly there is no pleasure at the start. But i have one member here who told me it was pleasurable at the start for him. I want to see why.

I also dont get how you can say that smoking has benefits and that its the same as eating or jogging. The worse thing would be if people agree with you.

Answer me this, how old are you?

a reply to: danielsil18

I am 58. I have been studying everything having to do with smoking, including almost all the studies that have been done since Doll. (no maybe back to the Nazi's and their anti-smoking movement that centered on passive smoking and all their smoking bans that inspired the current round of prohibition)

And how old are you little boy - that you can't believe that smoking is pleasurable and a human activity.

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: rickymouse

Where did you read that nicotine causes an increase of insulin and not a resistance of insulin?

a reply to: danielsil18

Now - just exactly why would it be the "worst" thing if people agreed with me that smoking has benefits?


Tired of Controll Freaks

I started smoking at age 3.
I started because my father thought it would be comical to light one of his cigars for me.
Then he would have me smoke them in front of his friends and even our relatives, just for a laugh. I remember one of my aunts telling him that I shouldn't be allowed to smoke because it would stunt my growth.
I used to swipe his cigarettes and chewing tobacco until I was 15, then the general store would sell me cigarettes.

I quit for nine years once.

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

I know smoking is pleasurable after your body starts to ask you for more nicotine and it obviously is a human activity.

I'm 24. I also want you to tell me the "benefits" that you learned from smoking.

a reply to: butcherguy

I would call that parent abuse. But you didnt start smoking, your father started it for you.

a reply to: butcherguy

I was wondering if I should put that in my answer as to why, but figured I didn't start until I was 7, but when I was around 2 or 3, my babysitter left a burning cig in the ashtray and as my mom walked in the door I grabbed it and started smoking it. I am unsure if my babysitter gave me cigs or not at that young of an age, however your story reminded me of that fact. I have no memory of it, just what I was told by my mom.