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

a reply to: danielsil18

The benefits of smoking - that is a very very complex topic obscured by many junk science studies.

However - you can start by googling "smoker's Paradox" (smokers more likely to survive a heart attack, thought to be connected to the action of nicotene to stimulate blood vessel growth and speed healing)

Asthma - www.jimmunol.org...

hese results suggest that nicotine modulates allergy/asthma primarily by suppressing eosinophil trafficking and suppressing Th2 cytokine/chemokine responses without reducing goblet cell metaplasia or mucous production and may explain the lower risk of allergic diseases in smokers. To our knowledge this is the first direct evidence that nicotine modulates allergic responses.

Smoking and the prevention of asthma and allergies

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

This study demonstrates an association between current exposure to tobacco smoke and a low risk for atopic disorders in smokers themselves and a similar tendency in their children. There is a need for further studies with a prospective design to certify the causal direction of this association. Smoking habits and atopic disorder in parents should not be considered independent variables in epidemiological studies of the connection between exposure to tobacco smoke and atopy in children.

That is just a couple of examples because what comes next is that you try to convince me that I am wrong and that the benefits of quitting smoking far outway the benefits of smoking yada yada yada (usual anti-smoking propoganda) and I will have done a bunch of research for you for absolutely nothing at all.

It really comes down to this:

I am the only one in this world who can say what is "good" for me. I am not required by anyone's ideology to enter into the perpetual race to deliver the best preserved body to the undertaker. I and only can say what makes my life worth living.

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

Now answer my question:

Why would it be the worst thing if people believed me?

A 24 year old in training to be a neurosurgeon?????

You seem to be very biased against smoking for someone who has never done it?

Tired of Control Freaks

originally posted by: danielsil18
a reply to: woodwardjnr

You can smoke and drink how ever many times you want. My question is why did you start smoking.

Unfortunately I don't do either anymore. Why did I start? Because I thought it was cool.

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

The benefits of smoking - that is a very very complex topic obscured by many junk science studies.

I'm guessing you call "junk science" anything that shows smoking is harmful. Actually you also call it "anti-smoking propaganda".

I've never talked to someone so inclined to defend smoking as if it was water.

what comes next is that you try to convince me that I am wrong and that the benefits of quitting smoking far outway the benefits of smoking yada yada yada (usual anti-smoking propoganda)

I'm not going to try to convince you of anything. You can smoke as long as you want, its not my life. It would be interesting if you know the harmfulness of smoking.

I am the only one in this world who can say what is "good" for me. I am not required by anyone's ideology to enter into the perpetual race to deliver the best preserved body to the undertaker. I and only can say what makes my life worth living.

I understand that, that's why i didnt come here to tell anyone to change their ways. The thread was to ask smokers why they started smoking, what was their reasoning while they made the decision to start.

You made it into this "employee of an anti-smoking propaganda sponsored by big pharma coming to tell people to try their remedies". I can see why you joined ATS. You fit here very well, i dont. I've noticed from this thread alone that there are many people who are not sane.

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

A 24 year old in training to be a neurosurgeon?????

no one should believe you. Everyone should be doing their own research.

Why would it be the worst thing if people believed me?

yes, i'm in medical school planning on becoming a neurosurgeon.

You seem to be very biased against smoking for someone who has never done it?

It's not about being biased, you should even know how harmful it is. You also dont have to be a police to know how dangerous it is.

originally posted by: danielsil18

originally posted by: g146541

Why ask?
Just do it or don't.
Be your own guide and stop following.

Because i want to know what goes in people's heads when they start smoking.

Who cares, what are you going to do with any information you are given?
Who even cares if you care?
Leave people be. That would be the noblest thing to do.

I went to sunday school as a child. I was told about burning offerings to please God.

Since I was told that burning animals was bad, smoking was the next best thing.

a reply to: Hecate666

I've noticed a lot of people in here get emotional just because someone asked a question.

I'm guessing it's wrong to ask questions in ATS because people start crying about it.

Did you notice that some people actually answered without a problem? then comes some emotional people who think that i shouldnt care. Ironic that maybe you will ask another day why people don't care for each other.

I'm studying medicine and im interested in the psychology behind the decision to start smoking from the answers of people who started smoking.

But i can see i came to the wrong website where people call you a "troll" or an "employee from an anti-smoking company paid by big pharma" just because they didnt get the point of the thread.

a reply to: danielsil18

Its part of of youth, where you think your invincible and don't really think about the future. The same reason people will ride bikes without helmets, do bungee jumps, drive without a seat belt on, drink white lighting cider etc etc.

I started smoking at the age of 11. I did it because that is what mom and dad did. We could steal their cigarettes when they were drunk. That also made us the cool kids in one of the toughest neighborhoods in town. I can't really say it has harmed my overall health. I was on the football team, wrestling team, and can still run 5 miles. It does take me longer now than it used to though. I cut my smoking way back from a pack a day to one or two cigarettes a day about 8 years ago. My oldest boy is eight, see a connection there?

originally posted by: danielsil18

I would also disagree that smoking is pleasurable. People don't smoke to get pleasure from it, they do it because their body is asking for nicotine. That's a big difference.

It's one thing to do something for pleasure, it's another thing to do it for addictiveness.

THIS, RIGHT HERE, is where you show your abject ignorance. You have NO IDEA what you are talking about. You sit there all high and might telling other people what is and is not pleasurable, then attempt to lecture them on what is and is not addiction.

How completely foolish of you.

Trying to explain the pleasure of smoking to someone like you, who has never smoked, has no experience, and is dealing with this from a detached, ivory-tower perspective, is like trying to explain to a virgin who has never masturbated about the pleasure of sex.

You just don't get it, yet you are pontificating about it. You have no credibility, and yammering on about it just makes you look ridiculous.

a reply to: danielsil18

what I call junk science when the only available evidence is epidimiology that verifies correlations with some very shoddy statistics and then proceeds to claim causation.

Is there another name for it?

I notice that when I produce peer-reviewed studies published in respectable journals with not only epidimiology but also possible biological pathways - you dismiss it.

Please don't become a medical anything .....you are not going to be very good at it.

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: schuyler

Another person that got emotional from it. Sigh...

Right there I meant that people dont choose to do it from pleasure. Their body asks for nicotine and they get the urge to do it. It's different from the decision of going to jog. Nothing in the body urges the person to jog.

How many more people will get emotional from my question?

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

The harms of smoking didnt just come from epidimology, but i dont expect you to know that.

When did i dismiss the journals?

Please don't become a medical anything .....you are not going to be very good at it.

Great advice! want me to be like you and seat all day long at home smoking?

a reply to: danielsil18

The harms of smoking didn't just come from epidimiology - Care to prove that?


Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

I cant believe im wasting my time with someone who believes in conspiracies like "big pharma", says smoking is good for you when its obvious the harm far out weights it, who compares smoking with food and jogging, who calls "anti-smoking propaganda" to anything that shows smoking is harmful, etc.

Tell me what have you accomplished in life. Just so i can follow your highly respectable opinion of leaving medical school.

a reply to: danielsil18

Ask anyone who exercises regularly. You can't just stop exercising, your body demands that you get up and go. Even when your brain and heart wants to sleep, you have to go and get in that session.

www.psychologytoday.com...

Yes, exercise can activate the brain's pleasure circuit. And so, like nicotine or orgasm or food or gambling, it can become a substrate for addiction as well. This can indeed be a genuine addiction, not merely one as expressed in a common usage like, "I'm addicted to sleeping on 600-thread-count sheets." Real exercise addicts display all of the hallmarks of substance addicts: tolerance, craving, withdrawal, and the need to exercise "just to feel normal." Does this make exercise a virtue, a vice, or a little of both?

So now we can see that, in addition to mindlessly believing everything you are told, you are also sedentary. We know this because those of us who are actually regularly active, know the feeling when something interrupts our routine.

Don't you know that sitting is the new tobacco?

blog.childrenandnature.org... ity/

If you are going to be that unhealthy, why don't you just take up smoking as well?

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: danielsil18

Well I used to be a registered nurse until my mid-30s, then I accomplished a complete career change and became an investigator. I am a highly respected professional, earning 6-figures and looking forward to an early retirement

But I am sure that doesn't even compare with your mountain of accomplishments.

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: danielsil18

Before we can even discuss the benefit vs harm of smoking, we need to prove the harm!

Please provide the proof of harm that DOESN'T involve epidimiology?

Would you like to explain to me the P53 mutation in the type of lung cancer that smokers get. Then I can respond by saying the P53 mutation is caused by an HPV infection and we can then discuss how HPV is now known to cause at least 25 % of all lung cancers and how lung cancer incidence today is mostly occurring in never-smoking woman.

So where is your proof?

Tired of Control Freaks

a reply to: TiredofControlFreaks

Ask anyone who exercises regularly. You can't just stop exercising, your body demands that you get up and go. Even when your brain and heart wants to sleep, you have to go and get in that session.

I exercise everyday and no, i cant exercise when my body needs rest. It becomes a routine but not an addiction. You can google "exercise addictive" all you want, but its not an addiction like nicotine. My body doesnt ask my to jog while im in the class.

Don't you know that sitting is the new tobacco?

blog.childrenandnature.org... ity/

If you are going to be that unhealthy, why don't you just take up smoking as well?

Wow... you are just a bad influence. "If you sit... why dont you just go start smoking" or "dont study medicine".

I want to know what you accomplished in life. What's your job?