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onehandle

(51,122 posts)
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 11:51 AM Jun 2016

No Such Thing as a Healthy Smoker

Smokers who think they are escaping the lung-damaging effects of inhaled tobacco smoke may have to think again, according to the findings of two major new studies, one of which the author originally titled “Myth of the Healthy Smoker.”

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D., may be among the best known dangers of smoking, and current and former smokers can be checked for that with a test called spirometry that measures how much air they can inhale and how much and how quickly they can exhale. Unfortunately, this simple test is often skipped during routine medical checkups of people with a history of smoking. But more important, even when spirometry is done, the new studies prove that the test often fails to detect serious lung abnormalities that cause chronic cough and sputum production and compromise a person’s breathing, energy level, risk of serious infections and quality of life.

“Current or former smokers without airflow obstruction may assume that they are disease-free,” but that’s not necessarily the case, one of the research teams pointed out. These researchers projected that there are 35 million current or former smokers older than 55 in the United States with unrecognized smoking-caused lung disease or impairments. Many, if not most, of these people could get worse with time, even if they have quit smoking. They are also unlikely to be referred for pulmonary rehabilitation, a treatment that can head off encroaching disability.

snip...

Most critical, of course, is for smokers with or without symptoms of lung disease to quit smoking, which can reduce the severity of respiratory symptoms and slow the decline in lung function, Dr. Regan’s team wrote. However, the team added, quitting smoking “does not eliminate the risk of progressive lung disease,” which means that the lungs of former smokers may need to be examined periodically.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/no-such-thing-as-a-healthy-smoker

Bottom line, if you have ever smoked, or have been often exposed to second-hand smoke, your future has been adversely impacted.

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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No Such Thing as a Healthy Smoker (Original Post) onehandle Jun 2016 OP
I quit during the Carter administration... Wounded Bear Jun 2016 #1
Nicotine is more addictive than heroin. nt onehandle Jun 2016 #2
It Depends on Whose Criteria You Use Major Nikon Jun 2016 #7
The link doesn't match your assertion Major Nikon Jun 2016 #3
Not in that article, but 'There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.' onehandle Jun 2016 #4
I don't think there's much question that there are risks and consequences with passive smoking Major Nikon Jun 2016 #5
Gotta go somehow.... n/t PasadenaTrudy Jun 2016 #6
My step-mother ronnie624 Jun 2016 #9
Message auto-removed Name removed Jun 2016 #8

Wounded Bear

(58,440 posts)
1. I quit during the Carter administration...
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 11:58 AM
Jun 2016

Never looked back after that. It was my third serious attempt, and it worked.

I never nag smokers, but I'd prefer to avoid them in close quarters if they are using. Many times, I can smell it on their clothes and hair. It is unpleasant. My siblings smoked into their 60's. The two oldest are gone now, others have some problems, one of which has symptoms directly associated with smoking, including hardening of the arteries and other circulatory distress.

Don't start, and if you have started, quit as soon as you can. It can be the hardest one to kick. I've known people who kicked serious alcohol addictions who still smoked many years after. It's a toughie.

Major Nikon

(36,814 posts)
7. It Depends on Whose Criteria You Use
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 09:43 PM
Jun 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/02/science/is-nicotine-addictive-it-depends-on-whose-criteria-you-use.html

Nicotine is slightly harder to quit than heroin, but heroin produces more severe withdraw symptoms and a much higher reward for usage. What makes cigarettes so insidious is that most people who use them regularly will do so on a daily basis. A pack a day habit means you are using more than one per waking hour.

Major Nikon

(36,814 posts)
3. The link doesn't match your assertion
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 12:29 PM
Jun 2016

Second-hand smoke wasn't even mentioned in the article or either study reference by the article. Both studies looked at chronic cigarette smokers who had smoked > 1 pack per day for at least 20 years, so neither of the studies addressed cigar or pipe smokers, or anyone who is an infrequent or lower volume cigarette smoker.

onehandle

(51,122 posts)
4. Not in that article, but 'There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.'
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 12:39 PM
Jun 2016

Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers. Secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic and about 70 can cause cancer.

Since the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report, 2.5 million adults who were nonsmokers died because they breathed secondhand smoke.

There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke causes numerous health problems in infants and children, including more frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Smoking during pregnancy results in more than 1,000 infant deaths annually.
Some of the health conditions caused by secondhand smoke in adults include coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/health_effects

I know several people who were adversely affected by other's smoking. At least one died because of if.

Major Nikon

(36,814 posts)
5. I don't think there's much question that there are risks and consequences with passive smoking
Mon Jun 20, 2016, 06:21 PM
Jun 2016

However, I don't know of anything that equates those risks and consequences to someone who smokes > 1 pack per day for decades.

ronnie624

(5,764 posts)
9. My step-mother
Tue Jun 21, 2016, 01:16 AM
Jun 2016

spent the last twenty years of her life gasping and caughing while lugging around an oxygen tank, until she finally succumbed to lung cancer. She was absolutely miserable ALL the time. I wanted to avoid that, so I quit. I don't expect to cheat death, but my remaining years will probably be much more comfortable than they would have been, had I continued smoking.

Response to onehandle (Original post)

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