Nicotine addiction and schizophrenia: some staggering numbers

[Shine]

2.5 million people in the US have schizophrenia, which is about 1% of the population.

Approx. 23% of the general population smokes, but those who have a serious mental illness show rates of 45% or more, with 70-90% common among people with schizophrenia.

Essentially that means nearly half of all cigarettes sold in the US are sold to people with mental illness and people with schizophrenia are particularly vulnerable to nicotine addiction.

In the US alone, smoking causes more than 440,000 people to die prematurely each year due to nicotine addiction...and another 53,000 from secondhand smoke.

Whew. Amazing. :wow: I just finished a paper on this topic for my grad level addictions class and was pretty blown away (no pun intended) by those statistics.

[Mojorabbit]

1. I don't think this is anything new

A lot of people self medicate. I know a lot of ADD smokers.

[Shine]

12. Most of us know mentally ill people tend to smoke but the actual

numbers were really quite stunning, I thought.

[anigbrowl]

21. You may find this of interest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)

In brief, the theory that consciousness is a learned behavior which displaces a naturally schizophrenic state.

[NashVegas]

38. Funny You Should Say That

I started at 13/14, and smoked for 30 years. In the first few months after finally stopping, the main thing I noticed was how *spastic* I felt all the time.

[Mojorabbit]

49. It always happens

to me when I try and quit. I cannot focus at all.Going to try again in the new year. I started when I was the same age as you fourty years ago. My sister has never regained her focus and she quit ten years ago. Her ADD sx surged and she is now on a pharmaceutical to manage them with limited success. She is one of many I know that self medicated without realizing it.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. How do we know that it is not the other way around...that smoking

might bring out schizophrenia/mental illness in anyone who might be genetically predisposed to it?

[Shine]

6. I did see some research that indicated that possibility

I have a BIL that is in this population. Prior to his first psychotic break he had never smoked. That was 27 yrs ago. Now he smokes up to 2-3 packs A DAY. He says it calms his symptoms and relaxes him.
He knows it's bad for him but essentially he has no motivation to quit.

He's lost all his teeth and has to wear dentures b/c of his addiction...and he's only 47.

:(

[zagging]

43. He lost his teeth because he smokes?

I would LOVE to see some clinical research on that whopper.

[FedUpWithIt All]

53. Smoking nicotine reduces saliva and PH balance which increases odds of gum disease.

Smoking works against oral health on a number of levels:

Smoking tends to dry out the oral tissues, reducing salivary flow. Saliva contains enzymes and electrolytes that help maintain proper pH.

Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor. This reduces blood flow to the oral tissues causing a reduction in oxygen and vital nutrients needed by the tissues and cells.

Nicotine is toxic to cells called fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are cells that grow and replace worn out collagen (connective tissue). Consequently, there tends to be a net loss of connective tissue in the gingiva and bones of smokers.

It has also been found that nicotine tends to up-regulate the inflammatory mediators that destroy periodontal attachment in gum disease. This means the body's immune system tends to be over exuberant in its attempts to defend itself against bacterial infection. This results in more tissue destruction when compared to non-smokers.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_can_smoking_cause_gingivitis

[Shine]

55. well, it was a combination of bad personal hygiene habits

as a result of his mental illness AND the effects of the nicotine, tar, etc...on his gums that comes from his constant smoking habit. :(

[OregonBlue]

19. I have a bi-polar ADD son. He was diagnosed many, many years before he started smoking.

I know many of his friends and fellow patients who are also bi-polar and most of them have had the disorder since childhood. I don't buy that theory.

[Prophet 451]

61. You're kidding, right?

Pull up the stats from the forties and fifties and you'll find that the proportion of smokers was vastly higher but the proportion of serious mental illnesses wasn't. Currently, the proportion of people smoking is going down but the proportion of people suffering from serious mental illnesses is going up (albeit very gradually, once you take population growth into account).

Also, my youngest brother was diagnosed autistic at the age of four and a half. He didn't start smoking until he was seventeen (and quit again six months later).

[graywarrior]

3. Where did you get those statitics?

Mr Gray does stop smoking programs and those would be useful.

[Shine]

8. various psych journal databases

ugh. I spent hours doing research. I'm finally fucking finished!

:hi:

[cbayer]

4. There is some general belief that nicotine and other substances in cigarette smoke

provide or support helpful neurotransmitters in the brains of people with schizophrenia. Psychiatric facilities that ban smoking often see significant increases in the use of injected sedatives, seclusion and restraint.

I think that if you have schizophrenia, smoking is low on the list of your overall problems.

:hi:

[Shine]

11. Yup, you're right about the neurotransmitters and their effect on the dopamine system

smoking bans have been mandated in treatment facilities since '92, but they're not enforced. Indeed, at the one my BIL lives in, people will smoke right next to the "No Smoking" sign. :eyes:

:hi:

[backscatter712]

20. I remember hearing that.

and I know a few friends with schizophrenia who smoke because it does alleviate their symptoms.

[ananda]

13. If that's the case,

then why aren't smoking derivatives
given to schizophrenics without the
dangers of smoking?

[BrklynLiberal]

22. That is an excellent question. My guess is that the chemical is not

something Big Pharma could make a large enough profit on.

[cbayer]

24. Good question.

In facilities that enforce no smoking policies, they are, but the patients report that they do not experience the same relief.
Also, nicotine substitutes are more expensive than cigarettes, generally not covered by insurance companies or covered only for a limited amount of time, and schizophrenics are generally on the very low end on the economic scale.

:hi:

[HamdenRice]

68. Yeah, I think the OP has the math and causation backwards. They are self-medicating

in the same way that smokers, when stressed out will smoke more (I used to smoke), mentally ill people, who feel much more stress, smoke much more. Plus, they are not concerned with long term issues like cancer, so they don't inhibit their smoking.

But the correlation is interesting.

[amdezurik]

5. as a newly non-smoking person

WTF is you point? you're numbers and conclusions are only designed to insult people you do not like. And since smoking is now a social negative you feel it is OK for you to smear an entire group of people and say they are all or at least half of them in-fucking-sane? It is a truism that “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”.

[Shine]

16. Wow, what's with the crankiness? I'm not attacking or smearing anyone

I was simply amazed by the stats and thought I'd share.

I'm sorry if you felt personally attacked, that was certainly not my intention.

Peace and good for you for quitting. :toast:

[RedCappedBandit]

37. Mental illness =/= insane

Whatever the hell you think "insane" means.
Get over yourself.
FYI, something like ~%40 of the population suffers from a mental illness at some point in their life.

[Lex]

41. WTF?

odd

[Juche]

47. As a person who has had a mental illness and now leads a symptom free life

WTF is your point? He wasn't trying to insult anyone, just pointing out how schizophrenics tend to smoke, likely because of the effects it has on anxiety and dopamine levels in the PFC and for control of weight gain associated with typical antipsychotics.

I hope to god nobody close to you has a mental illness anytime soon. If they do, I hope they have people other than you to ask for help.

EDIT: Yeah I know I'll catch hell for saying 'symptom free life' but alot of the prognosis for mental illnesses which say they are permanently progressive and you cannot ever recover were done a long time ago and/or on patients who were among the worst wrt symptoms. Long term prognosis shows there is a reasonable chance of making a full or largescale recovery, esp with a good social environment.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb00/schizophrenia.html

[Ron Green]

7. Considering that our nation began with Tobacco as its economic engine,

it's no surprise that the slavery and addiction of nicotine have been with us throughout our history. I remember in the '60s our "C" rations had little packs of 4 cigarettes with each meal, courtesy of our government for those troops who smoked (or who might want to begin.)

[FarCenter]

25. INTRODUCING TOBACCO TO CIVILISATION

Telephone rings

Yeh?...
Who is it, Frank?...
Sir Walter Raleigh?...
Yeh?...
Yeh, put him on, will you!
Hey, Harry... you wanna pick up the extension?...
Yeh! it's nutty Walter again!
Hi, Walter baby, how are you, guy? How's everything going?...
Oh, things are fine here, Walt!...
Did we get the what?...
Oh!, the boat load of turkeys, yeh! They arrived fine Walt, as a matter of fact they're still here, they're wonderin' all over London...
Well, y'see, that's an American holiday, Walt!!!...
What you got for us this time, Walt, you got another winner for us?
Tob-acco... er, what's tob-acco, Walt?...
It's a kind of leaf, huh?...
And you bought eighty tonnes of it?!!...
Let me get this straight, Walt, you've bought eighty tonnes of leaves? This may come as a kind of a surprise to you Walt but come fall in England, we're kinda upto our...
It isn't that kind of leaf, huh?...
Oh!, what kind is it then... some special kind of food?...
Not exactly?...
Oh, it has a lot of different uses, like, what are some of the uses, Walt?...
Are you saying 'snuff', Walt?...
What's snuff?...
You take a pinch of tobacco, ha! ha! ha!...
And you shove it up your nose. ha! ha! ha!...
and it makes you sneeze? ha! ha! ha!...
Yeh, I imagine it would, Walt! Hey, Goldenrod seems to do it pretty well over here!
It has other uses though, huh?...
You can chew it!...
Or put it in a pipe!...
Or you can shred it up...
And put it in a piece of paper. ha! ha! ha!...
And roll it up. ha ha ha...
Don't tell me, Walt, don't tell me. ha! ha! ha! you stick it in your ear, right? ha! ha! ha!...
Oh! between your lips!...
Then what do you do, Walt? ha! ha! ha!...
You set fire to it! ha! ha! ha!...
Then what do you do, Walt?...
Ha! ha! ha! You inhale the smoke, huh! ha! ha! ha!...
You know, Walt... it seems you can stand in front of your own fireplace and have the same thing going for you!
You see, Walt... we've been a little worried about you, y'know, ever since you put your cape down over that mud.
Y'see, Walt... I think you're gonna have rather a tough time selling people on sticking burning leaves in their mouthes...
It's going very big over there, is it?...
What's the matter, Walt?...
You spilt your what?...
Your coff-ee?.
What's coffee, Walt?...
That's a drink you make out of beans, huh? ha! ha! ha!...
That's going over very big there, too, is it?...
A lot of people have a cup of coffee right after their first cigarette in the morning, huh?...
Is that what you call the burning leaves, Walt?... cigarettes?...
I tell you what, Walt!, why don't you send us a boatload of those beans, too!
If you can talk people into putting those burning leaves in their mouthes... they've gotta go for those beans, Walt!... right?
Listen, Walt... don't call us... we'll call you!...
G'bye!

[etherealtruth]

67. Bob Newhart?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. ...

[Sanity Claws]

10. Your math seems off but this is still disturbing.

You indicated that addiction to cigarettes is about double the rate in persons with serious mental illness than those who do not have this problem. You then said that sales to persons with serious mental health issues accountsfor about one-half of all cigarettes sales. Assuming that persons smoke the same number of cigarettes whether they have a serious mental illness or not, this would mean that 25% of the general population falls into the serious mentally ill category. I don't think this true. The number is probably more like 10%.

[anigbrowl]

15. Correct/ Interesting OP nonetheless.

[BrklynLiberal]

26. Perhaps people with serious mental illness smoke more than those who do not

have such problems.

[Sanity Claws]

30. Perhaps

But nothing in this opening message stated that or otherwise explained the conclusionary jump that one-half of all cigarettes are sold to persons with serious mental illness. I would like to see something to document that conclusion.

[Shine]

54. Here's some documentation you wanted to see.

The American Journal on Addictions, 13:128–138, 2004
Copyright # American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry

"Specifying Cigarette Smoking and Quitting among People with Serious Mental Illness"
Alicia Lucksted, Ph.D., Colleen McGuire, M.A., Leticia Postrado,
Ph.D., Julie Kreyenbuhl, Pharm.D., Lisa B. Dixon, M.D., M.P.H.

While approximately 23% of the general
population smokes tobacco,
samples of people with serious mental illnesses
(SMI) show rates of 45% or more,
with 70–90% common among people with
schizophrenia. Reasons for this elevated
prevalence likely include neurological,
psychological, behavioral, and environmental
factors,along with increasing evidence
linking schizophrenia to a biochemical vulnerability

And this...

NIDA - Publications - National Institute on Drug Abuse- NIDA Notes - Vol. 20, No. 2 - Research Findings (August 2005)
By Patrick Zickler, NIDA NOTES Staff Writer

Nearly half of all cigarettes sold in the United States are sold to people with mental
illness, and men and women with mental disorders are twice as likely as the general
population to smoke. A recent NIDA-supported epidemiological analysis reveals
relationships between psychiatric disorders and smoking that have important
implications for public health. The findings suggest that treating psychiatric illness can
contribute to reductions in smoking intensity and nicotine addiction, and that
addressing smoking during substance abuse treatment is vital to counter an increased
risk for nicotine addiction that may accompany recovery.

I got this info off of psych journal databases, fyi. :hi:

[Fumesucker]

57. What percentage of the population still supports bushie?

Pretty close to 25% I believe.

QED

[Shine]

58. Hmmmmm.....good hypothesis for some research, Fumesucker

:rofl:

[kickysnana]

14. I read many times that nicotine calms some symptoms of schizophrenia

[OKNancy]

23. Not only that, but it calms the colon

and helps people with bowel disease.

[Mojorabbit]

44. Nicotine has a lot

of positive medicinal uses. It is the delivery system which is the problem.

[stillcool]

17. I would say that most of anything..

sold in this country, is sold to people with some kind of mental illness.

[old mark]

18. A lot of people with serious mental illness smoke, and a lot are

very heavy caffine users as well. Some of the standard medications for these diseases have very difficult and uncomfortable side effects and the caffine seems to lessen some of them. Also, many of these people are stuck in pretty boring and restrictive places for treatment, and use anything, even smoking, to relieve the unhappy conditions and to assert their personal integrity.

mark

[G_j]

45. yes, caffeine also

all your points are good. I might add that many of their care-givers/support people tend to smoke also.
That can be a stressful world.

[old mark]

66. I worked in a mental hospital for some years before retiring.

I am still winding down from the stress after a year and a half.

mark

[offog]

27. No suprise to me.

I've read a lot of articles about this. Marginalized people tend to smoke, and who's more marginalized than someone with a mental illness?

About 3 years ago, I spent 3 weeks in the local mental health ward due to severe depression, and I think I was the only non-smoker in the bunch. I guess for psychiatric patients, smoking is a way to relieve stress.

In Canada at least, a disproportionate number of low-income and Aboriginal people smoke too. The theory is that it's because smoking is about the only pleasure they get in life. I once read a column on Aboriginal issues about the high rate of smoking among Aboriginals, and one woman the writer talked to said flat out that smoking was her only source of pleasure, and she'd be damned if she would give it up. My Mom is a life-long smoker who's in a low-end nursing home and has had a couple of strokes. She has no interest in quitting smoking because she basically doesn't have anything else. The way Mom sees it, she's poor and disabled, and hasn't got much to enjoy.

From what I've read in the news, people with mental health problems are more inclined to get hooked into all kinds of addictions, not just smoking.

[Shine]

28. yeah, between lack of personal motivation to quit

and that fact that few mental health professional identify and treat tobacco use in their patients...it's hard to break the cycle of addiction.

[hedgehog]

29. According to popular wisdom, people at AA meetings tend to be heavy smokers, too.

[Sanity Claws]

33. I've known some recovering alcoholics

They tend to be very heavy coffee drinkers. I have not notice the cigarette thing, possibly because so many buildings ban smoking. I'd have to be outside to see it.

[readmoreoften]

31. Nicotine calms schizophrenia. Because of this my father can't really travel anywhere.

He has severe anxiety if he can't smoke. Oddly, the patch (etc.) doesn't work alone I think it must be another aspect of the tobacco as well as nicotine.

[amdezurik]

32. or maybe it's all those darned cats

or under-ccoked meat. Will you be advocating banning of those as well?

http://mediatum2.ub.tum.de/doc/621039/document.pdf

page 26 last paragraph...

[Waiting For Everyman]

34. IMO it's the seemingly normal who are the most insane. n/t

[jedr]

35. 100% of people who turn on light switches will die;

So does turning on light switches cause death? I'm not sure where you're going with this , but I'm sure your research is solid.

[Bluebear]

36. It bothers me when people quickly & smugly brand smokers as weak-willed losers

Clearly there is some neuro-beneficial effect, albeit in a deadly delivery system.

[janx]

40. It has a numbing effect.

Creative people often use drugs to numb themselves from the real world, whatever that is.

[ShortnFiery]

46. So true, why do you think that "Classic Rock" is still popular today?

Much of the "creative" ROCK music from the 60-70s was written ... "in altered consciousness." :blush:

Some of the most gifted music artists burn-out before they turned 30 y.o. ... emotional pain and creativity intertwine.

R.I.P. Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin :loveya:

[ShortnFiery]

42. Correlation is NOT Causation. Many studies find early death correlated with handedness.

However, there are many other VARIABLES (age, geographic location, size of study sample, replication of study findings, other illnesses, family structure, etc. etc.) that enter in (not controlled) to the mix.

Therefore, such data are merely entertaining notes of "correlations" - not appropriate to make valid conclusions. :(

[bluedawg12]

52. I have read that cigarettes are more addictive than heroin.

One thought is that for people sufferig from depression, nicotine works on the same neurotransmitters, seratonin and dopamine, that actual anti-depressent medications elevate, the SSRI's, so it may be a strategy to self medicate.

This might be of interest.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/287555-overview
April 2006

Research investigating why people smoke has shown that smoking behavior is multifaceted. Factors influencing smoking initiation differ from those of smoking behavior maintenance. Nicotine dependence, genetic factors, and psychosocial factors influence maintenance of smoking behavior.

<snip>

Nicotine meets the criteria of a highly addictive drug. Nicotine is a potent psychoactive drug that induces euphoria, serves as a reinforcer of its use, and leads to nicotine withdrawal syndrome when it is absent. As an addictive drug, nicotine has 2 very potent issues: it is a stimulant and it is also a depressant. For example, one smoker talked too lovingly about her cigarettes who are called her "best friend." They got her going in the morning, and they chilled her out during the day.

Nicotine in cigarette smoke affects mood and performance and is the source of addiction to tobacco. While cigarette manufacturers have publicly denied that nicotine is an addictive drug, recent documents disclose that they have known and used the addictive properties of nicotine since the 1950s. Unfortunately, this misinformation led to the false belief that nicotine use is a habit and not an addiction.

<snip>

Pathophysiology
Nicotine releases hormone noted in the following paragraphs that act on various receptors in the brain. Nicotine use results in more efficient processing of information and reduction of fatigue. In addition, nicotine has a sedative action, reduces anxiety, and induces euphoria. Nicotine effects are related to absolute blood levels and to the rate of increase in drug concentration at receptors.

Nicotine stimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary axis; this, in turn, stimulates the endocrine system. Continually increasing dose levels of nicotine are necessary to maintain the stimulating effects. With regards to dependence, some experts rank nicotine ahead of alcohol, cocaine, and heroin. A teenager who smokes as few as 4 cigarettes might develop a lifelong addiction to nicotine.

Small rapid doses of nicotine produce alertness and arousal, as opposed to long drawn-out doses, which induce relaxation and sedation. Nicotine has a pronounced effect on the major stress hormones. Nicotine stimulates hypothalamic corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), and it increases levels of endorphins, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), and arginine vasopressin in a dose-related manner. Corticosteroids also are released in proportion to plasma nicotine concentration.

Nicotine alters the bioavailability of dopamine and serotonin and causes a sharp increase in heart rate and blood pressure. Nicotine acts on brain reward mechanisms, indirectly through endogenous opioid activity and directly through dopamine pathways.

The association between depression and smoking is well established. A lifetime history of major depression is more than twice as common in people who smoke compared to people who do not smoke. A history of major depressive disorder is associated with a decreased ability to quit smoking and an increased likelihood of smoking relapse. Increased relapse rates of major depression after smoking cessation also have been described. In subjects with a history of major depression, smoking may be an attempt to decrease negative affect, and following a quit attempt, they are likely to experience greater symptoms of nicotine withdrawal compared to smokers without a history of depression. Therefore, in patients who are attempting to quit smoking, inquiring about present or past symptoms of depression and anxiety is advisable, and specific therapy may be indicated.

[Shine]

56. Yup, I've been reading all that kind of stuff for days now.

I'm completely fried.

I don't want a cigarette....I need a drink! :rofl:

[bluedawg12]

59. It's better for you

in moderation. :toast:

[Prophet 451]

60. Was about to say that

And for the record, I smoke heavily and have suffered from depression since my early teens.

[slay]

51. I totally support someone's right to smoke until their lungs are caked with tar

And I do empathise with addicts, but I have to wonder how people rationalize knowing the dangers of cigerettes and yet still choose to smoke them. I don't think it's the government's place to outlaw cigarettes though - all we can do is educate people about the dangers. If people still choose to do it, that's their right.

[Prophet 451]

64. Because we don't care

There's a tendancy to assume that longevity and perfect health are, or should be, the ultimate aim of all sane people. Many of us disagree. Many of the things we enjoy doing are bad for us. Sometimes, fun costs you. For those of us who enjoy smoking (and I accept that many smokers don't and should be helped to quit), we make a perfectly informed decision to trade X amount of life for the enjoyment we get from smoking.

Think of it as a savings bank. When you're born, you get X amount of time deposited in your life bank (exact amount varied by genetics, enviroment and luck). Smoke a ciggy, you withdraw a couple of days. Skip the burger and have a salad for lunch, you claw back a couple of hours.

Ever see those life expectancy quizes? I once did one of those with my father and compared scores. Now, granted, most of these quizes are crap but this one was from the BMJ (British Medical Journal) so they had at least tried to be scientific. My father's a health freak. His only "sins" are eating butter and drinking slightly more than is healthy, he gets 85. I'm slightly overweight, smoke like a chimney, have slightly high blood pressure and drink so much coffee, I virtually pee neat Nescafe. My score? 82. Three years difference. I like those three years, he can have the three years. Th elesson I took away from that is that firstly, genetics matter more than we like to think and secondly, my taste for green tea has surprising benefits. Interestingly (and saying a lot about quizes like this), it didn't take my mental health into account and while it did ask about illegal drugs, it didn't ask about abusing legal ones. I might be crazy but I'm pretty sure the odd joint in my teens did less damage to my health than the years-long serious abuse of narcotic painkillers from my late-teens to mid-twenties.

Finally, and this is purely personal, I don't care about my health. Probably not true of most smokers (I suffer from severe clinical depression) but I just don't care much.

[slay]

73. I hear ya

I too suffer from depression. I often self-medicate with some marijuana, so I can't claim not to be damaging my lungs as well. I guess a part of my problem with cigarettes is "big tobacco". If you've never seen the movie The Insider about big tobacco, it's quite good. But yeah I don't like the evilness of big tobacco. Also cigs smell bad and leave everything around them smelling like smoke. I feel like at least with weed I get a measurable effect from it where cigs (i used to smoke) never did much other than that nicotine relaxation buzz. But yeah man, if you're ok with smoking knowing you're an addict and knowing the dangers, I totally support your right to engage in whatever activities make you happy. Now if I could just get the government to allow me the same freedom to smoke weed I wouldn't have to hide from society just to be able to smoke my substance of choice. Doh.

[Prophet 451]

74. Fully agreed

Full disclosure: I haven't smoked pot in about fifteen years but I have been an active part of the CLC (Campaign to Legalise Cannabis, the UK's major pressure group) since I was a teenager. I never much cared for pot. No big moral or legal thing, just personal taste. From my point of view, pot is much the same as my other drug of choice, real ale. Both have mild mind-altering effects for a short time and both are relatively harmless if used responsibly. If my neighbour chooses to enjoy a joint where I choose a pint of Battleaxxe (for example), does it do me any harm? Not as far as I can see. He smokes his joint and enjoys it, I drink my pint and enjoy it and then we go about our day.

Fully agreed about big tobacco as well. This is part of the reason I handroll (although mainly because it's cheaper and tastes better) but if there's a way of avoiding dealing with them here (Britain), I've yet to figure it out.

[janx]

39. REALLY? NO SHIT? n/t

[safeinOhio]

48. I only smoke

when the voice in my head tells me to.

[mzmolly]

50. Nicotine is being used medicinally for mental illness

as it is shown to impact neurotransmitters.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/483888_4

[nolabels]

63. Yea but i quit smoking years ago and whole world is still crazy

I lament why-oh-why would such a numskull like * be installed into the office of the POTUS. Must be a weird case of cognitive dissonance or something :shrug:

[Prophet 451]

65. Republicans are crazy

I've come to the conclusion that Republicans (NOT genuine conservatives) are, to a man, either crazy, stupid or downright evil.

[Codeine]

62. Nice post, but the math is unbelievably off. nt

[Shine]

72. See post #54

for some documentation

:hi:

[DebJ]

69. A gene has been identified that is linked to three things:

depression, alcohol abuse, and tobacco use.

[undeterred]

70. People with Inflammatory Bowel Disease tend to smoke

much more than people without it. Its a way of controlling the disease- smoking decreases oxygen supply and makes the bowel less active. Smoking addiction does seem to have a genetic component.

[Hubert Flottz]

71. Those voices are telling me it's time for a fat Camel break...

If I can quit anybody can...and I did...it will be 5 years since I smoked one this December 16th(the day I had TWO heart attacks)

I smoked them sweet tasting coffin nails for about 40 years...two cartons a week most of that time. So if I can quit smoking, I believe that can you too. It's not an easy thing to do, but I am glad I was able to stop.

Smoking might make you look big kids...but Lung Cancer will make you look little again in 6 month's time. A good friend of mine has lost 40 pounds in the past month. It's a very sad thing to watch...as another one of my friends is being taken away, like my Dad was, with small cell lung cancer.

I heard those voices one day, telling me that if I didn't quit smoking I'd soon die...those voices belonged to the doctors and nurses who saved my life the day I had two coronary arteries blocked by blood clots five years ago.

If I didn't love and wasn't on your side DUers, I wouldn't scold you. Mr Obama you can quit smoking too..."Yes You Can"

This voice is telling you, "YOU, Can Live Without Cigarettes"...

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

75. Well Now I Know Why I Can't Quit.

Me too!