cig smoking 2 cents worth

[stangshelly]

just to let you know if you have been smoking a long time your body has adapted to this and by quitting you are actually signalling your body to clear extra toxins and putting yourself at a higher risk...smoking and  disease are genetically predisposed..how many people do you know that quit smoking and all of a sudden they are in the hospital with heart attack, stroke and other issues...moderation is the key..i have smoked 10 a day for 25+ years and had a recent cxr..and they couldn't even tell i smoked..just my opinion..

[Forseegood]

Hey, now we're talking! Pleasure centers, I could get behind that...the only thing I'd look out for is if it has any side effects, etc...if not, sign me up!!!

As far as smoking, I feel really bad for people who do , cause I've talked to junkies and almost each one of them said heroin was far easier to give up....

I really like that post by Djay I think, where he explained addictions and withdrawl symptoms, how they are all inter-related, etc...I really do think they'll come up with something chemical to help the psychological reasons, to help people stop if they want to...I always feel so bad for people clutching together outside of buildings in the cold...gotta be rough...

Just life is can be really tough on all of us, hope everone gets through it as easily and as happily as they can...

And as much compassion I have for anybody dealing with any addiction toxic to their systems, I do not want to be around someone who is smoking, and I hope they are okay with that, and they usually are...once they stomp it out, let's talk! I just hate the smell...but the smokers I know are usually very polite about these types of things...hope everyone is enjoyin their weekend...

[susan400]

I used to smoke and when I quit, immediately after stopping, my food tasted better, my hair and my clothes smelt better, my breathing improved, etc.  Also, I read somewhere that actually your chances of a heart attack lessen within a matter of days after stopping of smoking and continue to decrease the longer you stay quit.  This drops even more if you start an exercise program (such as walking), right when you're trying to quit.  The walking helps too with the stress from trying to quit.  There's just too many good reasons to quit and not enough to keep smoking.

Susan

[shadoww]

Here is my 2 cent worth about smoking.... I too was a smoker  and a drinker at one stage....Before i treated i thought it would be fair to show some RESPECT for life...unless i stopped drinking they wouldnt treat me, before i quit smoking i wouldnt treat myself because it wasnt fair, and didnt make sense. I mean if u dont respect ur LIFE then why even bother TREATING for hep c, when really smoking will most probably get u first... If it were me, i would treat someone that had no RESPECT for his or her life, U CAN QUIT the CIGS, IF u respect ur life....

  my 19th shot thus far, feeling alright cept for obvious hair loss....
    God Bless Ya alll

[OnAPrettyPoison]

Ha, I kinda got to agree with Kalio about not quitting a habit of any kind unless YOU want to quit it.  If someone rags me to do something, I am most likely to dig in my heels and do the opposite of what they ask me.  Color me stubborn and really hard headed!  

Actually there is a new drug coming out really soon - it was originally scheduled to come out in Spring, I think it is called Recombiant, that works on the pleasure center of the brain.  It has been tested for smoking cessation, alcoholism, drug addiction, as well as weight loss.  Clinicla trials indicate that it works really well.

[beamishboy]

you couldn't rent an 'old stoggie i have found' for 2 cents...i was gonna quit when they went to a $1 a pack,maybe tomorrow--King of the Road

[way]

try lobelia

[jmjm530]

cdm: Just where was you putting that creme d nut at? Anyway glad you gave it up.:)
---------------------

Went coldcream turkey.

[can-do-man]

said......speaking of turning the other cheek, I finally quit my adddition to Creme d' Nuit, in spite of your judgemental attitude and name calling.............

Turn the other cheek???????? Just where was you putting that creme d nut at? Anyway glad you gave it up.:)

BTW, did you decide to keep your SHORT bed or did you have the doc go with the full size extended cab????????

Sometimes i just can't hep myself.

[can-do-man]

Mike, for as much stress you were/are under. When you been there done that and know what your up against. I have often wondered how you have so much restraint. But believe me it don't go unnoticed. you have always had my respect. Best to you and your family.

Chev, you ok gal? bet you been busy in your garden. Take care girl.

[jmjm530]

Well said! I'd just add, try if possible to turn the other cheek -- cause a lot of very sick folks here and the treatment drugs can make it worse.

cdm -- speaking of turning the other cheek, I finally quit my adddition to Creme d' Nuit, in spite of your judgemental attitude and name calling. LOL.

[mikesimon]

I'm with you there can-do even though I have been close to name calling here lately, but there wasn't going to be any preaching - of that I can assure you. But after reading your post I am going to  restain myself. Thanks, Mike

[can-do-man]

I always thought this was a support forum.

I'm not here to judge anyone, nor do i have the right.

I'm not here to preach to anyone, nor do i have the right.

As far as name calling, i have little grandkids. And when they start that i put and end to it. For adults to resort to name calling. Well their parents ought to me proud.

[lilmoma]

Yanno, I was just innocently answering a post with "whatever" rolled off the tip of my brain.

Sorry everybody is so worked up, Im not. I went out to lunch while this dumb conversation continued.

Im sorry I ever answered the post.

I will be more careful next time.

[sfbaygirl]

I think someone is out to get someone here to give up smoking. It won't be me this week. I can't catch my breath with this anemia, yet I can light up a smoke? Stupid? Yep! I just don't feel it is the right time to quit and neiter does my Doc. Actually, he wrote the book, "The Idiot's Guide to Quitting Smoking". I think he knows more than I do on the subject.

I quit in the late eighties for over 15 years. I came to a point in my life when I said this is it. Those don't come to often, but they do come to most smokers. I used gum and did it cold turkey one day.

Four years ago I stupidly let someone talk me into smoking a cigarette on a cruise to mask the smoke of their pot. I did it. I haven't stopped yet. My husband hates it, I hate it. When I am ready I will quit, most likely AFTER tx. This is hard enough.

Goof;  You think that KY will help? That link crashed my Firefox program!

[Pdilly]

I smoked for 25 years and smoked 1 1/2 packs a day and was a bartender for 6 years in one of those very smoky basement bars.  The only way to quit is to quit.  I tried for 10 years before I finially made up my mind.  Went on a two week vacation (no one else smoked) and was able to keep away from most of those trigger points.   I found that once I was sucessful that it was me the whole time that would not let me stop smoking before.  I use to find every excuse under the sun to keep smoking.   Unfortunatly until someone is ready to make that decision for themselves it does not matter what anyone says or what article they read they won't do it.  They have to want to  do it for themselves and their families.

[GoofyDad]

Probs with post coital smoking? <a href="http://www.k-y.com/true_romance/index.jsp">Try this</a>.

[Kalio1]

It is not smoking per se that shortens your life, it is the AMOUNT you smoke. Less than 10 a day has NO negligible health affect, that is fact.

Stp smoking and in 5 years your life expectancy is the SAME as a nonsmoker, that's a fact.

[Kalio1]

I wonder if the stress of quitting is more deadly than the smokes. Hey, another excuse for yet another study! All we need are participants willing to die, some get to smoke the rest have to quit.
LOL
pick your poison.
Personally I don't want to live so long my eyes and my mobility **** out while my lived a clean life shell of a body lives on.
I plan to go out laughing, hopefully just after engaging in a romp in the hay and not before my post coital smoke and glass of wine.

;)

[Kalio1]

No one has EVER quit a habit because of any other reason than they alone decide to, period. Addiction does not respond to "shame on you" self righeous judgements and does not respond to attempts from others to shame them into it through guilt. People quit if and when they are ready and no amount of hot air preaching will change that. No aw will change that.ZERO chance of success. All it does is serve to make you feel superior to your fellow man. Admonitions are worthless with addictions, ask any recovered addict. MYOB is still the best thing you can do. You have NO power over others actions. Anyone casting stones at anyone is wasting their breath and should tend their own garden. When you walk on water, maybe someone would listen but I doubt it.

[jmjm530]

I posted the full-link to the study in my post above, so anyone interested could read. I have also never told anyone to stop smoking during treatment against their doctor's advice. Nor, in fact have I told anyone to stop smoking, as I firmly believe that as adults these are individual decisions.  Just trying to put a study and some of my experiences out there that hopefully will help others. Had I started treatment as a smoker, I doubt I would have been able to stop during treatment. For me, treatment was about survival, and probably would have tried anything within reason -- including smoking -- if it helped me continue. In fact, my doc recommended that I smoke Pot (actually medical marijuana) for nausea early on, and the only reason I declined was because pot doesn't agree with me. Hope this clarifies.

-- Jim

[wMich]

As far as knowing how hard is is to quit smoking goes, most of us who have smoked for a long time and have quit successfully do know how hard it is to quit and stay quit. We don't always talk about failed efforts through the years, but more often about when and how we were finally able to quit and the benefits of doing so. I quit at age 47 after trying numerous times in my twenties, thirties and forties. Having been there, we also realize just how irritating it is to smokers and those struggling to quit for non-smokers and ex-smokers to jump up on a soapbox and start preaching and scolding about smoking. There are always some don't see it that way too. When I finally got clean and sober from 20 years of drug and alcohol addiction, I watched over and over as newcomers preaching the "gospel" of sobriety too loudly often ended loaded or dead within a few months. In my experience theres few better ways to push an addict away from help than to preach and scold to him. Encouragement and empathy, without compromising honesty, almost always work better. Telling it like it is without being preachy is an art. However, co-signing addict bulls**t only enables addicts to stay sick.

I don't subscribe to the notion that smokers only harm themselves. The effects of smoking, second hand smoke and rising insurance and medical costs affect us all. I'm wondering if my two cats who died of cancer years ago didn't suffer from my smoking. Food for thought. I've sure had my role in adding to everyone's health care costs too and am still using an inhaler for COPD after 6 yrs off cigarettes.  Guess if you ever need my insurance premiums to help pay for your ventilator costs, you're welcome to them. I'm sure glad someone somewhere coughed up the $35K for my HCV Tx over the last year. Peace out and hey, did my last peg last night! A week of Riba and I'm done....
- Lee

[rochammer]

If you going to quote this study quote the rest of it as the study suggest it needs to be look into more.

It not fact yet.

The study was not designed for that purpose  

http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/2006icr/ddw/docs/060206_a.html

[willows]

As I violenty chew my nicorette gum and fidget in this chair, I have to say I understand the goodness in quitting the smokes, whether it be the way my clothes smell or how well my lungs will serve me the rest of my Hep C impacted life.  Please just don't judge me if I fail to quit again, we all have experienced sooo much judgement for our virus and I'm not even sure how I contracted it.  So while I enjoy my humanity and how imperfect we all are and how those imperfections link us all together, I will keep chewing this gum and going totally out of my gourd.  Ya'll have a great, smoke free day.  I know I will, and resent every freaking, stressed,climbing the walls, frustrating minute of it!!
Willow

[jmjm530]

Probably as good a place as any to mention that cigarette smoking is associated with fibrosis progression and lower SVR rates in genotypes 2 and 3 in one very large study.

From the Win-R trial: "Tobacco smokers with genotype 2 or 3 HCV had significantly lower SVR rates than non-smokers. However, this difference was not observed among genotype 1 patients... Smoking data was available for 2865 out of 4223 patients (68%) included in the primary efficacy analysis; of these, 894 (31%) were smokers and 1971 (69%) were non-smokers. and used data collected from almost 2900 smokers. More here: http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/2006icr/ddw/docs/060206_a.html