Smoking..Healthy or Not?

BSchoberg · September 2012

Smoking is, of course, unhealthy. Smokers, however, can be amazingly healthy - I was! I smoked about a pack a day, sometimes more --- on the way to the gym and immediately after leaving it and like a chimney in the car. Worked out like a fiend (never would have been able to run 60 minutes straight - but that's completely beside the point... lol) and thought I had pretty good endurance. But now, after giving up the smokes, I feel so much better.

I totally agree that if this isn't the time for you to quit, then you couldn't even if you tried. You need to want it - or want what it's keeping from you. I found my motivation and have never looked back - and there seriously hasn't been a day since I quit that I haven't said, "wow, I'm so glad I don't smoke anymore!"

You have obviously cleared hurdles in your past, you're taking the best care of yourself you can - and you will quit when it's the right time for you. Serious props for everything you have already accomplished - you don't owe anyone any apologies!

pucenavel · September 2012

Try that test again when you hit 40.

Just sayin'....

...and I'm speaking from experience, mind you.

scarlettesong · September 2012

Don't kid yourself. Smoking is NOT healthy. You may run 10 miles, but your lungs would appreciate no smoke so you could run 20! Please, no one get the idea that smoking is healthy. It's not. It's just one more health roadblock to get over. Most people recognized that, but like all good habits, it takes time and hard work to master.

boxkat · September 2012

I know I'm a little late, but the way I see it, do what you have to do to get by the best you can. At this point, it's pretty indisputable that smoking is unhealthy, but that doesn't mean that a person can't be in good health overall even if they're a smoker. Personally, it tends to make me anxious and screw up my stomach.

I used to smoke regularly, but now I only smoke when I'm with friends who smoke. Last Christmas I stepped outside for a cigarette. My grandfather saw me and came outside to ask how long I've been smoking. I said about three years, and he started laughing. "Well, I smoked for about fifty, so I guess you'll have to catch up before I start to worry." He doesn't have any related complications that I know of.

Ironic. I thought the same thing about my mother and father in law and their smoking. I thought i would be good since they were after 50 years of smoking. Well, father in law now has an oxygen tank in the living room, and it is one week ago today that i sat in an oncologist office with my mother in law and watched him tell her she has stage 4 inoperable lung cancer and has a couple months to live. The terror and fear in her eyes is something everyone who smokes is risking. Visualize that scene and pretend it is you sitting there and feel it. I quit 3 months ago but i am very much afraid of the damage i caused myself.

*my in-laws both quit 10 years ago. So anyone who smokes please don't. You have no idea how terrifying cancer is when it is you or a loved one, instead of just numbers or stats.

I'm not saying it's a reason for me to not be concerned. Considering that I used to smoke about half a pack a day when it was finals week in college, I consider smoking once or twice a week to be a big improvement.

dsco86 · September 2012

There isn't any point to smoking, so why do it? All you're doing is giving your money away to an industry that doesn't care if you suffer and die from their product. You're lining /their/ pockets with your money and /your/ lungs with tarry nastiness.

Rosalindgr · September 2012

: ) to original post thanks for admitting!!!!

AlsDonkBoxSquat · September 2012

Healthy isn't binary. A person is not either healthy or not.

Actually a person is either healthy or not. Many people confuse increased risk of disease with being unhealthy. Healthy simply means free of disease, ailment or injury. Smoking, more so than most other things, increases the risk for disease. But increasing the risk for future disease does not make you less healthy now. It just means you are less likely to remain healthy.

Check out a smoker's lungs. They are not healthy.

They can be. Not every smoker has lung disease.

They didn't say that every smoker has lung disease, they said that smokers lungs are not healthy. Healthy lungs are "pink," smokers lungs (regarless of lung disease) are impacted by the "tar" and tend to take on a more brown or grey appearance. Lung disease is a permanent condition, the coating on the lungs is not and can be (for the most part) healed over time.

AmberBarrios · September 2012

I was a pack a day smoker for years, as of July 5 2012 I put them down. I have had one or two here and there since, but not chain smoking like I was. To each his own. If you don't feel like it's bothering you and you don't want to quit, then don't. I got so tired of people telling me "oh my god why would you do such a terrible thing like smoking, you know you are killing yourself" my response was usually "take them away from me and it won't be myself I am killing anymore" LOL Mean I know. In January of 2012 I switched from Marlboro light 100's to American Spirit (yellow pack) no withdrawls from the chemicals or anything. If I hadn't of made that switch, then putting them down would have been a lot harder. Best of luck to you. P.S. I still love smoking I just do it on a sparse basis now and really really really enjoy that one I do smoke.

commotionstrange · September 2012

I'm a smoker as well... not heavy anymore and I'm planning on quitting once I've reached my goal weight (this winter). I think what bothers me is how non-smokers (or worse, EX-smokers) decide that it's their job to remind you how terrible smoking is for you. As if we aren't aware, or are under some delusion that it's alright. You'd have to be an idiot or have been living under a rock for the past 50 years not to know how bad they are for you, SO, by you saying 'Jeez, thats so BAD for you...you should QUIT!', I must assume that you think I'm an idiot. Not cool. For the record, smokers know that smoking is bad for them. Period. They have to quit on their own terms. Support with a decision to quit is welcome, but not necessarily 'education'.

As an ex opiate addict myself (amongst other things), I understand how hard it's been for you to quit. That you have quit heroin, and gotten food/exercise on track at the same time is an INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENT!!!! You should be seriously proud of yourself. Taking things as they come and quiting smoking as soon as you feel you're able is perfectly 'healthy'.

I think 'being healthy' is a continuum. Every choice we make can make us more or less healthy. You can always be better. Me, I decided that for me to be successful with food/excerise, I had to keep smoking until I reached my goal (that or lose my mind). Non smokers don't understand that need to pick your battles. Keep thinking about getting healthier one step at a time, and you'll eventually be able to get where you want to be.

Rooting for that one year anniversary!

Smoking..Healthy or Not?

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