Halloween 1977 was when I quit smoking. 40 years ago yesterday. I'm convinced I wouldn't be here, especially running for a bus (yesterday), if I'd continued. Lots more benefits than running for a bus - like seeing my grandkids grow up. Two are adults, now, and one isn't very far behind - he's almost fourteen and just over six feet tall! And my youngest grandchild is nine - a very muscular, athletic nine. And he's inherited his mom's artistic talent. Quite a bunch! One of my best decisions! Another one was going back to (night) school, a year later. My first College course was Cobol Programming. Not popular (at all) nowadays, but it got me used to learning other languages. Did something for my GPA too. But those danged punchcards! :shock: The many other decisions ... meh. Mixed results at best. But ditching smokes - and starting school...Yeah. those were all right. :smile: J.
Congratulations! I'm sincerely glad you're here with us for verbal sparring and related camaraderie. :smile:
Congratulations!!! I quit smoking on Thanksgiving 1997, we share an anniversary! Best decision I ever made.
Congrats to the ex-smokers. My brother, at 54, had a heart attack recently. Hopefully he's done smoking too. My Dad smoked unfiltered cigarettes for over 55 years. Died choking on his own phlegm at 76. Why, in say the past 30 years, does anyone start smoking? I don't get it. The statistics and demographics of smoking are interesting to look at. The less educated you are, the more chance of being a smoker. The less money you make, the more chance of being a smoker. The Midwest has the most smokers by percentage. The west the least. LGBTQIA are more likely to be smokers than straight adults. Native Americans/Alaskans have the highest rates of smoking with mixed race, Hispanic, black, white, and Asian following them by percentages. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm https://chronicdata.cdc.gov/health-area/tobacco-use
Back in the early 1990s when I was in graduate school (chemistry) a fellow student and friend in the same research group received his PhD in chemistry. His first job was at a Philip Morris lab testing cigarettes. After a year there he had come back to the university where I still was to take care of some things so I asked him the big question. Who at the Philip Morris lab smoked cigarettes? I knew he didn't smoke but he did chew or dip on occasion so used tobacco products. He said all the MBAs, mostly non-lab sales people, smoked. All the non-degreed and AA degreed people smoked, which were mostly low level positions, janitorial, washing glassware, etc. About half of the BS and MS degreed individuals smoked. These would be the people running the instruments and doing other routine analyses. None of the research PhDs, the people who really know what was going on, smoked cigarettes. I thought it was interesting.
Wow, congrats to Johann & Jennifer, that's quite an accomplishment! Quitting smoking is actually more difficult than kicking heroin!
I'm not sure, Bruce. Quitting heroin took me three tries... Just Kidding. J. PS Actually, I have read that before. I'm glad I read it after I quit smoking! It might have discouraged me.
I should qualify that by pointing out that it's harder to quit smoking, but easier to stay smoke-free.
Yes - so they say - but I don't remember any puking, shivering or crying when I quit smoking ...but it was a long time ago. :jester: Another thing: I quit smoking first try. Oops - I was going to say "first crack." Same thing with drinking. But much later, it took me a whole year to get "clean" of potato chips! Those things are deadly! J.
When I was being born (literally) my mom - a peds nurse- smoked in the labor room WITH HER OB. She told me she almost didn't make it into the delivery room because they wanted "one more cigarette" before heading into the "non smoking" delivery room. There were idiots in the 70's, idiots in the 90's and there are idiots now. I would think that it's harder to be an ignorant idiot nowadays than it was back then.... but still.. Edit to add: when I stopped smoking, I had dreams for over a year that I started up again. In my dreams, I actually felt like I was smoking and remember waking up thinking "did I ruin it?" until I was fully awake and realized it was a dream. It was absolutely so very hard - however, I will say that for the first 3 or so years, the ONLY reason I didn't smoke was because I knew it was so hard to quit- I wish I could say it was for my health or wellness, but it was really just because I didn't want to go through quitting again. Now, however, it's a different story and I'm on the other side. I have zero temptation and it is a matter of health and wellness, but it is a monster. Took my grandfather's life (cancer), my mom's life (cancer) and is taking my dad's - he quit years ago but it was too late and he has CPOD. I shared this video on Facebook, and I'm going to paste my dad's comments on my page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD__r66sFjk&feature=share "I smoked my whole life and am paying the price for it today. I had said you will have to die in time anyway but the way you have to live these last years are not a good way to go. On oxygen and using three different inhalers every day is no way to live. I am 72 yrs of age and had quit smoking almost 20 yrs ago and it never gets better. My loss, don't start it's not worth it."
Fat and salt - in ridiculous quantities. Enough to put PLENTY of people in the cardiac ward. I'm just a layman, but I believe there are at least two ways they contribute to cancer as well: (1) Contain - and promote intake of - excessive fats. High-fat diets implicated in cancer studies. (2) Excessive salt = linked to incidence of stomach cancer. Actually, when I said "deadly" I just meant "deadly addictive" but since you asked... And I'm surprised you did. Don't you read food labels? You read everything else... :shock: J.
I've had exactly the same experience, maybe once or twice a year, for 40 years, now. I don't expect it will stop -- until I do. J.
