What They Won't Tell You: Smoking Has Health Benefits

I am a smoker. I smoke about a pack a day. I am 50 now, and have been smoking for almost 30 years. I have also fought and won many forms of cancer... but I have never had any of the types of cancer that have been deemed smoking related. Having shown my apparent bias, I will say that my stance on smoking is somewhat neutral. Smoking does not cause cancer, but it is a major contributing factor in those people born with a genetic predisposition to cancer. Sometimes... Lung cancer is of course the biggy here, with throat cancer up in the top of the list of smoking related cancers. But did you know that smoking actually cuts down on other kinds of cancer? Well, it does. Smoking can be beneficial to your health. So yes, neutral: Some good, some bad in the act of smoking.

First off, get off the talking point you've been fed about second hand smoke, alright? I mean it doesn't even make freakin' sense, folks. There always people in society who, if they don' like a thing themselves, decide that they are going to force everyone else to live like them. I hate those people. I'll tell you how I think this whole second hand smoke campaign came about: It is very simple, actually.

You have a holier than thou clan running around screaming about smoking and cancer this, smoking and cancer that... then someone pipes up and says "ummm ok but how come people who don't smoke die from cancer more often than smokers?" Insert a bit of hemming and hawing along with a bit of fidgeting here. Then comes the brainstorm: "Well! It must be second-hand smoke... and it must be even more dangerous than smoking!"

When my kid got fed that line at school one day, she came home just livid at me for endangering her life. I handed her a cigarette. She stared at me in horror. I calmly told her that if it is true that second hand smoke is more dangerous than smoking, then I would be happy to save her life and give her a pack. I called her bluff. I knew she was a smart kid. It took her all of about 30 seconds to figure it out. The line she was being fed made no sense at all. (And no, she did not start smoking)

But I promised you some benefits to nicotine and smoking. All of these are supported by rigid testing, but pretty much buried by the Powers That Be for a number of reasons. The governments of the world make a great deal of money from those high cigarette taxes, they are not going to give on that without a behind the scenes fight. Here they are, with sources listed at the end of the article...

"A review of 61 studies suggests that smokers have a 60% lower risk of Parkinson's disease." Sixty percent! That is pretty damned significant, no? "Parkinsons is a nerve disease aggravated by dopamine shortages. Smokers have about 40% less of the enzyme that breaks down dopamine, so they have more dopamine."

"University of South Florida studied 70 young Tourette's syndrome patients and found significant increases in the control of muscle tics and verbal outbursts associated with the disease when using nicotine." Same with Alzheimers. Smoking slows the effect of alzheimers in patients who already have it, and smokers are way less likely to get it to begin with.

Add Schizophrenia, ADD, OCD, Sleep Apnea, and Colitis to the list of diseases which are benefited by nicotine use. "Smoking may actually help decrease the side effects of antipsychotic medication" (although, to be fair, it can also cause a bad reaction.. so tell your Shrink that you smoke before taking any antipsychotic meds.)

"Cigarettes boost DHEA which is a sex hormone that increases libido and helps trim your weight." Smoking also boosts memory functions. Gee... better sex, less weight, and less air-headeness? That's what I'm talkin' about...

"Stanford researchers have discovered that low doses of nicotine, a major component of cigarette smoke, appear to promote new blood vessel growth" - which is very beneficial for folks who have just suffered a heart attack or stroke.

Smokers are actually at lower risk from gum disease. "There was severe gum recession of more than two millimetres in more than three times as many non-smokers (23 percent) as among smokers (7 percent)."

"In a multivariate analysis, children of mothers who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day tended to have lower odds for suffering from allergic rhino-conjunctivitis, allergic asthma, atopic eczema and food allergy, compared to children of mothers who had never smoked (ORs 0.6-0.7). Children of fathers who had smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day had a similar tendency (ORs 0.7-0.9)." - This from a recent study in Sweden. Did you hear that? Lower incidence in asthma in children of parents who smoke...

You want the Cancers? Here are a few of the cancers which show a significantly lower occurance in smokers than in non-smokers:

Endometrial Cancer: Smoking was found to reduce the risk of estrogen-dependent endometrial cancer.

Skin Cancers: Dr. James Goedert of the by-gawd National Cancer Institute stated publicly that "smoking may act as a preventative for developing a skin cancer that primarily afflicts elderly men in Mediterranean regions of Southern Italy, Greece and Israel."

Breast Cancer: Females Smokers were found to have a statistically significant (54 percent!) decrease in breast cancer when compared with women who never smoked.

Colon Cancer

Prostate Cancer

Thyroid Cancer in Women: Having ever smoked 100 cigarettes or more was shown to reduce the risk significantly of this cancer, and current smokers showed the most reduction as compared to women who had never smoked.

And I just told you about the easy stuff to find... If you want more, go buy the book "The Health Benefits of Tobacco: A Smoker's Paradox" by Dr. William Douglass. You can find it on Amazon. There has been a huge smear campaign to try to shut him up, but he has fact & figures... which he balances with risks. He'll explain the studies on Colon and Prostate cancers to you.

Look. All I'm saying here is that you cannot buy cute Slogans as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Cigarettes are not a miracle drug, and I did not intend to paint them as such. I said in the opening that yes, they are a contributing factor in some cancers in people who are prone to those types of cancers... but you cannot just blindly follow the trend and make blanket statements that cigarettes are evil, either. I know both sides of the issue. I've taken the time to research both the health risks and the health benefits of smoking. Have you?

"An image makeover for nicotine: It shows promise against brain diseases", HealthCentral.com - Feb. 21, 2000
"A Little Nicotine Could Be Good For You," Medicine,' Newsweek, Mar. 6, 2000
"Nicotine's Nice Side," Abigail Trafford, Washington Post Health, Apr. 22, 1997
Family Doctor, Alan E. Nourse, MD, Good Housekeeping, Apr. 1992
The Wall Street Journal, 1995
Reuters Health, HealthCentral - Aug. 2000
http://www.jrussellshealth.com/smokbens.html
Tobacco Control News, American Cancer Society, Apr. 1996
"Nicotine may be good for you," Prevention magazine, Dec. 1999
http://www.data-yard.net/10o/gums.htm
http://www.data-yard.net/30/asthma.htm -
Journal of the National Cancer Institute (May 20, 1998)
http://www.forces.org/evidence/evid/therap.htm
.... and many more