Does smoking kill you?

**rabidfuzzybunny** · 09-11-2006, 02:56 AM

Originally Posted by king_of_kings

so if smoking can really kill you and is'nt a ploy by the Government, to make it seem like a bad thing, and if breathing can kill you to, so it doesnt matter if i smoke or not, im still going to die anyway.

oh and im 23 and i've been smoking for 7yrs now, and the only problem i had is that my ejaculation takes longer to cum, and i aint complaining

and i aint afriad of cancer!!

Smoking kills. Slow or fast.

Slow being something COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Looking at the problems without getting in the technical bs, a person who smokes will gradually find that over time they become shorter and shorter of breath with less and less physical exercise. Eventually it will reach a point where they need to breathe pure oxygen from a cylinder or concentrator unit because their lungs are no longer able to properly put enough oxygen in their blood from normal air. With already severely impaired lung function, they are in serious trouble if they catch pneumonia or the flu and it can kill them.

The fast way to go, that's cancer if it isn't caught and treated in time. Even if they catch it in time, there's no easy fix regardless of whether they use radiation, surgery, or chemotherapy. There are negatives, some worse than others, that come with all three options. One variety of cancer, small cell lung cancer, works very fast and within a few months time they can be dead. Die quick doesn't mean die easy though. The pain is very bad and the people can develope an increasing tolerance to medications given for that.

It's pointless to preach and repeatedly tell someone to quit smoking, doctors do that every day but the final decision to do so is up to the individual. On the positive side though there are more options now to help someone quit when they want to than there used to be, and there's supposed to be a new drug available to help people quit called Chantix. Saw general info on it being approved by the FDA but no indication of when it would be available in pharmacies.

**king_of_kings** · 09-11-2006, 03:46 AM

thats same heavy big words you using, but ya i think i should rather stop, dying aint a problem, its the fertile thing that scares me.

**rabidfuzzybunny** · 09-11-2006, 04:17 AM

Originally Posted by king_of_kings

thats same heavy big words you using, but ya i think i should rather stop, dying aint a problem, its the fertile thing that scares me.

For a guy, worst early problem from smoking might be impotence.

**Jakko** · 09-11-2006, 04:42 AM

The way I see it, as long as you quit by the time you're 30 years old, you'll be okay. No one ever got cancer/emphasema in their 20s (if you can prove that statement wrong, please do. It's my rationale.). I've been smoking since I was 12, so I got ten years under my belt already. 18 years of smoking should be right under the line, me thinks.

Ok.
Here is a list of cancers commonly found in children.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/youngpeople/page13

Many other cancers, such as prostate cancer, are known to start appearing when people are in their 20's.

As to emphysema:
Emphysema in children is usually caused by congenital abnormalities of the lung and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. (according to http://www.mamashealth.com/emphy.asp )
The onset of AAT deficiency emphysema, between the 20's and 40's, is characterized by shortness of breath and decreased exercise capacity. Blood screening is used if the trait is suspected and can determine if a person is a carrier or AAT-deficient. If children are diagnosed as AAT-deficient through blood screening, they may undergo a liver transplant.
(according to http://www.thoracicga.org/EDUCATION/...COPD_2002.html )

By the way, cancer is just a group of mutated cells, from what I have learned. Technically, nothing and anything can cause cancer, even the thermal decay caused by touching something. There are something like several dozen or so things that have to go wrong, in order, for cancerous cells to arise. We get cancer all the time, its just that our immune system is able to fight it. Its just that come things, like smoking, eating nuclear waste, ect. make it more likely.

**AKofC** · 09-11-2006, 04:54 AM

Oh Jakko you're so smart!

**Jakko** · 09-11-2006, 04:57 AM

Oh, Ak, if only I could measure up to you! No, seriously. You always come up with a witty thing to say, or a funny and outlandish story. I wanna make a AKofC fanclub!

**cronik** · 09-11-2006, 04:57 AM

If you think that whatever pleasure you get in smoking now is worth the pain later, then by all means, go ahead. Smoke privately--away from everyone else. You should at least quit before you plan on having any children, so that they don't have an increased risk of cancer from your habit.

Since you don't seem to know much about it, I'll tell you that cancer treatment hurts. All proven effective current treatments involve killing off a large number of cells--yours and your cancer. And, even if you survive your first case, the treatment will increase the risk of developing cancer again by a lot.