Smoking

[Queso]

I am considering targeting my expiration somewhere near about 70.

 

wow i could never count down like that...

[Biochemist]

wow i could never count down like that...

Well, I suspect when I get close to 70, it will sound more like 80.

 

"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds"- per Adlai Stevenson.

[whoa182]

Maybe I'll retire in a few hundred years... Dont think I will around 60 years old. 40 years from now and medical science isnt going to achieve life extension at all?

 

yeah, err ok.

[Queso]

i highly doubt anyone from this generation will live a few hundred years.

[whoa182]

Why?

[Biochemist]

Why?

I agree that life much beyond 100 is unlikely soon. Cells normally die. They have internal clocks. To make them live longer than the current "average" life span (about 95 years) would require changing the genetic code, and you would probably have to do it in germ cells. As life expectancy increases beyond the mid 70's, we are really "rectangularizing" the expectancy curve (incidence of age at death), which still dives into the x-axis at about 95 (on average). We could all be essentially perfectly healthy and die at 95 of "natural causes". Scheduled cell death.

[Queso]

and even when we can change our genetics in that way, the way we live and eat and sleep and age, after 100 we will be rotting away. ever seen a picture of someone over 110? it's almost hard to look at.

 

is it possible in the future that we could actually slow ageing?

[whoa182]

http://www.methuselahmouse.org/index.php?pagename=multimedia

 

Aubrey De Grey Speaking about his plan for slowing down aging / reversing .. Longest talk is the POPTECH VIDEO

 

although Biochemist is right that that we could be quite heathy but still die of ' natural causes ' because of cell death. Using stem cell therapies is likely to rejouvenate your organs/tissue, You basicly wont look like a 100 y/o... Stem cell therapy isnt going to be the only thing that will help fight aging.

 

You should look at SENS plan

http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/sens/just7.htm

 

If you would like to discuss about sens you can speak to aubrey de grey over here http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?s=&act=SF&f=173 aswell as other people invovled in such projects of slowing aging down or reversing.

 

Hopefuly the Mprize will be succesful in extending the life span of a mouse and most importantly applying treatment as late as possible in the life of the mouse and adding healthy years..

 

You are probably we aware of all the technologies to fight aging so I wont go through them... but you have to agree that they are ' significantly ' more powerful than anything we have had for hundreds/thousands of years... Sure we have been promised eternal life/immortality for many years, it just werent possible and those people were just born in the wrong century.

[Biochemist]

... but you have to agree that they are ' significantly ' more powerful than anything we have had for hundreds/thousands of years...

Ok, but to quote famous folks:

 

Annie Lennox:

"Dieing is easy, it's living that scares me to death"

 

or Gershwim (from Porgy and Bess)

"Methuselah lived 900 years;

Methuselah lived 900 years;

But who calls it livin'

When no gal 'll give in

To no man who's 900 years"

 

Deep.

[Will]

i highly doubt anyone from this generation will live a few hundred years.

 

well, my great grandmother lived to be 99, my grandfather's 83 and in better shape than most 70 year olds.. should be interesting to see how long i live, assuming i don't abuse my body too much..

 

thing is.. i love life.. and i intend to enjoy it. so i think i'll live a good long time :)

[McGyver]

I used to know the smoking damage formula. I believe it was: each cigarette takes 5 minutes off of your expected lifespan. Ill effects from tobacco, as with most environmental/health hazards, is cumulative and can be minimized or excerbated by the amount consumed in a given day, week, and month - which can allow partial recovery in moderation.

 

Alcohol has a different acute term formula, yet a similar longer term effect as tobacco. In moderate amounts of lass than 2 drinks per day, at less than 7 days per week, alcohol can improve longevity and IQ via stress reduction. These moderate amounts, without other excerbating health factors, can produce positive health benefits.

 

Marijuana raises a substantially lesser health risk to the lungs, heart, and the development of cancers compared to tobacco. Its positive health and stress reduction benefits have not yet been as fully studied as has alcohol. However, it is widely viewed as an appetite enhancer and helps in the reduction of nausea.

 

You may recall to outdoorsman, Yule Gibbons, who appeared in all the Grape Nuts cereal commercials, boasted of his strict diet - only to later die from colon cancer.

 

Some years ago, I recall reading in the news of a man who was on a quest to eat an automobile. Each day he would devour small portions of steel, rubber, and whatever his taste buds desired.

 

The above also supports the belief that data is merely DATA. It's a compilation of averages, and there are often other unknown mitigating or exercabating circumstances, which might not be measurable or fully understood at the time of data collection/compilation.

 

Life has no limits, only those we choose to impose.

 

Stephen Dolle

http://www.diaceph.com

[Hawkens]

I just quit smoking! :eek:

 

Three months ago I started using the patch and now I've been one month off the patch.

 

I still feel the addiction. Like if I'm bored or stressed out. Gum and my Boxflex help me keep myself busy most of the time. But I have noticed a great increase in my ability to breath. :eek: I still have a mild case of Smoker's Cough. I was told by the doctor that it would take several months to go away.

[Dark Mind]

CONGRATULATIONS! :eek:

:lol:

:eek:

Excellent Hawkens, that's got to be the hardest and best decision you'll ever make in your life :).

[MsShadowDancer]

Lungs were made to breathe air not smoke. Additionally use and abuse are two different things. Smoking cigarettes is at the top of the list in smoking paraphenelia. The amount of cigarettes smoked, the type, the way they are smoked(deep into the lungs or a puffer light), the length of the smoking history, etc....

 

However, longterm smokers of pipes and cigars are not free of problems. One cigar a year is not generally a problem unless there are preexisting conditions. Aditionally, people who chew tobacco have oral cavity problems or necrotizing face from oral cancers. Any disease has to have a code within the body(based on familial genetics). Some people have better genetic resistance. Without doing a complete genetic workup one could look to the patriarch or matriarch, and get a good indicator of odds. Men should look to father, grandfather, uncles, etc....women should look to their predecessor matriarchs/aunts/etc. This isn't scientific per se, but it is technically.

 

Other considerations of general maintenance of health, diet, and enviroment have their effects. So smoke in the lungs is not good...and with enough other negative contributions it gets proressively worse.

 

Now on the drinking. Alcohol is not a normal component of the body. If a person were to have 1 glass of wine a day, the health benefits are apparent in healthy people. Red wine is the best in anti-oxidants. There are several health benefits to this and it has been scientifically proven. However, beer has formaldehyde in it which is a known carcinogenic.

 

If an individual chooses to drink in excess of this chronically they will develop several problems. Some of the problems noted on longterm drinkers ar ascites, liver disease, cadiovascular problems, neurological damage, and many systemic breakdowns within the body. An example would be the myopathy a longterm, heavy drinker experiances. Many complain of nerve pain and discomfort along neural pathways...and it worsens in time. They complain of numbness in the extremities and many other problems from ulcers to chronic pain. My advice is to use alcohol sparingly for the most part to maintain health.

 

btw, heroin is easier to quit than cigarettes-that based on scientific testing of lab rats and addicts I have spoken with...so the best advice is never start.

 

 

otoh we are all human and we all make our choices. Take care :confused:

 

 

Oh

Marijuana raises a substantially lesser health risk to the lungs, heart, and the development of cancers compared to tobacco. Its positive health and stress reduction benefits have not yet been as fully studied as has alcohol. However, it is widely viewed as an appetite enhancer and helps in the reduction of nausea

 

Marijuana has also been shown to relax the bronchi in astmatic attacks and in the case of emphysema. Additionally, canneboid receptors are contained in the brain....now who did that??? It wasn't Anslinger, and it wasn't halliburton...

 

There have been many studies showing positive things about marijuana-massive amounts of decades of studies were destroyed by the gov under Reagan...didn't want the truth to get out. There have been medical uses for thousands of years for marijuana. Nausea, chemotherapy nausea, Headaches, Menstrual Pain, Muscular disorders like MS. fibromyalgia, and other immune disorders...appetite stimulant for those with wasting diseases, and glaucoma...the list is quite large. The pharmie companies hope to keep copyright on THC and the pills they have made fall short of actual ingestion of herb. There are 400+ other components to herb besides THC-maybe the missing ingredients thwart their greed to tying it down.

 

:confused:

[MsShadowDancer]

Tobaccos can also carry fungus on them and it is then introduced into the lungs.

 

There have been studies I have looked at regarding the tobacco plant and enviromental radiation. It has been found that enviromental radiation is drawn to tobacco leaves like a magnet. Does this enhance the ability to disrupt the body? Likely

 

What if they grew it in a hermetic enviroment would the carcinogenic affects be as pronounced???

 

 

And what of the additives-put in there to boost addiction???

 

So many questions so little time

[rockytriton]

I will say pipes only because they have the least amount of filtering, though I guess cigars really don't have filtering either.

[HydrogenBond]

Smoking cigarettes is not the healthiest habit but there are many other things in the environment that are also not good for the lungs. Most fossil fuel emissions are at least as bad a cigarrettes but most people need these things so they are not going to be eliminated. Building a campfire and smelling the smoke is worse than second hand smoke but nobody is gonig to stop building campfires becuase of health reasons. The calming effects of a fire probably outweigh the temporary breathing of smoke.

 

What the data about cigarettes and other smoking products seem to inducate is that if you want to smoke, don't start too early in life, say wait to after 18 so the lungs are fully mature. Also try to stop before your mid or late forties. Try to stay under a 1/2 pack a day. Exercise, especially aerobics will strengthen the lungs and help balance the effects of moderate smoking. Periodically have a physical and have your lungs checked for sounds and spots by a doctor. After ten years away from smoking into your fifties, it will be like you never smoked.

 

Our culture has a bad habit of reducing everyone to the lowest common denominator. But not everyone is the lowest common denominator. Previsions and exceptions should also be made for those who are not as much at risk.