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From: john@plx.UUCP (john butler)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.misc,net.religion,net.med
Subject: Re: Why Smoke?
Message-ID: <144@plx.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Jun-84 16:12:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: plx.144
Posted: Tue Jun 12 16:12:40 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Jun-84 23:54:34 EDT
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This is in response to Jerry Nowlin's request for information
on why people smoke. I feel particularly qualified and interested
in responding to the subject for the following reasons:

	1. I smoked a pipe for 3 years.
	2. I smoked cigarettes after that for 5 more years.
	3. My wife smoked cigarettes for 10 years.
	4. I had a 1-1/2 pack-a-day habit.
	5. My wife had a 3-pack-a-day habit.
	6. We quit smoking together last summer (July 1983).

I am going to present two sets of reasons for smoking: 

1. Why do people start?

2. Why, in the face of such overwhelming evidence, do they
   continue? (In other words, why don't they just quit?)

Before I begin, I want to clear up a misconception
in the original article.

Nowlin states that he won't give credence to the excuse that
"I'll gain weight if I quit." He calls this substituting one
lack of willpower for another. There is now physiological
evidence for weight gain in people who quit smoking. A certain enzyme
has been isolated, the amount of which can predict how much
the quitter will gain. The national average weight gain for
people who quit smoking is 15 pounds.  The higher the level of 
this enzyme *before* the subject quits smoking, (I don't remember
the name of it--it just came out in a medical journal a month
ago) the more weight the person will gain. The lower the level,
the less the gain. Let's stop beating people over their body
chemistry. 

Now to the subject:
Why do people start smoking? One barrier to this answer is
that until medical professionals acknowledged the seriousness
and strength of tobacco, nobody gave a rat's ass and therefore
never researched it. Research is just now beginning to surface.

1. It's a drug. Nobody seems willing to admit this, but when
   you first start smoking, it makes you high after a fashion.
   It gives you a "hit". When you first start smoking, and
   suck burning nicotene into your lungs, it jolts your system
   to constrict the blood vessels, raise the blood pressure,
   and speed up the heartbeat. When I first started smoking,
   I couldn't believe it was legal to smoke and drive. I damn
   near blacked out a couple times when I took a hit from
   a non-filter Camel.  Later on, the effects are nowhere
   near as pronounced, but by then you're hooked.

2. A recent study has shown that nicotene desensitizes a person
   (or a rat) to random sensory input. I can vouch for this. 
   As a writer, I found it much easier to concentrate in a noisy, 
   open office when I smoked than I do now. This may indicate 
   a cause-effect relationship between the higher incidence
   of smoking found in urban dwellers and workers. It may
   also explain the higher rate in non-professionals, since
   they tend to live in more cramped living conditions and
   with larger families than the professional, suburban types.

3. Nicotene stimulates the colon somewhat like coffee does. 
   I had a small constipation problem until I started smoking
   a pipe. After a bowlful at night, however, I was always
   then ready to "lighten my load" and then go to bed.

4. Cigarettes serve as a mood enhancer. Studies have shown
   that even though nicotene physiologically speeds up the
   metabolism, it can have the opposite effect under certain
   circumstances. As I noted in item 3, above, it helped me
   calm down and go to sleep.

5. Although this is diminishing rapidly, smoking has several
   social aspects: Lighting someone else's cigarette, offering
   a light or match, offering a cigarette, sharing a pack,
   etc. all denote familiarity, courtesy, generosity, or intimacy,
   depending on the context. Smoking makes extra opportunities
   to be generous or grateful. No such phenomenon occurs among
   non-smokers (Hey, can I offer you a pair of Adidas shoelaces?).

6. Cigarettes are a boon to self-conscious people. It gives
   them an outlet for venting random anxieties,
   allowing them to speak more directly and forcefully in
   situations wherein they might otherwise be intimidated.
   I speak from experience. You may call this a "crutch",
   but it enables self-conscious people to function
   in circumstances they would otherwise avoid altogether.

7. One of the strongest reasons to start smoking is pre-addiction.
   My wife's mother smoked 2 packs of unfiltered Pall Malls
   while pregnant with Renee, who is now my wife. 
   Thereafter, for the next 20
   years, Renee shared 988 square feet with her mother and step-father
   who each smoked at least two packs of cigarettes per day.
   When Renee took up smoking at about age 17, she was simply
   following a craving she'd had all her life. It's like craving
   eggs if you have a protein/cholesterol deficiency.
   When my wife took up smoking, it also desensitized her to the
   asthma, allergies, and other respiratory irritations she'd
   suffered all her life (from secondary smoke).
  
 
Now, here are the barriers we encountered when we quit smoking.

1. Couldn't wake up all day.
   We had come to depend on nicotene to wake us up in the
   morning and regulate our metabolism throughout the day.
   We doubled our coffee intake, and still felt sleepy all
   day. In fact, after a month of total body shock 
   we felt like we had defective voltage regulators:
   we'd alternate periods of hyperactivity with lethargy.
   There was no normal pace for the first 3-4 months.

2. Weight gain.
   We each gained 15-20 pounds within the first 2-3 weeks
   after quitting! That is nearly impossible through simple
   overeating. So two weeks after we quit, NONE of our clothes
   fit. We both had to buy new tops, bottoms, and underwear.
   The only thing we could keep was our shoes. This cost at
   least $500 just to get some lightweight, low-budget stuff,
   as we didn't want to buy nice clothes for our F-A-T selves.
   So if quitting smoking is going to save money,
   don't count on it for at least a year. Our top weights,
   Me: 5'9", 200 lbs (normally 165-170). 
   Renee: 5'2", 147 lbs (normally 115-120).
   If you don't think this would alter one's self-esteem and
   send most people back to their cigarettes, guess again.

3. Anxiety-induced ailments.
   We had major intestinal gas problems. Sometimes I nearly 
   knocked myself off my own chair. Renee had it so bad she 
   got a spastic colon and went to the doctor. He prescribed 
   Tranxene, which cleared it up.

   Stress produces illness. Quitting smoking creates much
   stress on the body. (Nicotene is the most addictive substance
   known to man, both in terms of the quantity required to
   addict, and the persistence of the addiction after quitting.)
   We both got sick and had to stay home more last summer
   than we had had to in the previous five years. The stamina
   just wasn't there--for AT LEAST SIX MONTHS!!!

4. The irritability factor is phenomenal. I almost punched
   out a co-worker because he knocked over some of my papers.
   Nearly every weekend my wife and I fought over something
   really stupid, to the point where we began to doubt the
   soundness of our marriage (that is, until we got the Tranxene).

5. We were unable to make rational decisions for at least
   six months. We hired a landscaper to put ground
   cover on our yard. He hosed us for $3000 which came up
   weeds.  It would not have happened under any other 
   circumstances in my life.
   
6. For all the above reasons, it jeopardized my job. Who wants
   an employee who doesn't wake up all day, who is distracted
   very easily, who doesn't have the stamina to work a full
   day, whose attendance record is suspect, who is surly and
   irritable?

One final note: to add insult to injury, the medical insurance
company disallowed our claims (a total of eight-five piddling
dollars) for the doctor's visit for the
spastic colon, the diagnosis (nicotene withdrawal), and the
treatment (Tranxene, a mild tranquilizer) even though they
cover illness (spastic colon?), drug treatment (but nicotene's
not a drug??), and anxiety and nervous disorders (but since
it was just cigarettes, it couldn't have been too bad???).

Would the insurance company have paid for a coronary bypass
or lung removal? 

You Betcha!

So quitting smoking is possible, but not easy. I lost a year
of my life to quit smoking. I wasted $4000 from buying clothes
to fit, making irrational decisions, and experiencing medical 
problems. There is no immediate reward in spite of the BULLSHIT
the American Cancer Society spews out. I lost wind and stamina
for six months. I lost my sense of health and well-being.
I continued to refrain from smoking because I knew I'd be
better off in the long run. And now, nearly 12 months after
I quit, I am finally beginning to feel the benefits.