To think that giving up smoking can actually CAUSE cancer

[merrywidow]

Have seen several people give up smoking then develop lung / throat cancer.

spoke to a friend, she says the same of someone she knows.

A cell biologist I met actually asked if my H who died of lung cancer had given up smoking, I said he had a couple of years previously, then nodded sagely.

I googled the subject and found a docs forum where they actually discussed it; the thought was that as the body heals the cells then don't know when to stop dividing and go into overdrive becoming cancerous.

MrsTittleMouse-I guess that would depend on how old you were when you started, though?

Honestly, they'll try anything.

iphone - I can answer the hacking cough thing. When you smoke, you kill off the little villi in your bronchial tubes. The villi are like tiny little tentacles that sweep all of the gunk out of your lungs. So once you stop killing the villi, they grow back and suddenly you are coughing up the gunk again.

People smoke because they are addicted, not because they are stupid. Plenty of clever decent people are addicted to smoking.

I know that some people take a "hard line" on addiction though but it's not my cup of tea.

have you ever smoked shineon?

winny - I am having to stretch my memory back here. :) I think that the theory was that before 30 you are young enough to recover from most of the damage. After thirty (takes big gulp here as I am way past 30 myself), your body's repair functions start taking a hit from the wear and tear of age, so the damage is long-lasting.

I can find the link but when I call up the page, my computer keeps clicking so I'm not going to post it. Just google 'does quitting smoking cause cancer' and it should come up top of the page if you want to look. Its by Ixedoc & Baab Mallya

so best never to smoke at all, Roy Castle never smoked and he died of lung cancer as he spent so much time with his trombone in clubs which where smokey and inhaled second hand smoke which caused the lung cancer which killed him. Now second hand smoke in bars is prohibited.

Smoking is often thought of as the cause of cancer - unfortunately there are far more other ailments and illness that smokers will suffer from, these illness may not kill them quickly, but they could have 10 - 15 years of pain and suffering from illness but not get cancer.

Diseases of the Cardiovascular System
Cigarette smoking causes atherosclerosis - the hardening and narrowing of the arteries. This process occurs to some degree anyway as we age, but smoking accelerates the process even for young people. This leads to an increased risk of stroke, heart disease, aneurysms of the aorta and peripheral vascular disease, which can lead to amputations of the limbs.

Diseases of the Respiratory System
The lungs of smokers are likely to become damaged. Damage of the lung tissue can lead to diseases such as emphysema, which reduce the capacity of the lungs to extract oxygen from the air we breathe. 90% of cases of emphysema seen by physicians are caused by smoking.

here is an explination of the disease You can live with it for a good decade getting worse, you end up having to sit with your arms rasied so that you can get some air/breath, oxygen at home to aid your breathing and pretty much forget about leaving the house -it will become prison, though trips to hospital may break the pattern.

Damaged lungs are also less able to fight infection, which leaves smokers more likely to get infections of the respiratory tract including bronchitis and pneumonia. It should be noted here that expectant mothers who smoke are likely to be causing damage to their unborn baby's lungs.

Please don't think cancer is the only disease that you risk getting through smoking and other will also shorten your life span and inhibit your life style greatly

I need to find the study that shows that giving up smoking, whatever age you are, is still beneficial... PubMed tomorrow then

IF (big if) there is some truth to this claim, all it will do is 'prove' to people trying to give up that there is no point in doing it, and will undoubtedly do more harm than good.

Happy - I'm a Hairdresser

OP - you are spot on. It's taking up smoking that prevents cancer in the first place.

I'm not so sure. Most people I know who have given up smoking have done so for more immediate reasons - they notice the effect it is having on them now and that's why they want to quite. Also if they get a partner/have children and they don't want to expose them.

People who would use this as an excuse not to smoke are people who aren't ready to quit anyway. The vast majority of smokers don't want to be a smoker - the question is when will they be ready to quit.

of course stopping is beneficial. the cost is enough to make it so! not to mention health benefits. it's a big trap, nicotine is the thing that gets you. inhalators are cheaper and healthier yet still give you a 'hit' if you're trying to give up.

shiny, nobody really ever chooses to smoke, IMO... people fall in to it. Nobody chooses to get addicted to a substance and nicotine is one of the most addictive of them all.

here's a good old amputation of the leg

For anyone lurking/thinking of quitting, I thoroughly recommend Allen carr's book

It worked for me and a lot of my friends (I read it twice and used zyban as well) - I found that the book completely changed the way I viewed my smoking - it made me realise how stupid and pointless it really is, and that teh pleasure is an illusion. Good stuff

My dad smoked 40 - 60 a day. He literally chain smoked his way throuhg life from the age of 14 to 50.

He always said that he could not give up. that his addiction was far too strong. He was very much a smoker for life.

Unfortunately he probably had undiagnosed COPD for some years now. It took a chest infection which lead to pneumonia before he reached a stage where he couldn't breath. He was ambulanced to hospital where after 2 nights in resus and then a further 14 in an accute respitory ward attached to drips and catheta's and bi pap machines, being barely conscious for the first 10 days before his desire to live became stronger than the desire to smoke.

I actually saw him one morning, barely awake, trying to put his drip to his lips to smoke it.

he finally came home on friday. he has to be attached to either oxygen or the bi pap machine 24 hours a day for the rest of his life. At age 50 he has between "days and weeks" left to live.

how my siblings still manage to put a fag to their lips after seeing him as he is is beyond me.

If my dad can give up then so can anyone. though preferably before they are attached to life support machines

This is interesting, haven't read all posts but had to add that my mom believes that this is true.She has smoked since she was 13 and now she is in her mid 50's.She says she knows of people who have given up smoking and they have got worse or they have found out they have cancer!

Me just worrying has always said to her not to think like that, but then you do start to think.I know it depends on the person and all that but my nan always been a heavy smoker and she is in her late 70's and has problems with her lungs and has been told over and over again to quit.But now I doubt her quitting would benefit her health after all these years.

• I googled the subject and found a docs forum where they actually discussed it; the thought was that as the body heals the cells then don't know when to stop dividing and go into overdrive becoming cancerous. -

Yes, but WHY don't the cells know to stop dividing? Because the DNA has been so damaged by repeated exposure to the chemicals present in cigarettes. In order to avoid developing tumours our cells contain DNA repair genes and tumour supressor genes. These get destryoed by the chemicals in cigarettes and tumours are able to develop. So yes, tumours may develop after the person has stopped smoking but that's really irrelevant, the smoking has still caused the tumour and and it would have developed whether the person stopped or not.

This is what I have said to my mom, but in a bit simpler terms but she don't look like she will quit anytime soon.And even though years of saying I would try help her through it she doesn't believe she can :(

smoking causes a myriad of horrid diseases, some of them incurable so cancer isn't the only worry anyway... COPD for example is a foul disease almost always caused by smoking so you have alot to gain by stopping, regardless of how old you are.

Alcoholism is the only addiction in which the process of giving up can actually kill you. You can google it. The idea that giving up smoking can cause cancer is ludicrous.