To wonder if people were actually healthier when everyone smoked

[Fragmentedbrain]

(I have never smoked and used to hate going to bars etc that stank of smoke so this is a very against my own interests question but)

Smoking makes people thinner (it just does)

Cigarettes can be good for people with anxiety

Smoking is a social activity and social connection is good for health

Should we try and get a tiny bit more going?

(Not me I still don't want my hair to smell)

Wow. Your brain really is fragmented isn't it?!

No.

it gives people cancer

Don't be silly. On a population level it is way unhealthier to smoke. On an individual level there can be certain pros alongside the cons. But they don't outweigh the cons for the vast majority of cases.

In over 10 years of being on mumsnet, this is the most idiotic post I’ve ever read.

I think maybe you're dismissing too quickly the fact that hardly anyone was obese when smoking was commonplace and nobody was long term unemployed with anxiety when smoking was commonplace

I guess I forget that people rarely think about health and just believe what they are expected to believe (understandably survival attitude)

🤣

And in countries where a lot of people still smoke (France, Spain) the population is a lot healthier than in lardarse Britain

What era or decade are you talking about?

Is this some kind of idiotic joke thread?

These people were all in their element in the 70s 80s 90s, now mostly dying or dead from lung cancer, copd etc. All my family died from it and said they still wouldn’t have quit, they enjoyed it so much. So glad we know the dangers now

My gran smoked like a chimney all her life and died aged 70. Her sister never smoked, lived to 102 but the last 10 years were spent in a home with fucking awful dementia.

So I guess you could argue at least the fags stopped my gran from ( potentially) getting dementia.

Other than that, no, not healthy

Have you been smoking weed OP? Smoking makes you thinner when you get lung cancer. UPFs, sugar, takeaways and ready meals are the things making people fatter, not a lack of smoke.

Have you any idea how unwell people actually were in the 50s/60s/70s/80s? Dying in your early 60s (and earlier) was very normal. Why do you think the pension age was 60? Because you were only expected to live about another 5 years (or less).
People died from smoking related illnesses who had never smoked! Shall we reopen the coal mines too? That’ll bring back some community spirit, give 16 year olds jobs and they’ll be dead by 55 so we won’t have all this bother of having to find ways of funding their old age.

In the 70s about 3/4 of men smokes (look it up)

They're certainly not all dead now

Do you actually think smoking helps anxiety? Or would people just be long term off sick with anxiety and smoking. People weren't long term off sick in the 1970's with anxiety so I propose we change the year and maybe people won't have anxiety anymore.

As a medical student in the '90s there were wards full of mostly men dying of lung disease and cancer in their late 60s. Life expectancy was around 72 ( for men) now it's 79 most of that increase is due to less smoking.

And nobody needed specially reinforced hospital beds for their enormous hefts

It’s actually proven to make anxiety better briefly but overall worse.

as someone who’s dad gave up smoking in 2018, after 40 years of smoking and now has lung cancer and a linked brain tumour, I disagree with your statement.

You had fat people in the 70s. So you’re wrong. End of a ridiculous thread.

At work my department is next to pneumology and we share a coffee machine etc. so of my work friends are all pneumologues and they are deeply deeply concerned by vaping, worse than smoking. So in a weird way perhaps smoking better than vaping (but still not good!!)

Healthy life expectancy is still well below 72

So why bother with an extra 9 years in nappies

Smoking has a mild appetite suppression to it. People smoked rather than snacked.

Doesnt mean it's better for you

The biggest improvement in public health over the last 40 years has been the reduction in smoking from 40% of the population to around 15% or less. There has been an associated improvement in mortality (and thus a rapid increase in life expectancy) and reduction in smoking related morbidity (the obvious one being lung cancer, but also cardiac related conditions).

So no, people weren’t healthier then, not only those who smoked but also those who experienced significant passive smoking at home, in public transport, at work and in pubs etc.

The negative health effects from smoking are much bigger than those from obesity. We now need also to tackle obesity. But the causes of obesity today are not down to the lack of smoking,

What you’re suggesting really isn’t some kind of great contrarian thought experiment - it’s just mistaken.

Emphysema is a horrible way to go.