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)

Interestingly people in the 50s were slimmer even though they frequently consumed more calories. As a pp mentioned above they sat down & ate 3 meals rather than grazing / snacking . This prevented them constantly causing their insulin to spike - which causes us to store fat .

Wait, so this thread is a dig about WLI? What a twist, fantastic work OP!

Was just thinking this. My granny had a sherry on Christmas Day at no other time. My mother only had sherry in the house which she used in cooking. My father would go to the pub once in a blue moon with family. We'd all sit in the garden with a lemonade as children, father would drink a beer. Was a lovely pub down by the river. All the calories in alcohol were absent back then.
Coffee was rarely drunk, copious pots of tea though.

Mother would bake a fruit cake and a sponge cake every week. Occasionally butterfly cakes. Biscuits were plain and boring .

We did eat jam, or banana sandwiches I recall as a treat.

Need an option which says " are you mad?"

I agree with a referral from the GP

i also think you and your ex need to spend quality 1:1 time alone with her regularly so that she feels treasured.

lock away knifes, medicines, cleaning products. Bare in mind lots of random things can become a weapon - a torn Coke can, a smashed glass

Yes I agree with you that smoking is the lead cause of lung cancer! Definitely fact! But he had prostate cancer which spread viciously unfortunately 😭 but this poster made it seem as though smoking is the only cause of cancer! Which isn't true! It's unfortunate that even healthy people can get cancer and become so unwell! Life can be a bi**h! 😞

Their statement isn't stupid. Smoking does give people cancer. It doesn't mean other people don't also get cancer.

I know someone who's had lung cancer and never smoked a day in her life. They suspect asbestos.

U OK, hun?

This thread is a bit odd, as it occurred to me the other day how much people not smoking might have contributed to the general increase in obesity. Anyone I know who has stopped smoking has really put the weight on. I think the same good feelings are given from puffing on a cigarette as to putting snacks in a mouth. No doubt something sensory and enjoyable from the mouth area being utilised that’s transmitted to the brain. Not for one minute am I suggesting smoking is good- I absolutely hate it. But two things have always stayed in my brain about smoking. The first was watching my friend who used to get so tense and stressed when she had her first puff of a cigarette. You’d literally see the tension pour out of her, it was quite a thing to witness. The second is relating to chrons and colitis (I have the latter). I remember reading a ln old study that basically suggested that smokers suffer from these conditions far, far less. Obviously no health organisation would push that message or study now. But it strikes me that the stress relief that comes from smoking and the making 5 minutes for yourself of pure selfish indulgence might be the reason why rather than the nicotine. So now I go to the gym everyday instead 🤣👍🏻same thing really but hopefully healthier.

This is ageist crap. I work with older people and mostly they are very fit and active into their 80s.

It's a fair point that maybe people who would have smoked are eating more - possibly those with the addictive type personality.

But no absolutely do not bring smoking back.

I worked in this sector and the tobacco and vapes bill is an absolute triumph.

I found myself on a female thoracic (chest) surgery ward at a major London hospital after a sudden hospitalisation needing an operation. Most of our surgeries were the next day and it was like the worlds weirdest sleepover as we bonded and shared stories of what brought us there - numerous women who were having tumours removed who had smoked in younger years or still did and were basically all saying THANK FUCK I caught it in time and have a second chance, I am never smoking again. Don't be one of them as you might not get lucky.

The smell is horrendous. I grew up with chain smoking parents and like a pp there was money for smoking but not for decent shoes that didn’t leak, food or decent holidays. Kids at school said I smelled smoke (everything in my house did) both parents smoked up tl 60 each a day. They had awful faggy breath and my dad got annoyed at me for refusing to hold his hand when I was a child but it made my hands stink of smoke. When I fondly admitted that he looked embarrassed.

Recently a man say down on the train diagonally across from me and I had to move away as the stale smoke smell was overwhelming.

My friend is dying from cancer, she has lymphoma, it has gone into her lung lining due to smoking it is in her spine and she has mouth cancer she had moles for 40 years. She has been ‘giving up’ for the last 25 years as soon as ‘Christmas is over/she has smoked the cigarettes she bought abroad/summer is over and it’s horrible to stand outside’….. she’s still smoking ‘but not inhaling’

Exactly - if more people realised that the best way to manage addiction is through exercise.

I think maybe you're dismissing too quickly the fact that hardly anyone was obese when smoking was commonplace

Simply not true.

@Fragmentedbrain There are some controversial ideas that exposure to very low levels of smoking, or very low levels of radiation, is beneficial for human health.

*Please note that these are fringe ideas, and medical advice is to minimise exposure to cigarette smoking and/or radiation as much as possible.

As a daughter of someone who died from lung cancer within 12 months from diagnosis, i find your viewpoint, wild, frankly.

Nicotine is an appetite suppressant. I'm a heavy smoker but even I know that it's better that people don't smoke😂 oh and I've suffered with depression and anxiety in the past so smoking is not a cure

I’m a non smoker who grew up with two chain smoking parents and it was horrible, I must of stank to the high heavens. Try being in a car with 2 smokers (oh they opened the window an inch to let it out), always money for fags but went without food and heating, never had a holiday until I left home.

My father is 71 now and has COPD, still smoking, always has “the cold” will do anything but blame smoking on the fact he can’t climb a flight of stairs.

@Fragmentedbrain
Your critical thinking around smoking requires some work.
One of the most stupid threads ever.

Of course they're not obese

That's because a lot of them are dead

What is wrong with you?

I’m sorry so your solution to obesity is smoking? That’s just shifting the problem. Both are unhealthy.

and I disagree that people don’t think about health. We do more now that’s ever before - partly because we have more accurate information.

Oh it is

It not not smoking that’s made people fat…it’s food.

20 Benson and Hedges cost £16.50. If you’re on ten a day, that’s £55 a week. It’s cheaper to get Mounjaro privately. Without the whole pesky lung cancer and emphysema business.

Anyway, I’m only here for the deletion message.

Lucky you

One parent in their 50s and the other in their 70s

And yes they were slimmer - because they were bloody ill!!

And dying of emphysema or cancer does not make you happy