Was giving up smoking worth it?

[giddyup]

I decided to quit smoking around 3.5 years ago at the ripe old age of 70. At the time I wasn't suffering from any really bad effects, a little wheezy at times but nothing major. The first 2.5 years after quitting was OK, coughed up mucus for a while but that's about it, but recently have begun to get bouts of what I think is chronic bronchitis where my lungs sound worse than they ever did. I understand that there's got to be a price to pay for all those years of smoking, but I really wonder if sometimes there's no point in giving up if there are really no benefits. BTW, I have had recent X Rays that don't show anything nasty.

[Inn Between]

You've got to consider where you've asked the question. It's not like this site is known for it's niceness. It's a very helpful place for info about Thai things, but I don't understand why people subject themselves to frivolous and sarcastic statements by asking general questions here. Perhaps you'd be better off using a search site to get info about COPD and see if that might answer some questions.

[vogie]

You may have stopped smoking but you still appear to have the smokers head in the sand atttude. As for knowing about it, I watched my wife for a year die with lung cancer, so please don't say I know nothing about it!

[giddyup]

You may have stopped smoking but you still appear to have the smokers head in the sand atttude. As for knowing about it, I watched my wife for a year die with lung cancer, so please don't say I know nothing about it!

Do you know if she'd quit smoking 3 years prior to her death it would have changed the outcome? Of course you don't know, any more than you know if my quitting has been a benefit or not.

[55Jay]

Completely understand where you're coming from. It's fatalistic thinking IMV.

I quit for almost 2 years using E-cig, stepping down the nicotine over a 6 month period and then just quit. It was a wonderful feeling, psychologically and physically.

Last summer, I started the "just at the pub" smoking routine. Buy a pack of smokes before going, smoke some, then leave whatever remained in the pub for others. Within 2 months, I was back to full time smoking, picked up right where I left off at nearly 2 packs per day. I really like smoking but when I'm working around the house, I get winded easily, the incessant coughing has started again and the wife grimaces at me about the house odors.

I regret starting again. I knew the "pub only" thing was bullsh*t and would lead me back to square 1. If I were you, I wouldn't start. The potential illness and death is only 1/2 the issue. The other half is how you feel now, while you are still alive. Cigarettes just bring you down, make you feel like sh*t, and it is a smelly, unclean habit. As you've likely experienced when you quit, you never realize just how smelly and nasty it is until you've quit and regain your sense of smell and taste.

[giddyup]

Completely understand where you're coming from. It's fatalistic thinking IMV.

I quit for almost 2 years using E-cig, stepping down the nicotine over a 6 month period and then just quit. It was a wonderful feeling, psychologically and physically.

Last summer, I started the "just at the pub" smoking routine. Buy a pack of smokes before going, smoke some, then leave whatever remained in the pub for others. Within 2 months, I was back to full time smoking, picked up right where I left off at nearly 2 packs per day. I really like smoking but when I'm working around the house, I get winded easily, the incessant coughing has started again and the wife grimaces at me about the house odors.

I regret starting again. I knew the "pub only" thing was bullsh*t and would lead me back to square 1. If I were you, I wouldn't start. The potential illness and death is only 1/2 the issue. The other half is how you feel now, while you are still alive. Cigarettes just bring you down, make you feel like sh*t, and it is a smelly, unclean habit. As you've likely experienced when you quit, you never realize just how smelly and nasty it is until you've quit and regain your sense of smell and taste.

Oh, I have no intention of starting again, not after I went through the cold turkey withdrawals, and after 3.5 years I really have no desire for a cigarette, but I do question whether there has been any significant improvement to my health, or like I said, the damage has already been done.

[Andre0720]

Perhaps these posters are merely pointing out the obvious. Breathing poison cannot be good, at any point in someone's life.

All the people I know suffering from COPD, emphysema, beginning of lung cancer, chronic coughing, are told by their doctor to QUIT smoking.

So your original question should read, 'Was starting smoking worth it?' (At any age)

[giddyup]

I have no problem with pointing out that they are idiots.

Perhaps these posters are merely pointing out the obvious. Breathing poison cannot be good, at any point in someone's life.

All the people I know suffering from COPD, emphysema, beginning of lung cancer, chronic coughing, are told by their doctor to QUIT smoking.

So your original question should read, 'Was starting smoking worth it?' (At any age)

Unfortunately I can't turn back the clock, and 50 years ago doctors actually recommended taking up smoking and many smoked themselves.

[Patong2]

I smoked heavily (80 -100) a day for about 20 years.

Finally realised it totally controlled me, ie pick up a telephone, light a cigarette, sit down, light a cigarette, open a car door etc.

Decided to stop and carried an open pkt for about 6 months with the idea that I had lasted this long I could last another 5 minutes and if I really had to have a smoke I could have it in 5 minutes. It worked for me and haven't smoked for 20 years.

The downside was I caught every cold/bug going around for about 2 years, mosquito's began to like me, I put on a little weight.

Upside is I gradually lost the hacking cough and phlegm that I had, breathing became better but not really noticeable. But now at 68 I am relatively fit and have friends that still smoke who are much worse shape than I at the same age. There is no diploma for being a good boy, but you will not feel as bad as the guy who is still smoking.

Now if I could only kicK chocolate and sex so easily

[Patong2]

I smoked heavily (80 -100) a day for about 20 years.

Finally realised it totally controlled me, ie pick up a telephone, light a cigarette, sit down, light a cigarette, open a car door etc.

Decided to stop and carried an open pkt for about 6 months with the idea that I had lasted this long I could last another 5 minutes and if I really had to have a smoke I could have it in 5 minutes. It worked for me and haven't smoked for 20 years.

The downside was I caught every cold/bug going around for about 2 years, mosquito's began to like me, I put on a little weight.

Upside is I gradually lost the hacking cough and phlegm that I had, breathing became better but not really noticeable. But now at 68 I am relatively fit and have friends that still smoke who are much worse shape than I at the same age. There is no diploma for being a good boy, but you will not feel as bad as the guy who is still smoking.

Now if I could only kicK chocolate and sex so easily

[Sheryl]

Since you appatently have neither lung cancer nor COPD, the smoking did not already do all the damage it can and there is certainly a benefit to having stopped. You will remain at risk for both of those things, however, given how long you smoked.

Even in people who already have full-bliwn COPD, there is a benefit to quitting smoking.

[Issangeorge]

Remember quitting smoking benefits a lot more than just your lungs. However quitting smoking makes it a lot more pleasant being around friends. I meet up with as many as half a dozen friends once or twice a week, most of don't smoke, so the one or two who do, get up and move away from the table, even when we are outside, out of courtesy to the rest of us. You wouldn't have to do that anymore, and your cloths, car, and hose doesn't smell anymore. Yes there are advantages to giving up smoking at any age.

[ronz28]

Your body is continuously ridding itself of old weak imperfect cells replacing them with new cells but it takes about 5 years to fully clean up the smokers consequences. Sounds like your making good progress and hopefully you'll avoid cancer, heart disease, COPD etc. that smoking causes. Just keep up the good work and lower your risk of death from all that smoking.

[mariner16]

Personally speaking having smoked for 40 years and throughly enjoyed it, quitting four years ago has had mixed blessings, I find I enjoy food more now, to the extent of putting on 10 kilos, i have had regular medicals for work and until now no life threatening condition has been found, now I am obese. So was giving up smoking worth it...just swapped one issue for another

[inbangkok]

You may have stopped smoking but you still appear to have the smokers head in the sand atttude. As for knowing about it, I watched my wife for a year die with lung cancer, so please don't say I know nothing about it!

Do you know if she'd quit smoking 3 years prior to her death it would have changed the outcome? Of course you don't know, any more than you know if my quitting has been a benefit or not.

Um, yeah..... I am no Dr but I am willing to go out on a limb here and claim that you quitting smoking has absolutely, 100 percent benefited your health. Not like I need to be a Dr though to make such an obvious claim though .......

[fasteddie]

Perhaps you are right...why not just start up with 2 or 3 packs a day ?

There's always an idiot.

Its a perfectly reasonable reply to a idiotic question. Of course its better to stop smoking, maybe you wouldn't be here today if you hadn't, end of!

My question isn't at all idiotic. I was asking basically whether there comes a point where the damage has already been done by smoking, so giving up is a futile exercise. People seem to think that quitting smoking is going to give you a better quality, and longer life. I'm asking for first hand accounts of people's experiences after quitting, not comments from someone who really knows nothing about it.

I guess that all the money you've saved can't be a bad thing.

[JHolmesJr]

Of course there will be no rapid improvement to health when you stop smoking...but chances are there will be no further degradation.

You took 40 years to screw up your body so expecting a uturn in 2-3 years is falsely optimistic.

I have quit twice ....once for 4 years.....next for 3 years.

Its not the nicotine that causes the problems....its all the other crap in the smoke.

Ecigs showed real promise....delivering nicotine without wrecking the lungs. But the party is winding down...

Over in the USA, the FDA, backed by the tobacco and big pharma lobby, has dealt a huge blow to the as yet unregulated ecigarette industry, classifying ecigs, all equipment, parts, accessories and eliquid as a tobacco product. .... The barstewards call it ENDS....electronic nicotine delivery system.

[giddyup]

I guess that all the money you've saved can't be a bad thing.

I quit in Thailand where smokes are cheap, I should have done it when I was in Australia and paying over $10 a pack, that was 6 years ago, they are probably $15 a pack now.

[giddyup]

Of course there will be no rapid improvement to health when you stop smoking...but chances are there will be no further degradation.

You took 40 years to screw up your body so expecting a uturn in 2-3 years is falsely optimistic.

I have quit twice ....once for 4 years.....next for 3 years.

Its not the nicotine that causes the problems....its all the other crap in the smoke.

Ecigs showed real promise....delivering nicotine without wrecking the lungs. But the party is winding down...

Over in the USA, the FDA, backed by the tobacco and big pharma lobby, has dealt a huge blow to the as yet unregulated ecigarette industry, classifying ecigs, all equipment, parts, accessories and eliquid as a tobacco product. .... The barstewards call it ENDS....electronic nicotine delivery system.

Nicotine is a poison as well isn't it?

[wisheewashee]

I stopped 30 years ago , but if I had one last wish it would be to be with Kyle Monogue for one hour and have a fag afterwards ....

In my opinion its your life you know the risks , what ever gets you through your daily life whether it is a drink or cigarettes

enjoy what time you have on this earth and do it it a way that suites you only .

Edited May 7, 2016 by wisheewashee

[partington]

Many of the health benefits of stopping smoking cannot be felt immediately, or at all, but are still there. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3260384/

For example every time you smoke you subject the cells of your lungs to chemicals which cause mutations. Each and every time you smoke the chances of another harmful mutation occurring increase. A cell which has one mutation multiplies like other cells and is in danger of accumulating a second mutation. This occurs repeatedly and once a fourth or fifth mutation has accumulated the cell is now cancerous. A cancerous cell can kill you in one year.

You can't feel this happening, but as soon as you stop smoking the risk goes down, much as it would if you stopped playing Russian roulette, Studies have shown cancer risks go down almost immediately you stop and though never getting to "never-smoked" levels, (because any mutations you have already caused don't go away) can reduce very significantly.

"the California tobacco control programme was followed by drops in lung-cancer incidence beginning 2 years after the programme was implemented. 10 years later, rates were 14% lower than predicted,21and they reached a steady state after about 16 years."

Heart attacks and strokes are the other major disease directly attributable to smoking. Each time you smoke you subject your blood vessel linings to chemicals that change them in ways that increase the risks of a clot forming that triggers a heart attack, as well as causing long term changes that increase the chances of a stroke. This is cumulative and this too can not be felt in any way.

Again studies have shown that this risk falls immediately you stop smoking:

"The risk of an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) drops immediately on smoking cessation, and continues to fall rapidly during the first year, nearly returning to the risk of a never-smoker in about 5 years."

So every time you smoke you are playing invisible and imperceptible Russian roulette with yourself, and when you stop this risk stops, even though you cannot feel it as an immediate benefit.

[JHolmesJr]

Of course there will be no rapid improvement to health when you stop smoking...but chances are there will be no further degradation.

You took 40 years to screw up your body so expecting a uturn in 2-3 years is falsely optimistic.

I have quit twice ....once for 4 years.....next for 3 years.

Its not the nicotine that causes the problems....its all the other crap in the smoke.

Ecigs showed real promise....delivering nicotine without wrecking the lungs. But the party is winding down...

Over in the USA, the FDA, backed by the tobacco and big pharma lobby, has dealt a huge blow to the as yet unregulated ecigarette industry, classifying ecigs, all equipment, parts, accessories and eliquid as a tobacco product. .... The barstewards call it ENDS....electronic nicotine delivery system.

Nicotine is a poison as well isn't it?

The quantities present per stick are negligible....they certainly dont kill you...

[tartempion]

Smoked 20 cigs/day for about 40 years until hit by miocardial infarct.

Was at Bumrungrad and insurance company flew a Cardiologist over to fly me Over to my home town. When I mentioned the smoking issue he told me all of his patients stopped smoking.

That was around the 10th of May 2000.

I feel a lot better ever since together with all his patients.

[puukao]

i indirectly killed 2934342343 people and animals with my second-hand smoke!!!!

plus cost my work 23354554 in productive hours and health care premiums

i also made over 100 million people mad at me for smoking inside, bathrooms, everywhere!!!!

[fasteddie]

i indirectly killed 2934342343 people and animals with my second-hand smoke!!!!

plus cost my work 23354554 in productive hours and health care premiums

i also made over 100 million people mad at me for smoking inside, bathrooms, everywhere!!!!

Doubt it, the second hand smoke thing is myth as admitted by Sir Richard Doll the man who proved the connection between smoking and cancer, though he did retract it later under pressure from the namby pamby lobby.