Health Benefits Of Tobacco

[woodsroad]

NPod, thank you for adding your professional insight. My father used to work on clinical trials and taught me to examine all of the variables and never assume anyone's conclusions or good intentions. While it is clear that the FDA is primarily motivated by politics, that alone does not discount the real evidence that smoking in any form carries health risks. Just what those risks are for pipe smokers and to what extent they will impact any given individual is unknown, in part due to the lack of research and published studies.
As far as stress reduction is concerned, there are many ways to go. Most are unequivocally healthy, such as exercise, yoga, meditation, life coaching and psychotherapy. If you need to go the medication route, there are many, many anti-depression drugs with little to no side effects when properly prescribed by a competent diagnostician.
Yet, smoking a pipe remains enjoyable and relaxing. One simply has to weight the risks and benefits and not try and fool yourself or blindly justify your behavior. Or let your obsessive-compulsive side get too stressed out about 5100.

 

[brightleaf]

From Russek, H . I ., Statement, Hearings Before the House Committee on

Interstate and Foreign Commerce, June 30, 1964

"This study (of more than 12,000 persons in 14

occupational groups) revealed that emotional stress

appeared to be far more significant than heredity,

dietary fat, tobacco, obesity or physical inactivity

in the development of heart attacks."
Everything has risks, we don't walk around wearing helmets, knee pads and bullet proof vests. We make choices and accept the responsibility for them.

I disagree that exercise, yoga, meditation, life coaching and psychotherapy are unequivocally healthy. Exercise can damage your joints, yoga can over-stretch your ligaments, meditation can cause you to miss out on living your life and developing socially, life coaching can lead to bad advice and disavowing personal responsibility, psychotherapy can lead to over valued traumas and false repressed memories.

 

[olkofri]

Agree completely with brightleaf. Not only are some of those things not unequivocally healthy, but yoga and some forms of meditation can be spiritually deleterious. I don't wanna go into religion here, but I will remark that moderate tobacco smoking does not break any of the Decalogue statutes, whereas practising yoga breaks the very first one.
Back to science, so much of it has been politicised to no end that it's become extremely hard to tell who's telling the truth and who isn't. I'm in the geosciences area, and I see this first hand every day: advocacy disguised as science being touted left and right, whilst the real science is swept aside and labeled 'denial'.
Common sense left long ago.

 

[brightleaf]

Yoga has different definitions to different people. Yoga as practiced in the YMCA has no spiritual basis. And even to those who do study the spiritual side, the name is defined as being yoked to the divine, which isn't much different than what is thought to happen in prayer.

Science is a tool, that can be used for biased reasons. I agree with you about that.

 

[aldecaker]

Yeah, I don't think yoga pants have much to do with spirituality.

 

[sablebrush52]

Agree completely with brightleaf. Not only are some of those things not unequivocally healthy, but yoga and some forms of meditation can be spiritually deleterious.

Do anything wrong and it can mess you up. But "can" isn't the same as "will". After I was diagnosed with severe spinal stenosis, experiencing horrific unending pain from sciatica, after steroid injections failed to do diddly squat, I found myself facing spinal surgery. Going over the stats from Johns Hopkins regarding long term recovery through this surgery, about 35%, things were looking pretty grim.
Then one of my students suggested yoga. My first thought was "bullshit!" But I figured what did I have to lose. So I found a class in restorative yoga. Not power or flow or anything really demanding, but yoga designed for people with injuries. I had not had a day without searing pain for nearly six months before I started taking yoga class, and the sciatica literally evaporated away after two weeks. That was 11 years ago and it has not returned, so long as I do my stretches daily. But, I know how to do them.
My teacher was also a licensed physical therapist, as well as a highly ranked martial artist. She was a spark plug, short, a little plump, mid 40's, with more energy than people half her age and a thoroughly positive attitude.
So I got the proper help and guidance for doing my set.
Maybe some of us want to comfort ourselves in our bad behaviors by hiding in denial and by trashing other choices. Go ahead. Doesn't change a damned thing.
I'll keep doing my stretching and resistance training. If I'd started doing this earlier in life I might not have had the issues I now contend with. But at least I have something that works.
BTW, do you know what meditation essentially is? It's really simple. It's just focusing on your breathing.
There's only one absolute in a human life, and that's the end of it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I do yoga for sciatica too, Jesse. But, I have been avoiding getting diagnosed with anything further.

I've been going to the gym also, but it started with just escorting my wife. Now, I've lost more weight than her, and I'm enjoying lording it over her, ha ha. But yeh, anything can be dangerous, nothing is totally safe. Even a miracle antibiotic can be overdosed. Moderation. Of which, I am no good at when it comes to smoking my pipe. ::

 

[woodsroad]

Hearings Before the House Committee on

Interstate and Foreign Commerce, June 30, 1964

1964 was a very long time ago.

 

[brightleaf]

Emotions can still cause heart break.

 

[sablebrush52]

Greasy chili can cause heartburn.

 

[npod]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/worlds-oldest-man-francisco-nunez-11937645
Oldest documented man died last night at age 113. He drank wine daily and smoked for many years. He also walked daily and ate healthy veggies mainly.
Point: Genetics play a huge role in health. We can only try our best to lead healthy lives.
Remember, cigarettes and tobacco manufactured for nicotine delivery are bad. We all agree on that. But pipe tobacco and cigar tobacco (not vape, I consider that nicotine delivery) is a totally different topic. Pipes and cigars are more a lifestyle choice, some say "hobby". I always caution people against extrapolating cigarette data to pipe smoking. We all know emphysema from inhaled tobacco is real!
From a medical prospective I believe the key is BALANCE and/or MODERATION. Enjoy the experience. But always be careful to not make it an addiction.

 

[woodsroad]

Water consumption often leads to drowning.

 

[brightleaf]

One of the things I dislike about the word healthy is the way it is used to manipulate people's choices. "Healthy" foods are usually served in smaller portions, cost more, contain less protein, fat and carbohydrates. Personally, I watch my calories. I need as many as I can get for every dollar I spend. I have lost over thirty pounds in the last year, while selecting the highest fat, highest calories foods I can afford. If I bought "healthy" foods I would've had less food by volume, less fat, less protein, and in my opinion less flavor. In other words I may well have starved to death...

Back to pipe smoking.
If I am prone to anger and normally have a short fuse :evil: :wink:

Would not a pipe improve the health of my life?

My relationships would be soothed, my emotions would be soothed, heck some may even mistakenly think I was nice.

I know some claim smoking is selfish but that is their trip, some may say it is unhealthy but again, they are projecting their delusions on me. I do not blame others for the choices I make, I live the way the suits me best, and if my choices create the me I want to be, then I call it "Healthy."

 

[jitterbugdude]

You are conflating the effect of certain drugs and compounds with the act of smoking them.

SB.. No I am not. I've said before that this is too complex of a subject to thoroughly discuss in a forum format. There is a large body of evidence that shows moderate smoking greatly reduces certain neurological diseases. It is not my intent to publish a dozen or so, only to be refuted by others because they find fault with the studies. While I'm at it, there is no study that conclusively shows moderate smoking causes cancer yet everyone seems to accept that as a proven fact. All we really have is "association" that smoking does or doesn't do something.
I've already given a few suggestions as to how to search a medical data bank to find studies showing these benefits.

The area of “research” and evidence based medicine is a complex specialty and highly debated even for specialists. In summary, there are essentially no proven overt health benefits to tobacco or nicotine, and the research would be tabled anyway.

Npod, I have spent 30 years working for the government. I "test things" for the military. I am well aware of CI, confounding factors and how to set up a test in order to obtain unbiased data. By the logic that "there are no proven health benefits to tobacco" the same logic holds for the statement that there are no proven negative health effects from tobacco. We could argue this till the cows come home but I will not. I have better things to do in life. It is like arguing with someone about the Bible. You can basically pick and choose anything you want to justify your belief.
ps.. as a Physician you might find the following book an interesting read. I have ordered it but not yet received it. Like any book that purports to show the health benefits of tobacco I will plan to spend a large amount of time verifying his references.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0128129220/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[npod]

$74 ... yikes. Looks interesting though.
In recent times most of the health benefit literature has centered on marijuana. I find it fascinating that the same people who bash tobacco science turn around and praise anything marijuana related. Science can be a double edged sword for sure.

 

[sablebrush52]

SB.. No I am not. I've said before that this is too complex of a subject to thoroughly discuss in a forum format. There is a large body of evidence that shows moderate smoking greatly reduces certain neurological diseases.

And once again you conflate the act of smoking with the suggested beneficial effect of certain compounds on humans. The same compounds can be introduced into the human body through other means. The benefit is about the compounds, not the method of delivery. A couple of years ago there was a British study that cited the health benefits of vaping as opposed to smoking because the heat caused by smoking is considered to play a role in the health risks involved.
And if this is too complex a subject to introduce in a forum format, why introduce it? Conflation is not too complex a subject. It happens in as little as two words.

 

[jitterbugdude]

And if this is too complex a subject to introduce in a forum format, why introduce it? Conflation is not too complex a subject. It happens in as little as two words.

As I stated earlier, my intent was to show that there is evidence that smoking has health benefits. I posted a few articles showing such benefits. To conclusively prove my point would take considerably time. I'm not interested in proving my point, just to show there are actually studies showing benefits.

Please point me to 1 study that specifically points out that the benefit is quantifiably related to introducing these drugs and compounds into the body by smoking them, as opposed to introducing these drugs and compounds thru other means

Here is your 1 study. A large scale, long term study showing that the longer someone smokes the lower their risk of Parkinson's Disease: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2836869/

 

[sablebrush52]

As I stated earlier, my intent was to show that there is evidence that smoking has health benefits.

Still conflating. Compounds in tobacco may have health benefits. Smoking isn't part of that.

 

[prairiedruid]

Smoking is a delivery system, the question maybe how safe of a delivery system is it compared to a pill or shot. Are there additional benefits of smoking as compared to pills/shots? And down the slope I go.....

 

[molach95]

I'd just like to add to the discussion on "health benefits" of tobacco in general: whenever I am severely congested and struggle to breathe through my nose I take nasal snuff, usually the menthol/medicated kind. I find that has the same effect as a kind of nasal spray, if not better, constricting the blood vessels and allowing me to breathe again. I only really take snuff when I have a cold or my hay fever is giving me trouble. It also helps to mask unpleasant smells, which comes in handy as I live in a rural area and my neighbour often puts manure and fertiliser on his fields.
I was at a barbecue last year with some friends of friends and one guy was really struggling with a blocked nose and hayfever. I offered him some snuff and he was drunk enough to give it a try; he snorted it very hard despite me telling him to take it easy but he swore it actually worked really well and cleared his airway.