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travelergypsy

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 15, 2016
246
0
How many on here have experienced minor (or major) side affects from prolonged pipe smoking? I know all of the warnings, and health labels and laws; but I'm interested in what actual experiences have been. Everything is stated as a "greater risk", and that really doesn't mean anything to me.

I am referring here directly to non-inhaling pipe smoking.

 

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
Prolonged mellowness, chronic enjoyment of life, and infectious joy at each new day.
Clearly I'm a goner.

 

shutterbugg

Lifer
Nov 18, 2013
1,451
21
Tobacco risk is proportional to the exposure. The more you smoke the higher the risk. Someone who smokes 1 bowl a year for 50 years has roughly the same risk as someone who smokes 10 bowls a day for 5 years. So any data from such a question is useless without correlating to how much each responder smokes and for how long. That's not even taking into account huge variables such as whether they were former cigarette smokers, and what their familial history is for cancer and heart disease. In the latter case, also important what their diet and exercise habits are. And need to ask if and how much alcohol the person consumes, because alcohol increases the risk of smoking-related gum disease as well as cancer.

 

tmb152

Can't Leave
Apr 26, 2016
392
5
Well, constant exposure desensitizes you to a degree, I've smoked pipes since the early '70's but have always done so in moderation. After several days of daily smoking, there is a bit of smoke inhaled naturally whether you want to or not, and the celia in the lung want to expel that and so you cough. Constant smoking and inhaling coat the lung until that mechanism breaks down. I keep my lungs clean so once I start to get a little cough, I stop for a few days. I avoid the more heavily nicotine types like Kentucky, but unfortunately, some of the best flavored plants are higher in nicotine, so if you want the flavor, you will get some nicotine buzz which raises the BP and constricts the arteries.
Constant pipe smoking is hard on the lips, tongue and mouth until you get used to it. A doctor friend told me though that in his experience, any problems developed like a lesion, etc., are caught during dental exams long before they get serious and can be addressed.
And of course, the biggest side effects are the friends you make, or lose as a result of your smoking, being looked at as if you are some freak when in public, and of course the damage to the pocket book, as once you find how enjoyable the pipe is and realize all the rest are rather inconseq, you will undoubtedly buy lots of pipes and tobaccos

 

northernneil

Lifer
Jun 1, 2013
1,390
1
I have noticed a temporary loss of smell, the obvious tongue burn and dizziness from nicotine. This only happens when I smoke too much, 4 or 5 bowls in a day. Also, these "side effects" are much rarer now that I understand the pipe and my tobaccos better.

 

tmb152

Can't Leave
Apr 26, 2016
392
5
Well, constant exposure desensitizes you to a degree, I've smoked pipes since the early '70's but have always done so in moderation. After several days of daily smoking, there is a bit of smoke inhaled naturally whether you want to or not, and the celia in the lung want to expel that and so you cough. Constant smoking and inhaling coat the lung until that mechanism breaks down. I keep my lungs clean so once I start to get a little cough, I stop for a few days. I avoid the more heavily nicotine types like Kentucky, but unfortunately, some of the best flavored plants are higher in nicotine, so if you want the flavor, you will get some nicotine buzz which raises the BP and constricts the arteries.
Constant pipe smoking is hard on the lips, tongue and mouth until you get used to it. A doctor friend told me though that in his experience, any problems developed like a lesion, etc., are caught during dental exams long before they get serious and can be addressed. Then there are genetics: George Burns smoked cigars heavily until into the '90's and died of old age.
And of course, the biggest side effects are the friends you make, or lose as a result of your smoking, being looked at as if you are some freak when in public, and of course the damage to the pocket book, as once you find how enjoyable the pipe is and realize all the rest are rather inconsequential, you will undoubtedly buy lots of pipes and tobaccos anyway! After all, something is going to kill you eventually, so you might as well enjoy yourself! Chances are very good that a doctor, lawyer, automobile, processed food, taxation or regulations will kill you long before the pipe does.

 

pagan

Lifer
May 6, 2016
5,963
28
West Texas
Iv experienced a reduction of space as my collection and cellar grow, also seam to stress less about what anyone thinks, bugger off, it's my life

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
If I smoke a pipe too heavily (5-6 bowls a day) I can develop a salty mouth. Takes about a day of proper hydration and laying off the smoking to get rid of.
I smoke a pack of cigarettes a day as well and they don't do it to me by themselves, but the combination of that and the pipe tobacco salt me up something awful.
Re: long term effects, as has been stated, genetics are head and shoulders above anything else. Cigs might kill me. The pipe won't. But you can be sure if I become a statistic, they'll attribute it to the pipe when it's convenient for the agenda.
Edit: Walt Disney was a pipe smoker in his younger years and died of lung cancer. (FINE PRINT: HE ALSO SMOKED 2 PACKS OF CIGS A DAY)

 

ravkesef

Lifer
Aug 10, 2010
2,912
9,173
81
Cheshire, CT
Most days I average 1.5 bowls per day, including those days when I don't smoke at all, and come September I will have hit the 57 year mark. Every so often I get a bit of a nic hit, but for the most part, the side effects are described by SWMBO: "I love the look of contentment that comes over your features when you're smoking your pipe; it's almost like..."oh never mind. Suffice it to say I really enjoy the stuff. And because I'm an oral hygiene freak, my dentist says that if I didn't tell him, he'd never know that I smoke a pipe. Then he advises me to quit smoking, because that's what dentists are supposed to do. I regularly experience a sense of disappointment because I've come to the last puff in the bowl. And if all goes as I wish it to, there's a pipe in my collection that I'd like someone to remove from my fingers when that last and final puff is drawn.

 

fafnir

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 21, 2016
125
1
Well I have only been smoking pipe since March this year and I have noticed the following

1) Lower blood pressure.

2) Calmer demeanor and less stress as I tend to think my problems through whilst smoking.

3) My dependency on alcohol became less, before pipe smoking I used to be a borderline alcoholic, consumed 2 bottles of whiskey a week, now down to 1 to 2 glasses per night, Heck I haven't had any whiskey for the past two evenings.
The thing about pipe smoking is that you savour the bowl and for me this a positive situation.
PS I only smoke 1 bowl a day.

 

zekest

Lifer
Apr 1, 2013
1,136
9
Some people grow humps on their back from more than four bowls a day.
Don't be that guy, smoke responsibly.

 

jerwynn

Lifer
Dec 7, 2011
1,033
12
About a year ago, more or less, the symptoms of COPD started in with me in a scary way... about the same time as there had been several months of uptick in my pipe smoking. I got scared, gave it up, gave away a ton of tobacco. A month or two later, the absence of pipes in my life was making me mightily depressed. Strangely, there was no difference in the COPD symptoms... nothing changed. So I took up my pipes again... maybe about 2, maybe 3 bowls a day... and slightly more symptoms, enough to be noticeable. But the calm, the joy, the peace, the savoring of the present moment, the pipe-dreams, the enjoyment, the satisfaction, all this of the WHOLE pipe world from actual smoking to collecting and cellaring and foruming and and and... well... I love it. I am not addicted, in that love is not an addiction.(is it??) And I know I can live without it. But the question becomes do I want to? And, clearly, I don't. I don't feel right about praying NOT to be lung-cancered at some point, since some of that is also clearly a ball in my court, but I live and hope anyway. If it gets me, my eyes are clearly open and I guess I'm accepting the risks. The cost to benefit ratio has always been way high in the B column... ask me this at about month 6 of chemo/radiation/surgery etc .if it happens that way. I also collect guns. And I am NOT a heroic sufferer. Blessings to all of us in our present enjoyments! At least right now, it doesn't get any better!

 

hextor

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 20, 2015
642
6
I smoke when the time is right, when its cool and not too hot, when the day is a happy one, when i look at the stars and want to wonder about our existence, when i read good classic novels, like Faust or Paradise lost, and if you guys think about it these times of calm happiness increases with pipe smoking, i have smoke pipe for 2 years now and its only 1 or 2 bowls every so often, the side effects from what i notice, is that i smell like English tobacco, which my wife is learning to accept, this world if full of violence and our time in this world might come tomorrow, weather we smoke or not but pipe smoking does not bother me at all, when i first started smoking i burned my tongue, now i learned to smoke properly and i taste the tobacco and my mouth and tongue are just fine.

 

ahmadothman

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 26, 2016
751
7
Egypt
Smoking pipes has been one of the most pleasant experiences I have.. Not much of health issues, and even when I asked my GP he said it wouldn't hurt as much as cigarettes since there is no inhaling involved.. Other than some "tension" if I smoked too much, and while learning how to smoke some mean tongue bites, there are no health issues thus far

 

perdurabo

Lifer
Jun 3, 2015
3,305
1,575
I see pink rabbits falling from flying saucers, Screaming Inpaitently, "93, 93, 93.....it's all about Aiwass, it's all About Aiwass!!!!" My friend from Texas appears with a bag stashed in pocket dripping," Call us when more is needed, Awaiss not the dose." Royal Yacht cans drift up from the water spinning, sailing into the winter screaming, " We'd prefer to smoke Old Joe Krantz and Haunted Bookshop in our Friday Savinelli, just don't puke on us please!" Meanwhile the wife floats by like I Dream of Jeanie, "Master don't leave me, it's only a matter of holy water." Yes the Side Effects they are a plenty, but I believe these to be of DMT.

 

litup

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 16, 2015
722
2,206
Sacramento, CA
I've smoked since the mid 90s but really started smoking on a regular basis three or four years ago. In those years the only side effect that I've noticed has been some extra teeth staining on the back sides of my teeth and that takes my dental hygienist a little longer to take care of.
If I smoke late at night sometimes I find it's much harder for me to fall asleep.

 
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