Newbie News - 06/08/22

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Old_Newby

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 1, 2022
513
1,273
Texas
I have not posted in a month as I have not smoked in a month. I wanted to share this in case others experience it. My smokes started tasting bad a month ago. Some suggested Covid, some suggested too much Latakia. I took 2 weeks off with no luck. Same issue.

I am 57 and take meds like most at my age. I take a statin medicine for lowering cholesterol as many do. I also take some other meds. About a month ago my smokes began to taste bad and around the same time my saliva would taste salty sometimes, sometimes sweet, sometimes metallic. In addition I started producing more saliva than normal. It was driving me crazy and I thought the pipe smoking caused it. Did I get cancer? What happened? I am pre-diabetic and eating healthy but read diabetics taste sweet saliva. What is the issue?

I went to Endocrinologist and after testing confirmed it’s not my blood sugar or insulin issues. I then went to ENT and all was good neck up, however he told me hyper-salivation is most often caused by medications.
Then the light bulb went off in my head. My cardio doctor changed my statin medicine in February to a new medicine called Rosuvastatin Calcium because it is supposed to be better.

I went back to my prior statin medicine Monday and am eager to see if I return to normal in next 30 days. I want to enjoy the pipe again.

Has anyone else experienced this?
Is anyone taking Rosuvastatin?
 

Michigan_Bill

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 14, 2021
921
3,418
Macomb County, Michigan
Hi Newby, retired pharmacist here— taste change is not usually associated with statin drugs in general, nor with rosuvastatin in particular. VAERS has 17 reports of taste change with rosuvastatin, which is pretty rare considering however many zillion people take it. BTW I take it myself, with no problem.
So therefore I would say it's very unlikely to be this particular med. It’s not impossible but unlikely. I do hope things turn around for you, you seem pretty keen on our shared hobby. Hopefully your sense of taste will improve over time.
We're all pulling for you, please do keep us updated!
 

chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
I have not posted in a month as I have not smoked in a month. I wanted to share this in case others experience it. My smokes started tasting bad a month ago. Some suggested Covid, some suggested too much Latakia. I took 2 weeks off with no luck. Same issue.

I am 57 and take meds like most at my age. I take a statin medicine for lowering cholesterol as many do. I also take some other meds. About a month ago my smokes began to taste bad and around the same time my saliva would taste salty sometimes, sometimes sweet, sometimes metallic. In addition I started producing more saliva than normal. It was driving me crazy and I thought the pipe smoking caused it. Did I get cancer? What happened? I am pre-diabetic and eating healthy but read diabetics taste sweet saliva. What is the issue?

I went to Endocrinologist and after testing confirmed it’s not my blood sugar or insulin issues. I then went to ENT and all was good neck up, however he told me hyper-salivation is most often caused by medications.
Then the light bulb went off in my head. My cardio doctor changed my statin medicine in February to a new medicine called Rosuvastatin Calcium because it is supposed to be better.

I went back to my prior statin medicine Monday and am eager to see if I return to normal in next 30 days. I want to enjoy the pipe again.

Has anyone else experienced this?
Is anyone taking Rosuvastatin?
Cholesterol; recall back around the early 80's when health 'experts' starting shrieking "Cholesterol bad!!!"?
Sheeple changed their eating habits as a result. Really silly people started ordering white only omelettes for example and avoided dairy altogether.

At the time I'd met far too many 90+yo ex-dairy farmers who were in excellent health who grew up on a diet that included milk straight from their cows and eggs for breakfast for most of their lives, to believe such shrill nonsense.

When smarter people started to question the nonsense the so-called experts then changed their tune, "Well actually" they said "there's good cholesterol and there's bad cholesterol".
But don't worry people, we've got some new you beaut pHarmaceuticals to tackle this bad cholesterol.
Well how handy was that eh?

Nexus magazine has had a few articles on the subject. www.nexusmagazine.com [many stories are behind a pay wall]
The cause of the modern rise in hardening of the arteries is due to hydrogenated vegetable oils and margarines [the very garbage that the 'experts' recommended as 'healthy']
These denatured oils [Do an experiment. Put a dab of margarine on a plate and put the plate on the top of a cupboard and check on it in a weeks time. It will not grow mould. Cockroaches and mice will leave it be because they do not recognise margarine as a food] are the cause of the thinning of arterial walls.
The body as a defence, responds by laying down cholesterol to protect against aneurism.

Statin drugs are a huge money earner for Big pHarma.
Independent researchers found that not only are statin drugs useless, they actually put those with existing heart conditions at higher risk of heart attack.
I've not heard of Rosuvastatin but I'd bet London to a brick that it's just a new patented statin that's as useless as the others.

I've lived with a terminal vascular disease for over 22 years. Dr's gave me "three years max" [12 other Buergers patients I've known all died within 3 years after diagnosis] yet my cholesterol levels are well within the healthy range.
The only oils and fats I consume are full fat dairy products and cold-pressed vegetable oils [Were I not a vegetarian I'd also eat lard because it's an unadulterated natural fat]

Do some research on the subject from independent researchers. [I highly recommend the Nexus magazine articles] Remove hydrogenated oils and margarine from ones diet. Eat plenty of natural fats and oils and ditch the statin meds and your cholesterol levels will start improving before you know it.
 

Old_Newby

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 1, 2022
513
1,273
Texas
Cholesterol; recall back around the early 80's when health 'experts' starting shrieking "Cholesterol bad!!!"?
Sheeple changed their eating habits as a result. Really silly people started ordering white only omelettes for example and avoided dairy altogether.

At the time I'd met far too many 90+yo ex-dairy farmers who were in excellent health who grew up on a diet that included milk straight from their cows and eggs for breakfast for most of their lives, to believe such shrill nonsense.

When smarter people started to question the nonsense the so-called experts then changed their tune, "Well actually" they said "there's good cholesterol and there's bad cholesterol".
But don't worry people, we've got some new you beaut pHarmaceuticals to tackle this bad cholesterol.
Well how handy was that eh?

Nexus magazine has had a few articles on the subject. www.nexusmagazine.com [many stories are behind a pay wall]
The cause of the modern rise in hardening of the arteries is due to hydrogenated vegetable oils and margarines [the very garbage that the 'experts' recommended as 'healthy']
These denatured oils [Do an experiment. Put a dab of margarine on a plate and put the plate on the top of a cupboard and check on it in a weeks time. It will not grow mould. Cockroaches and mice will leave it be because they do not recognise margarine as a food] are the cause of the thinning of arterial walls.
The body as a defence, responds by laying down cholesterol to protect against aneurism.

Statin drugs are a huge money earner for Big pHarma.
Independent researchers found that not only are statin drugs useless, they actually put those with existing heart conditions at higher risk of heart attack.
I've not heard of Rosuvastatin but I'd bet London to a brick that it's just a new patented statin that's as useless as the others.

I've lived with a terminal vascular disease for over 22 years. Dr's gave me "three years max" [12 other Buergers patients I've known all died within 3 years after diagnosis] yet my cholesterol levels are well within the healthy range.
The only oils and fats I consume are full fat dairy products and cold-pressed vegetable oils [Were I not a vegetarian I'd also eat lard because it's an unadulterated natural fat]

Do some research on the subject from independent researchers. [I highly recommend the Nexus magazine articles] Remove hydrogenated oils and margarine from ones diet. Eat plenty of natural fats and oils and ditch the statin meds and your cholesterol levels will start improving before you know it.
Yea I have decided I am going to stop all my meds for 1 month to see what happens. I have told my wife prior I don’t like all these meds and think it’s a big pharma push. My story is I was in great shape 7 years ago. Played basketball and soccer and lifted weights and Yoga. I have mild asthma so I would inhale a couple puffs of albuterol before running sports. It helped open up my lungs. Basketball was before work at 5AM and only for 1.5 hours so I started taking 4-6 puffs because I thought it would work faster. In between games (winners stay on court) I would drink coffee. Suddenly I could not walk up stairs, urgent care said I was in Afib. Dr. did a cardioversion to sync my heart again, but now he has me on anti afib meds as well as blood thinner in case I afib so I won’t stoke. Then he added statin meds because my cholesterol was a little high. Then I had to stop running sports and biking because if I fall and get a concussion I could bleed out in brain due to blood thinners. Not exercising led me to taking Singulair med to help mild asthma. Not being outside as much led me to taking vitamin D. The lack of exercise made me gain weight. Gaining weight made me care less about my diet. It’s a domino effect that frankly feel I created the entire scenario buy overdoing albuterol and caffeine.

I am stopping it all for 30 days to see how I feel and if my taste improves.
 

FLDRD

Lifer
Oct 13, 2021
1,666
6,186
Arkansas
Yea I have decided I am going to stop all my meds for 1 month to see what happens. I have told my wife prior I don’t like all these meds and think it’s a big pharma push. My story is I was in great shape 7 years ago. Played basketball and soccer and lifted weights and Yoga. I have mild asthma so I would inhale a couple puffs of albuterol before running sports. It helped open up my lungs. Basketball was before work at 5AM and only for 1.5 hours so I started taking 4-6 puffs because I thought it would work faster. In between games (winners stay on court) I would drink coffee. Suddenly I could not walk up stairs, urgent care said I was in Afib. Dr. did a cardioversion to sync my heart again, but now he has me on anti afib meds as well as blood thinner in case I afib so I won’t stoke. Then he added statin meds because my cholesterol was a little high. Then I had to stop running sports and biking because if I fall and get a concussion I could bleed out in brain due to blood thinners. Not exercising led me to taking Singulair med to help mild asthma. Not being outside as much led me to taking vitamin D. The lack of exercise made me gain weight. Gaining weight made me care less about my diet. It’s a domino effect that frankly feel I created the entire scenario buy overdoing albuterol and caffeine.

I am stopping it all for 30 days to see how I feel and if my taste improves.
Lots of reports of statins damaging muscles.
Cholesterol is what sunlight converts into Vitamin D, which is the "master" hormone of the body.
Cholesterol is also essentially brain "food".
Zero correlation between cholesterol and heart disease.
Many feel that cholesterol is the repair glue used on arterial damage from other causes.
I've worded this in such fashion that I'm not attempting to give medical advice - but if this were a betting game - I'd bet that in 30 days you'll feel better.
Seems that taste issues are the least of the concerns. Interesting that it is such a motivator. (The straw on the camel's back.)
Good luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: chopper

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,623
44,833
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
I wish you success with your experiment and no ill effects. I remember experiencing a diminished sense of taste and smell after an attack of kidney stones. Damndest thing. Took several months before my sense of taste returned. Maybe that was coincidental, because it hadn't happened at the time of my prior attack, about 25 years previously.
Western medicine is great for many things. Eastern medicine is great for many things. Just beware of quacks and the dumb dumbs who think themselves brilliant because they believe what the quacks have to say, and buy into what the quacks have to sell.
What's happening may have nothing to do with what you're taking, or not taking.
We also get handed a hereditary deck of cards when we get squirted out onto the planet, and that plays a role, much of which we still don't understand. People on both sides of my family tend to live well into their 80's, 90's and 100's. And some of them kick the bucket in their 50's.
The one thing I've found that has often worked for me is movement. I've been a walker all my life and will continue to do that until I can't. I leave the car at home and walk to do my errands as much as possible. Better for me, better for my wallet, and not bad for the environment. That's one change I made a couple of years ago that knocked my cholesterol back down.
 

chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
Yea I have decided I am going to stop all my meds for 1 month to see what happens. I have told my wife prior I don’t like all these meds and think it’s a big pharma push. My story is I was in great shape 7 years ago. Played basketball and soccer and lifted weights and Yoga. I have mild asthma so I would inhale a couple puffs of albuterol before running sports. It helped open up my lungs. Basketball was before work at 5AM and only for 1.5 hours so I started taking 4-6 puffs because I thought it would work faster. In between games (winners stay on court) I would drink coffee. Suddenly I could not walk up stairs, urgent care said I was in Afib. Dr. did a cardioversion to sync my heart again, but now he has me on anti afib meds as well as blood thinner in case I afib so I won’t stoke. Then he added statin meds because my cholesterol was a little high. Then I had to stop running sports and biking because if I fall and get a concussion I could bleed out in brain due to blood thinners. Not exercising led me to taking Singulair med to help mild asthma. Not being outside as much led me to taking vitamin D. The lack of exercise made me gain weight. Gaining weight made me care less about my diet. It’s a domino effect that frankly feel I created the entire scenario buy overdoing albuterol and caffeine.

I am stopping it all for 30 days to see how I feel and if my taste improves.
Please evaluate every medication before you "stop all meds".

Man I detest the modern Big pHarma-centric attitude to medicine but, there are a few that I simply have no other alternative than to take them.
Blood thinners are a very good example.
After spending six months in hospital and diagnosed with a terminal illness, I was keen to survive until my then very young son was 18yo. I was convinced that my regimen of pHarmaceuticals would be the death of me so I started to weed out the ones that I figured were unnecessary.

Warfarin; I was convinced that I no longer needed blood thinners once I was out of the hospital bed so I threw those in the bin. Oops.
Two blood clots later taught me my lesson so I've been taking them since with a regular INR blood test.

Then there were those that would have killed me had I obeyed doctors orders.
The pain clinic doctors tried to force me to take an anti-epileptic for chronic nerve pain, quite aggressively I might add.
They were most offended that 2-3 small pipes of cannabis treated the nerve pain that gave me back quality of life.
Anti-epileptics are extremely dangerous meds. They destroy the liver over time and sudden cessation can kill.
Doctors are handing that shit out like candy for all sorts of ridiculous reasons [Lyrica is their latest dangerous 'cure-all'] No thank you.

There's a few other pHarmaceuticals that I take because there's no effective natural medication of which I'm aware to replace them. Without them I'd be in a worse state.
Some are a necessary evil, without which I would not still be here.

Sudden cessation of certain pHarmaceuticals can be very dangerous.
I'd recommend consulting a competent naturopath before quitting all your meds in one go.

P.S. In my youth a flatmate was a chronic asthmatic [had to twice race him to hospital in the middle of the night]
He had found that smoking a small joint of cannabis was more effective that his puffer meds at stopping an asthma attack.
We've since learned that cannabis has an ant-inflammatory effect that opens up the airways in asthmatics.
A much better alternative that many asthmatics are finding relief is medicating with cannabis through a vaporiser.
 
Last edited:

Hillcrest

Lifer
Dec 3, 2021
2,640
12,778
Bagshot Row, Hobbiton
I have not posted in a month as I have not smoked in a month. I wanted to share this in case others experience it. My smokes started tasting bad a month ago. Some suggested Covid, some suggested too much Latakia. I took 2 weeks off with no luck. Same issue.

I am 57 and take meds like most at my age. I take a statin medicine for lowering cholesterol as many do. I also take some other meds. About a month ago my smokes began to taste bad and around the same time my saliva would taste salty sometimes, sometimes sweet, sometimes metallic. In addition I started producing more saliva than normal. It was driving me crazy and I thought the pipe smoking caused it. Did I get cancer? What happened? I am pre-diabetic and eating healthy but read diabetics taste sweet saliva. What is the issue?

I went to Endocrinologist and after testing confirmed it’s not my blood sugar or insulin issues. I then went to ENT and all was good neck up, however he told me hyper-salivation is most often caused by medications.
Then the light bulb went off in my head. My cardio doctor changed my statin medicine in February to a new medicine called Rosuvastatin Calcium because it is supposed to be better.

I went back to my prior statin medicine Monday and am eager to see if I return to normal in next 30 days. I want to enjoy the pipe again.

Has anyone else experienced this?
Is anyone taking Rosuvastatin?
Per medicinenet.com: Increased salivating and change in taste are symptoms of heartburn or medication reactions and they recommend seeing your doctor. Your doctor can determine which medication is causing the effects and recommend and alternative. Don't stop all meds without advice of doctor. Some medications you have to be weaned off not stop cold turkey.

Everyone reacts differently ... I am always at the back of the studies as in : "Less than 2% of people experience .... " I always get the reactions that are not common. Knowing that I discuss everything with doctor in advance and he prescribes accordingly.
 

SaxonX

Might Stick Around
Sep 20, 2021
73
175
Staffordshire Moorlands GB
Cholesterol; recall back around the early 80's when health 'experts' starting shrieking "Cholesterol bad!!!"?
Sheeple changed their eating habits as a result. Really silly people started ordering white only omelettes for example and avoided dairy altogether.

At the time I'd met far too many 90+yo ex-dairy farmers who were in excellent health who grew up on a diet that included milk straight from their cows and eggs for breakfast for most of their lives, to believe such shrill nonsense.

When smarter people started to question the nonsense the so-called experts then changed their tune, "Well actually" they said "there's good cholesterol and there's bad cholesterol".
But don't worry people, we've got some new you beaut pHarmaceuticals to tackle this bad cholesterol.
Well how handy was that eh?

Nexus magazine has had a few articles on the subject. www.nexusmagazine.com [many stories are behind a pay wall]
The cause of the modern rise in hardening of the arteries is due to hydrogenated vegetable oils and margarines [the very garbage that the 'experts' recommended as 'healthy']
These denatured oils [Do an experiment. Put a dab of margarine on a plate and put the plate on the top of a cupboard and check on it in a weeks time. It will not grow mould. Cockroaches and mice will leave it be because they do not recognise margarine as a food] are the cause of the thinning of arterial walls.
The body as a defence, responds by laying down cholesterol to protect against aneurism.

Statin drugs are a huge money earner for Big pHarma.
Independent researchers found that not only are statin drugs useless, they actually put those with existing heart conditions at higher risk of heart attack.
I've not heard of Rosuvastatin but I'd bet London to a brick that it's just a new patented statin that's as useless as the others.

I've lived with a terminal vascular disease for over 22 years. Dr's gave me "three years max" [12 other Buergers patients I've known all died within 3 years after diagnosis] yet my cholesterol levels are well within the healthy range.
The only oils and fats I consume are full fat dairy products and cold-pressed vegetable oils [Were I not a vegetarian I'd also eat lard because it's an unadulterated natural fat]

Do some research on the subject from independent researchers. [I highly recommend the Nexus magazine articles] Remove hydrogenated oils and margarine from ones diet. Eat plenty of natural fats and oils and ditch the statin meds and your cholesterol levels will start improving before you know it.
Not pipe related but In my days as a firefighter I recall going to a special service call, a hazmat incident. It was in a small industrial unit where they recycled out of date margarines into their component parts for resale. I can't remember which it was that was spilled but it caused the place to be evacuated and we had to where suits and breathing apparatus to clear the mess up.......I haven't eaten margarine since! ?
 

chilllucky

Lifer
Jul 15, 2018
1,091
2,715
Chicago, IL, USA
scoosa.com
Chopper. You've given decent advice here, which I broadly agree with (E.g. eat well, work with (not for) your doctors). However - calling human beings who believe different than you "sheeple" and intentionally misspelling to make Jr High-level puns are red flags for me.

Instead of dismissing you, though, I just spent the morning with nexus magazine. My conclusion is that taking medical advice from an organization that supports paranormal "research" (in quotes because the conclusions cannot be tested, repeated, or verified) is not for me.

I'm glad you've lived long and some version of well with what you were told was a terminal illness. I'm glad you're skeptical as an orientation to the current body of accumulated human knowledge. I do not agree with you that the articles I read this morning contribute much to that body, but you are free to think so.

Please don't call me, or any of the rest of humanity "sheeple". Even if we aren't into what you're into, it doesn't make us your -or anyone's- livestock.