Got a light?

I stumbled on an interesting article this afternoon; I might as well have written in myself except I'm too lazy.


"A review of 61 studies suggests that smokers have a 60% lower risk of Parkinson's disease." Sixty percent! That is pretty damned significant, no? "Parkinsons is a nerve disease aggravated by dopamine shortages. Smokers have about 40% less of the enzyme that breaks down dopamine, so they have more dopamine."

"University of South Florida studied 70 young Tourette's syndrome patients and found significant increases in the control of muscle tics and verbal outbursts associated with the disease when using nicotine." Same with Alzheimers. Smoking slows the effect of alzheimers in patients who already have it, and smokers are way less likely to get it to begin with.

Add Schizophrenia, ADD, OCD, Sleep Apnea, and Colitis to the list of diseases which are benefited by nicotine use. "Smoking may actually help decrease the side effects of antipsychotic medication" (although, to be fair, it can also cause a bad reaction.. so tell your Shrink that you smoke before taking any antipsychotic meds.)

"Cigarettes boost DHEA which is a sex hormone that increases libido and helps trim your weight." Smoking also boosts memory functions. Gee... better sex, less weight, and less air-headeness? That's what I'm talkin' about...

"Stanford researchers have discovered that low doses of nicotine, a major component of cigarette smoke, appear to promote new blood vessel growth" - which is very beneficial for folks who have just suffered a heart attack or stroke.

Smokers are actually at lower risk from gum disease. "There was severe gum recession of more than two millimeters in more than three times as many non-smokers (23 percent) as among smokers (7 percent)."

"In a multivariate analysis, children of mothers who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day tended to have lower odds for suffering from allergic rhino-conjunctivitis, allergic asthma, atopic eczema and food allergy, compared to children of mothers who had never smoked (ORs 0.6-0.7). Children of fathers who had smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day had a similar tendency (ORs 0.7-0.9)." - This from a recent study in Sweden. Did you hear that? Lower incidence in asthma in children of parents who smoke...

You want the Cancers? Here are a few of the cancers which show a significantly lower occurrence in smokers than in non-smokers:

Endometrial Cancer: Smoking was found to reduce the risk of estrogen-dependent endometrial cancer.

Skin Cancers: Dr. James Goedert of the by-gawd National Cancer Institute stated publicly that "smoking may act as a preventative for developing a skin cancer that primarily afflicts elderly men in Mediterranean regions of Southern Italy, Greece and Israel."

Breast Cancer: Females Smokers were found to have a statistically significant (54 percent!) decrease in breast cancer when compared with women who never smoked.

Colon Cancer

Prostate Cancer

Thyroid Cancer in Women: Having ever smoked 100 cigarettes or more was shown to reduce the risk significantly of this cancer, and current smokers showed the most reduction as compared to women who had never smoked.

And I just told you about the easy stuff to find... If you want more, go buy the book "The Health Benefits of Tobacco: A Smoker's Paradox" by Dr. William Douglass. You can find it on Amazon. There has been a huge smear campaign to try to shut him up, but he has fact & figures... which he balances with risks. He'll explain the studies on Colon and Prostate cancers to you.

Look. All I'm saying here is that you cannot buy cute Slogans as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Cigarettes are not a miracle drug, and I did not intend to paint them as such. I've taken the time to research both the health risks and the health benefits of smoking. Have you?

The article is well footnoted - take link on the top of the page to read it in it's entirety.