My girlfriend has threatened to break up with me several times now unless I cut down to a pack a week. I’m not addicted but it does help me get through my day. I keep trying to tell her that but she doesn’t believe me and keeps saying that it’s actually bad. I want to prove to my girlfriend that smoking cigarettes is actually good for you so that she can stop judging me over it but I can’t find any info online to back that up. Can anyone help me find some resources that list the health benefits of cigarettes? Like how nicotine kills germs or anything like that?
It should be really telling that you can’t find anything positive about cigarettes online, even when you specifically search for positive aspects.
They cause cancer and you smell disgusting after smoking them. Just listen to your girlfriend on this.
You sound just like my girlfriend she’s always nagging like that “They make you smell bad and cause lung cancer” and “I feel like I’m starting to not love you anymore” stupid stuff like that.
Maybe you should take what she says seriously.
removed by mod
Yup and the girlfriend has 0 obligation to deal with it.
Except when OP is sharing air space with others. Second-hand smoke also kills.
You’re trolling right?
No we’re serious. Don’t you know, everything is super serious on the internet nowadays?
From someone who smoked for 15 years and has successfully stopped, you smell like an ashtray.
Were you smoking in a broom closet? What’s wrong with you people?
My parents smoke. They only need to open the door, stay there and talk. My whole room stinks for a few seconds after that shit. Same in the bus when someone smoked close before entering.
Just because you’re noseblind to it doesn’t mean everyone else can’t smell you.
Yeah… as the son of smokers, everyone can smell the cigs on you. There’s really no escaping it.
You can’t think of any benefits without googling for it?
If you didn’t have breakfast yesterday, how would you feel today?
I’m not addicted, they just help me get through the day
I’m not addicted it’s just a habit!
But it was true though I quit after 30 years of smoking - just went cold turkey. First few days were a bit rough because you have those moments during the day when you light one up (after eating, leaving work, …), habits.
But it’s been a month so 💪
That’s actually true I could stop anytime I want to I just don’t want to right now.
You’re shitposting right? I mean this is what literally every addict I’ve ever met says about anything. Drugs, Beer, Cigs, Gambling, Porn, etc. they all say this exact phrase before admitting they have a problem later down the road.
It’s also what everyone who isn’t addicted says
I’ve never had someone who isn’t addicted to something say “I can quit if I want.”
This whole post reeks of fake fan fiction trolling
deleted by creator
As a half a pack a day smoker for most of my life, this is what all addicts say.
You’re just in denial.
If you can quit whenever you want then why is this worth the fight to you? Because you’re addicted.
They help you get through the day because not having them is a stressor. Because you’re addicted.
I haven’t had a cigarette in like 2 years and they still sound good sometimes. Because I’m addicted.
I haven’t had a cigarette in like 2 years and they still sound good sometimes. Because I’m addicted.
maybe they sound good because smoking is fun? Not everything needs to be pathologised, you should watch the south park episode on the puedo-christian-cult Alcoholics Anonymous
AA is a pseudo-Christian cult but it doesn’t mean alcohol isn’t unhealthy
I can stop eating bread, going on lemmy, quit my job and get a new one, etc. There’s a reason we do the things we do, nicotine has legitimate value. I know OP is a troll but nicotine is a lot less addictive than so many other very unhealthy things people do every single day without batting an eye. Only thing actually bad about it is the smoke in the lungs.
You realize lip and gum cancer are caused by smoking as well? Not to mention teeth and skin yellowing? There are more but you get my point.
There are so many different issues caused by so many different things in cigarettes. Smoke in the lungs is just part of the problem.
Nicotine in pure form has value, but all the other poison in cigarrettes is not worth any benefit of nicotine.
Not reading all that
Sure you can buddy, sure you can…
Someone who is addicted, doean’t believe he is addicted.
I mean, you’d really have to want to quit, but just for fun, why not stop for a day or two?
Let me know how your stomach and nerves feel about that in two days.
Just humor me. Don’t smoke for two days.
I bet you can’t.
Read Allen Carr’s Easy Way. It’s not a great piece of literature, but it’s the best book to help you wrap your head around why you smoke and whether you actually want to.
Can’t recommend it enough.
It took me three tries. Took it back up during tough times. Found some better ways to cope, mostly Stoicism. I’ve recommended it to at least a dozen others over the years with about 90% success.
I started smoking when I was 15.
A while later, someone gifted that book to me. I barely started it and put it away, and it was lying around the appartement for 2 years. One day I randomly picked it up and finished it that day. Went from ~20 cigarettes a day to 0 overnight. That was like 13 years ago, and I never wanted a cigarette since.
That 90% success rate seems to be the case within my friend group as well :)
Well, for one, you’re reducing your lifespan, so you’ll be less of a burden on the healthcare system later in life because you’ll be dead. But that’s obviously ignoring the massive burden on the healthcare system you’ll be when you’re being treated for various cancers.
https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-3-health-effects/3-28-health-benefits-of-smoking-
There’s reason to believe there are specific benefits from smoking tobacco. It’s just that they are pretty much always outweighed by the negative effects of smoking in the long term.
Thank you for actually helping me find some useful and true information.
Seriously tho, you just want/hope to find something that justifies you continuing smoking. The truth is, you have to stop. No kind of smoke is good for the lungs; cigs, weed, vape, etc. Stop before it’s too late, and it’s not just cancer that can kill you
You’re welcome.
I quit after over 20 years. It was really, really hard. I still crave them. Won’t start again, just because quitting was so incredibly difficult. But, yeah. I, uh, think about it… Both sides of it.
Be aware, I cherry picked the information you had asked for from a much larger work. Just “Chapter 3 - The health effects of active smoking” has 37 sections. Everyone but the one I linked above has a list of negative effects. Have a look at the rest of it, too.
Chapter 3 Index: https://www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-3-health-effects
Don’t just confirm your biases. Look at the whole picture.
Wish you the best.
I’m kind of worried about quitting, since I’ve heard it is difficult to start again afterwards.
From their link:
Important note: smoking may offer a limited degree of protection in some individuals against the development of a small number of diseases, outlined below.
However, this information is of little relevance to public health, given that the amount of disease that tobacco may be said to prevent is insignificant in comparison with the far greater incidence of disease caused by smoking. Tobacco products kill one in two of their long-term users.
Why don’t you just get the health benefits in other ways that don’t include cancer?
Nicotine patches are better than cigarettes and vaping.
they cost 50 USD a box, not everyone is so privileged
Sorry, I didn’t realise the situation was so bad there.
Here in New Zealand nicotine patches are free to anyone who wants to quit smoking.
Tobacco on the other hand is highly taxed so it costs around $50 for a pack of 25 cigarettes. (USD$31)
yeah the healthcare system in the united states is so messed up, I’m praying every day for a single payer system but americans hate healthcare I guess.
get near instant access and treatment
allowed to pay more for better services
THIS IS THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD
How clueless can you get?
The only advantage to single-payer system is further encouraging fat people to get fatter. I’ve seen so many fat people clamor for this policy, it’s ridiculous.
… what?
Healthcare in the US is absolutely bonkers. Here in the UK I’ve paid 0 (!) quids for my lung transplant. They only required me to take a break from smoking for about 6 months (that sucked, lol).
Sorry, that must be hard. You’re in such a wealthy country but not everyone in it gets to benefit from that, when it comes to healthcare.
That said, I don’t really agree with the high taxes on tobacco here. It’s an addictive substance, and the massive costs help fuel poverty. I think it should be prescription only instead.
I don’t live in America and I am pro single payer healthcare.
When presenting the information to your girlfriend, please be completely honest and make sure to also show the Important Note that the researchers put at the front.
Important note: smoking may offer a limited degree of protection in some individuals against the development of a small number of diseases, outlined below. However, this information is of little relevance to public health, given that the amount of disease that tobacco may be said to prevent is insignificant in comparison with the far greater incidence of disease caused by smoking. Tobacco products kill one in two of their long-term users.Half of long-term smokers die to smoking. Even if you think you can quit, the point of this study is to show that even having looked for benefits, they could only find a negligible amount of benefits compared to the harms of smoking.
If you don’t like living, this is a good way. Please try to give it up.
I don’t like living with how my girlfriend is nagging me over me smoking all the time which is why I came here to ask about the benefits.
There. Are. None. Sorry, but you won’t find any.
There have to be at least a few.
And what makes you think that exactly?
deleted by creator
bad faith arguments
this is a thought terminating cliche, you have no meaningful response so you shutdown and act smug. “I could show him but, but… I just don’t want to HMPH”
people smoke, people don’t do things that are purely detrimental. There aren’t a lot of people who chop off their own limbs for example.
People don’t do things that are purely detrimental? How about…
Suicide, drunk driving, yelling at your boss, antagonizing people who might be armed, commiting crimes in places where you should know there are cameras, intentionally posting racist shit on social media where potential employers will see it, eating unidentified mushrooms, smoking crack, smoking meth, snorting cocaine, shooting heroin, speedballing, k-holing in a public place, shacking up in a public restroom, defecating in a public pool, fake attempting suicide just to get attention, autoerotic asfixiation, watching a Fast & Furious movie, having unprotected sex with strangers, getting a tattoo of your current boyfriend or girlfriend"s name, signing up for a variable-rate loan, mixing Viagra and MDMA, paying for extra lives in mobile games, eating fast food, putting things inside your butthole that you’ll need a doctor to pull out later, trying to pet a dog that’s growling at you, trying to wax your own ass, having “just one more drink” on a Sunday night, impulse shopping, and trying to get some of that earwax out with a Q-tip even though you know that’s just going to push it further in and cause it to block your hearing on that side completely until you can get someone to squirt water into your earhole and flush out the earwax stopper you just made?
not responding to your gishgallop but I’m gonna say that the few I read people do it because they can and want to. Suicidal people are struggling with issues that you could never comprehend and I’m glad that some developed nations like Canada and Switzerland are giving them the medical treatment they desperately need.
People drink and drive because they have to regularly show up in person to do real jobs like build your roads or stock your store shelves and can’t show up to work hung over, who could blame them if you have mouths to feed. Plus if there is no victim there is no crime. I’m sure you’re able to come up with reasons YOU would yell at your boss or YOU would get a blowjob in a public restroom, you’re just being obtuse.
There. Are. None. Sorry, but you won’t find any.
Weirdly, there actually possibly are a few. Of course, OP is being ridiculous (and probably trolling) and even if there are some potential benefits to smoking they almost certainly don’t outweigh the overall risks.
One example is Parkinson’s Disease: https://www.apdaparkinson.org/article/smoking-and-parkinsons-disease/
Smokers actually have a lower risk of contracting Parkinson’s (although the exact reason isn’t entirely clear at the moment).
I seem to recall there’s also some sort of lung problem where current smokers are actually better off continuing to smoke but I don’t remember the details. I think it had something to do with nicotine causing vasoconstriction in the lungs which compensated for/controlled some other issue.
There are none. It is carcinogenic.
You’re going to have to give up one or the other.
Also: “I can’t find any info online to back that up” Is a clue. Asking randos online isn’t going to change the lack of evidence for what your want to believe.
Try a vape, preferably an unflavored one. Or something administered orally, like nicotine pouches/gum or snus. Anything but smoking actual tobacco.
Mother nature never gave me popcorn lung. Vapists are like a cult
Smoking is extremely unattractive because it heavily stinks like shit.
Additionally, what you describe, is your lack of dopamine. You have build up your normal dopamine level way too high. Meaning that, to feel normal or satisfied, you need to smoke cigarrettes or do heroin.
A normal person who isn’t addicted could look at cat pictures or look at a beatiful park and be happy for that day because his normal dopamine level is way lower. (If he isn’t depressed or not addicted to tiktok, etc)
You either understand the serious health downsides and want to quit, or you will never be able to quit because you feel like you are right with cigarretes, then a different girlfriend who smokes too would be more appropriate.
Lmao nice b8, m8
You want to kill germs? Use mouthwash. There’s pretty much nothing beneficial about smoking cigarettes.
Even when you take the health considerations out of account, you will reek. I assure you, nobody wants to spend time around a partner that emits a nauseating scent. It’s a bad habit in every sense of the term.
Yes - nicotine can be a quick stress reliever. That’s about al it’s good for.
I understand that you need something to help you get through the days, but there are tons of other things that you could do.
Heck, even switching to vaping will improve your health outcomes considerably. And you won’t smell.
I don’t know why you’re fighting your girlfriend on this, it seems like she’s genuinely concerned and you’re being so stubborn as to look online to justify your addiction. Yes, you are addicted. You smoke more than a pack a week and refuse to quit or offer a compromising alternative. If I was her, I’d leave you.
She keeps asking me to switch to vaping and even though I like cigarettes I might do that eventually if she’s actually serious about leaving me. I just need to find the cartridges with the best nicotine so I can still get the health benefits from it.
The health benefits you can’t find any evidence of? Yeah, those benefits.
With a name like lappland, you could also try snus? I know a lot of people in Sweden who have replaced smoking with snus.
It’s better for your lungs, you still get the nicotine, and you won’t smell and upset your partner. It’s very easy to get into, you don’t have to do a whole bunch of searching to find the perfect vape.
My girlfriend keeps asking me to switch to vaping but I’ll have to ask her how she feels about snus. I think I’d prefer it because its real tobacco.
The biggest struggle I’ve seen with snus is that kissing with snus is not pleasant. You just have to take it out and drink some water before kissing.
If you want liquid that will hit hard, get nicotine salt based eliquid.
If you want to make your own, Caroline extract can’t be beat (in the USA)
“so I can still get the health benefits from it”
Seriously, you aren’t getting healt benefits. You might feel better but that is the nicotine, it’s a psychological effect not something that is improving your physical health in any discernable way.
Just understand, people don’t smoke because it’s good for their bodies, people smoke because it feels good, it’s an important distinction.
health benefits cannot be psychologically, only physical
Lemmy’s most intelligent user.
It really isn’t, at least in the way the term is used. For example, would you describe the feeling you get after snorting cocaine as a “health benefit” just because you feel better momentarily???
people smoke because it feels good
Also only partially true. What feels good is mostly the satisfaction of the withdrawal symptoms that come with the addiction.
As an aside, the same is true for caffeine. It causes greater alertness but that lasts for only about two weeks of daily use. Beyond that, it’s just an addict getting their fix.
You think this dude is trolling
Most probably, but there is always the possibility of people either being underage, stupid or unaware due to upbringing (imagine being told your whole life something is in a particular way, it isnt unreasonable not to doubt that) and I prefer to engage honestly with people even if I look like an idiot, just in case.
Of course when clear bad faith is shown I will just not engage, or call it out, but in
Are you sure elkaki isn’t trolling?
There are no health benefits to smoking or vaping as opposed to just not smoking. I don’t know how directly this needs to be told to you, but I think right now you’re too deep into addiction/denial to see it.
If you love your girlfriend, sometimes it’s okay to trust them on something, especially if everyone else is also telling you the same thing, even if it’s not what you want to hear.
For your sake, stop. My granfather died a slow and painful death that took about half a year due to lung cancer. Nobody should die like that.
Lol, based on your post and comments it sounds like you should keep smoking. Hopefully then your gf will wise up and leave.
deleted by creator
Have you looked at this from her standpoint? Cigarettes cause cancer, and second-hand smoke can lead to cancer as well, or at least serious health issues. Her being with you in the long run may mean she might get it, or you get it, or both of you get it. All outcomes are really bad for both of you, physically, emotionally/mentally.
I’m not sure how serious you two are. But if you are, maybe start to work on it. If you say you can stop, prove it to her and yourself. If you say you don’t have an addiction, test that theory, for both you and her. If you want to meet her half-way, maybe consider cutting back or switching to vape.
why should it matter what he does to his own body. I don’t know why so many people in this comments section are condoning this controlling and borderline abusive behavior. Regular ultimatums are not part of healthy relationships.
Then this relationship is already not healthy. If OP refuses to compromise, that is also not a good sign for the relationship. Yes, OP should be allowed to do whatever they want with their body, but not to the extent of potentially hurting others around them, especially knowingly so. And relationship is a 2-way street that needs communication, understanding and compromise. If OP wants to continue smoking, they can do so, but should understand their partner’s point of view and the consequences.
I can’t speak for OP but I won’t blame the victim of a controlling partner for not acquiescing to their demands. Smoking isn’t illegal, smoking around people is legal, and he should be able to do with his body as a he pleases and his girlfriend should be adult enough to respect that
also…
vape
That’s great advice “don’t smoke this natural substance instead inhale this concoction of mystery chemicals assembled as cheaply as possible in a country that can’t even make safe baby formula”
I’ll trust mother nature over whatever give vape users (vapists?) popcorn lung.
“I can’t speak for OP”
bahahahahaha
vape
that’s great advice “don’t smoke this natural substance instead inhale this concoction of mystery chemicals assembled as cheaply as possible in a country that can’t even make safe baby formula”
I’ll trust mother nature over whatever give vape users (vapists?) popcorn lung.
Poison ivy is natural. Disprove that.
there is no benefit to rubbing poison ivy on yourself, there is to smoking. How is it that hard to comprehend. You’re using the same bad faith arguments conservative “drug warriors” in the united states use.
You know what’s also a natural substance? Snake venom.
I get what you’re saying about how vape juice is produced, but tobacco isn’t automatically better just because it’s natural.
The difference is people have been smoking tobacco and pot for centuries with no issues.
Actually, people have been smoking pot and tobacco for millenia. Moses saw God in a burning bush, do you think that bush was lavender?
But when your life expectancy is 50, odds are something else will get you before the cancer and lung failure do. Life expectancy now is over 80. That’s 30 extra years for all that tar in your lungs to bring you to your knees.
how is tobacco worse than pot, they’re both burning plants. Is pot smoke magically more safe than tobacco smoke?
Because pot doesn’t have nicotine and nicotine is carcinogenic. Tobacco also has several other carcinogenic substances that are not present in most other plants. Not all leaves are created equal.
But you’re right, both are burning plants, which means both coat the inside of your lungs with tar. Best to avoid smoking them.
It is possible that this is a troll. Their account is 1h old. The OP of the post also is new. I saw a post on the another asklemmy in which OP makes quite ridiculous statements and their acc is also new. That’s 3 in a short span of a couple of hours. Here’s to hoping this is not an orchestrated thing, and it’s just people revealing who they are through pseudo-anonymity.
It could be a troll, but so many people think that natural automatically means healthy that I think odds are it isn’t. Naturopathy is actually a lucrative profession thanks to these saps.
Dude, i saw my grandpa die of lung cancer, chemo did nothing to help him and the cancer literally propagated to the bones making him suffer with pain until he died. He smoked from 12 years old till he was 60, he always told everyone in my family to not smoke.
The only benefit is weight loss and that is minor and nowhere nearly as bad as the negative consequences. Even if you think you’re magically immune to things like cancer and COPD, you’ll smell like shit if you are a smoker. You don’t notice it because you always smell like it, but everybody around you notices it.
I started smoking in the first place because my girlfriend wanted me to lose weight so that was certainly a benefit but I am trying to find more beyond that.
Sawing off your leg or getting tapeworms also helps you lose weight. I wouldn’t call those benefits tho.
The biggest benefit is having a much better idea of how you’ll die, and knowing that you won’t have to deal with getting so old that everyone you know dies before you
