Why Do We Die?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you're a smoker, I can pretty much guess how you're going to die, statistically.

Slowly and painfully.

But hey...whatever floats your boat.
 
Interesting. Good points all around. Most here, unfortunatley, will think of it as some kind of smokers conspiracy and will therefore dismiss it alltogether.
 
Interesting. Good points all around. Most here, unfortunatley, will think of it as some kind of smokers conspiracy and will therefore dismiss it alltogether.

"Smokers' conspiracy"? Ridiculous.

You know, I have to think that it is perhaps a bit of a personality trait with smokers, but I know there's this tendency to be a bit of a risk taker and to thumb one's nose at death, saying "it'll happen to all of us." At the same time, I've seen more than one smoker, who, once they actually realize that they have lung cancer or emphysema, suddenly wish they had never started in the first place.

"Half a year ago my wife died, technically from an infection, but manifestly, at least in part, from a body weakened by 60 years of nonstop smoking. I stayed off the cigarettes but went to the idiocy of cigars inhaled, and suffer now from emphysema, which seems determined to outpace heart disease as a human killer. Stick me in a confessional and ask the question: Sir, if you had the authority, would you forbid smoking in America? You'd get a solemn and contrite, Yes." - William F. Buckley, December 3, 2007

Famous Hollywood screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas, has also become a fervent anti-smoking crusader after getting throat cancer and having 80% of his larynx removed.

Unfortunately, if this is a personality trait, then there's not much I can do or say, short of saying that the best way of avoiding these kinds of fates in the first place is to stop smoking altogether and the earlier the better.
 
Sometimes, whether I'm driving along a crowded highway, walking down a busy street or in that packed airliner, I ask myself, "Is this it?...is this the group that's leaving? has God packed the Chosen Ones to go at one time and is this the time?"

My BIGGEST worry in life is that I won't have time to tell anyone how much I love them; so I do that every morning and night.
 
Interesting. Good points all around. Most here, unfortunatley, will think of it as some kind of smokers conspiracy and will therefore dismiss it alltogether.

Wow, just when I think it can't get any more ridiculous in here, it does...

I never understood the backwards logic of these types websites. I guess it's just to make one feel better. :shrug:
 
So if I understand this correctly the smoker's approach is "Hey maybe I'll get lucky and not get cancer?" I mean, cause they might not, right? :shrug:

If someone wants to smoke, I don't begrudge them that. I really don't. I do find myself getting a little aggravated though when people smoke in public and my newborn son is around. I don't mind them taking the gamble for themselves but I don't want them making that choice for my kid.
 
Smoking can be very bad for the smoker as well as the people around, espeically kids.

That's hard to argue but why is it that myself and almost ALL of my friends constantly grew up with both parents smoking, which meant TONS of second hand smoke - in the house, in the car, in restaurants, cafe's, libraries and YES hospitals - and hardly anyone back then had asthma??? Is it maybe because with all that smoke it somehow built up our immune systems??? You've got to wonder at least don't you? Obviously it's better that kids are not exposed to that amount of smoke BUT I do not think it's as bad as people think. Again, why is it that hardly anyone I knew back then had asthma?? And now it's running rampant?
 
Maybe because your knowledge of asthma, the various ways how people contract the disease, the various forms and extents it can have and many more things about this disease are very limited?
One can contract asthma due to thousands of reasons. There is allergic asthma and non-allergic asthma. There are other respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). And to this day many people run around feeling perfectly fine while in fact suffering from asthma. But the symptoms are hard to interpret at times, and not always does someone blame asthma for their low condition. My doctor for example said, many people in their late 40s, early 50s think being exhausted when hitting the third floor is just due to their age or their lazyiness when in fact it might well be that they have asthma.
That disease being more researched now, made public more and doctors being sensibilised helps a lot to spread awareness, but also might leave the impression that it is much more widespread than before.
But smoking is only a small contributor to asthma, and especially second hand smoke, while of course being harmful and a trigger, doesn't account for the bulk of cases of asthma. For example, as became especially blatant after the fall of the Berlin Wall, hygiene is a huge contributor to allergic diseases such as allergic asthma, hay fever or dermitis.
More than 90 percent of all people suffering from COPD do so because of years of smoking. Another few percent due to other reasons, and about three percent from second-hand smoke. About 5,000 Americans die from COPD every year.

Why do so many people smoke and don't feel affected for decades? Simply because the lung is such a huge organ that it can (note: can) take so long until the tar and all the other dirt has destroyed enough to make the person feel the consequences. Doesn't make the whole thing better.
Not every smoker contracts cancer, but the chance is greatly increased. Same for second-hand smoke, though to a lesser extent.

So, there might be an increase in the prevalence of asthma, due to a multitude of factors, but there is also the effect of more people being diagnosed due to various reasons. That can be compared to a simple statistical phenomenon: With an increase in police forces being deployed to one region suddenly the crime rate increases. One might draw the simple conclusion that more police=more crime. But in fact that is, of course, illogic. Logical conclusion: More police just means more crimes are being recognised as such, for example because the police is running through town more and thus seeing more of what's going on. The actual crime rate might stay the same, but the estimated number of unknown crimes decrease; more light sheds into the dark.

What I get from iron horse's reocurring threads on that issue is the attempt at making smoking seem unrisky, or the risk irrelevant. It might be irrelevant for him, or for you, but it is not for many others.
 
here's the deal on smoking guys. Probably not a wonderful habit, but provided one is discreet about it and doesn't blow it in everyone else's face, so to speak, I think that's that (to quote Adam Sandler in 'Punch Drunk Love'.)

My interest in the topic is rather overshadowed by the looming economic meltdown or whatever.
 
As record numbers reach their century, five centenarians give their unexpected recipes for a long and happy life | Mail Online

Alec Castle, 100, has been married to Vera, 81, for 61 years.

He has six children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He lives in Alnwick, Northumberland. Alec says:

There is nothing like routine. I come from a military family and my days in the Army instilled a sense of routine in me from a young age.

.......I always tried my best to avoid stress. I never sought out extra responsibility and was happy living a modest life.

It's better to exercise your mind than your body.

Since my Army days, I haven't exercised apart from walking to work and some light gardening. I think it's important to exercise my mind, though, and even now I like to do crosswords.

I've smoked a pipe my whole adult life and never had any health problems.

I didn't drink much as a younger man, but in recent years I've taken to drinking whisky and the bottle is never far from my reach.
Chocolate is my biggest love and I devour dozens of biscuits and cakes every day. I've been known to eat an entire chocolate cake in one go.

I never eat fruit and rarely eat vegetables. My family can't believe I have lived this long on my diet.

'Hard work and two large sherries a day'
Molly Reeves, 100, lives in sheltered housing in Oldham. She had two children (both deceased) and has three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

She married her husband, John, in 1932 after they met while ballroom dancing. He died in 1991. Molly says:


I've never worried about a healthy diet.

I have a happy outlook on life and always have two large glasses of sherry before I go to bed. That's my secret and that's what keeps me going.
Long life is nothing to do with a healthy diet because when I was a child we were poor and I lived off toast and dripping.
Whenever I go out for drives with my granddaughter and visit country pubs, I always make sure I have a Baileys or a Tia Maria.
I love boxing: I do it at my weekly keep-fit class. I feel a bit achy afterwards, but I really do enjoy it. It's a great laugh.
The secret of living a long life is just to be happy. I had a good husband and a happy family. You always have to keep smiling and don't forget to help others.
 
That's hard to argue but why is it that myself and almost ALL of my friends constantly grew up with both parents smoking, which meant TONS of second hand smoke - in the house, in the car, in restaurants, cafe's, libraries and YES hospitals - and hardly anyone back then had asthma??? Is it maybe because with all that smoke it somehow built up our immune systems??? You've got to wonder at least don't you? Obviously it's better that kids are not exposed to that amount of smoke BUT I do not think it's as bad as people think. Again, why is it that hardly anyone I knew back then had asthma?? And now it's running rampant?


I think the danger of second smoke is junk science.It's has been a very succesful ploy by anti-tobacco to press on with their agenda.

The Baby Boom generation grew up in a time where smoking was allowed virtually everywhere...schools, hospitals, banks, stores....everywhere.
Almost three fourths of adults smoked.

If second hand smoke is a killer like we are being led to believe, the baby Boomers should be dropping off like flies.

But they are not, they are the ones now creating the nanny state.
 
I think the danger of second smoke is junk science.It's has been a very succesful ploy by anti-tobacco to press on with their agenda.

That is not correct, dangers of passive smoking are well attested to, PROLONGED exposure to second hand smoke increases risk of lung cancer by approximately 35-40%.

However, and this is where you might have a point, the anti-smoking lobby don't trouble to point out that 135% of a small risk is still a small risk.

Banning smoking in, for example, open air public areas such as railway station platforms really does strike me as, to use the old cliche, political correctness gone mad.

I can somewhat understand banning it in football stadiums and the like as if you are sitting behind a chain smoker it really is quite annoying - but the health risk, frankly, of sitting near to a smoker in an open air environment like a stadium for a couple of hours is negligible.

If we are going to be truly consistent on this, then let's look at banning the internal combustion engine.

But that's a nettle the anti-smoking lobby don't want to grasp, funnily enough.
 
That is not correct, dangers of passive smoking are well attested to, PROLONGED exposure to second hand smoke increases risk of lung cancer by approximately 35-40%.

However, and this is where you might have a point, the anti-smoking lobby don't trouble to point out that 135% of a small risk is still a small risk.

Banning smoking in, for example, open air public areas such as railway station platforms really does strike me as, to use the old cliche, political correctness gone mad.

I can somewhat understand banning it in football stadiums and the like as if you are sitting behind a chain smoker it really is quite annoying - but the health risk, frankly, of sitting near to a smoker in an open air environment like a stadium for a couple of hours is negligible.

If we are going to be truly consistent on this, then let's look at banning the internal combustion engine.

But that's a nettle the anti-smoking lobby don't want to grasp, funnily enough.


Oh yes!

We should all press on to banning the internal combustion engine.

Its been killing people for the past one hundred years.


Got a light :)
 
Oh yes!

We should all press on to banning the internal combustion engine.

Its been killing people for the past one hundred years.


Got a light :)

Why such weak "answers"? I think we deserve better. Yes, the combustion engine has caused quite a few deaths, BUT it provides another USEFUL purpose. What other useful purpose do cigarettes provide?
 
Interesting. Good points all around. Most here, unfortunatley, will think of it as some kind of smokers conspiracy and will therefore dismiss it alltogether.

Dude, don't blow this for us, man. DO NOT BLOW THIS! It's not a very good conspiracy if everyone know about it, jesus.

Everything in that smokers club report is false. How would they even know why people die - they're not even dead! SICY! :lock: this one please*.












*Orders from the top.
 
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