Betty said (March 26, 2010):

Joe Vialls was "dissed" by TPTB because of his tobac research! I saved some of it by cut and paste. Even presented it to my MD. Also, smoking ( of unadulterated tobac and paper)
saw a world wide increase in 1920 BECAUSE word got around the world that SMOKERS did NOT get the 1918 influenza.

Glenn said (March 25, 2010):

To Chris (Below)

You might discover if you search google, that Cigarette smoking can increase testosterone levels as much as 15%. If there is any truth to that, I would recommend to younger generation males who have experienced the emasculating effects of city pollution, drink female hormone contaminated public water or eat a terrible diet, to consider smoking as a possible way of raising their lowered testosterone levels as one method of getting back in touch with their masculine side, so they don't forget how exhilarating and empowering it really is, to be a man.

Larry said (March 25, 2010):

Henry I too agree with Michael. I think it is all the radioactivity from all the nuclear bombs blown off in our atmosphere that causes lung cancer.

I am the son of a Baptist missionary. I grew up on the island of St. Vincent, W.I. I know many missionaries who worked in the tropical regions where the bombs were blown off. Many of them being "Christian" never smoked but still got lung cancer before they died.
One lady who worked on the island with my parents is dying of lung cancer at this time. She never smoked and did not grow up in a smoking family. At the retirement community where my late mother resided 3 people I know of who never smoked but worked in regions near the equator died of lung cancer.

So sign me a skeptic when it comes to cancer causing lung cancer. You either get it or you don't.

Chris said (March 25, 2010):

In my business it never failed that reliability, inability to think for one’s self and immaturity were always connected with smokers to the point that if I just used smoking as an exclusion characteristic, I would be correct most of the time. Usually the smoking type proved to be good in less structured environments as long as they could get an aggressive fix such as in the field sales agents, brokers, sin industries and anything where they could dominate others. Smoking always seemed to be a regulator of their aggressive tendencies and they used it to keep an even keel until they needed to fight. Much like what one would see in a dry drunk. Anytime a smoker that I knew tried to quit he always did well in a twelve step like program where there was accountability and an effort to learn to self regulate. How many times have we seen smokers trying to quit as very cross during the challenge? Or, how often excessive use of alcohol accompanies the use of tobacco. The bar business is always severely damaged by indoor smoking restrictions.

Any female that I have been involved with who smoked was always a rebel just because and a crowd follower, forget about thinking for herself even after quitting. My personal rule is to never again become involved with someone who ever smoked for a period of time.

And to never to hire one for most positions as they learn way too late in life to be moderate and I don’t need to babysit in the interim.

Thanks for posting the great article Henry.

Jerry said (March 25, 2010):

A bigger cause of mental illness is plain old sugar and for an excellent speech on the subject look no further than Jaime Oliver at TED.com.

Irish Dan said (March 25, 2010):

My late father died at sixty-four from lung cancer directly arising from cigarette use. I am a non smoker and not a detached commentator on this issue.

Prior to his death my father had a much diminished quality of life for the previous five years including the removal of a lung nine months before he died. He was a country man, lived on the land, he was an occasional and moderate drinker. Aside from smoking had a healthy, active lifestyle.

The Republic of Ireland banned smoking in the work place back in 2004 in the teeth of vested interest opposition. They predicted the collapse of tourism, the Irish pub industry, the hotel industry etc. These things did not happen, the sky did not fall and we now have a much better quality of life for all. Following is part of a study.....

Some 84% of the population knew not only that the ban was coming in, but also that it was for health and safety reasons. Public support has remained strong. A survey commissioned by the Department of Health and Children showed that 4 months after the ban, 82% supported the Smoke-Free at Work measure, 95% agreed that the ban is a positive health measure, and 90% agreed that going smoke-free is of benefit to workers. Most reported that the new legislation improved their experience in pubs (70%) and restaurants (78%).

A full study dealing with the Ban and the health benefits arising can be found on the site listed. For ease of access I have listed by site name.

Republic of Ireland's indoor workplace smoking ban

Michael said (March 25, 2010):

Wow, what a rant. I think it's worth pointing out that lung cancer became a problem in the 1950s and '60s, ten to fifteen years after "they" started atmospheric testing of atomic weapons. They blew a lot of Plutonium up and gave everyone on the planet a good lungful. As the gov'ts and weapons manufacturers couldn't be allowed to take the blame, smoking became the culprit. When even non-smokers had just as much or more incidence of lung cancer, then the culprit became second hand smoke.

I'm 58 years old and have been smoking since age eleven. I ride a bicycle almost everywhere I go and am in as good or better physical condition than anyone else I personally know of any age. My brain functions just fine too.

A couple of days ago someone I had just met was telling me how to quit smoking. I told them I didn't want to quit smoking, or I would. I enjoy smoking. He then told me that 1 out of seven smokers gets lung cancer. I replied that the statistics I have seen are that one out of two Americans will get cancer, so the smoker's odds seem pretty good.

Interesting about nicotine chelating out fluoride. I hadn't heard that before, but with the PTB doing their best to dumb and drug us down, and nicotine being a brain stimulant while fluoride is the opposite, I guess that's one more reason to demonize tobacco.

Lisa said (March 25, 2010):

nteresting information. What is left out with respect to these statistics is that they don’t only represent dangers caused by smoking tobacco. Hardly any smoker smokes pure tobacco these days (it’s also much more expensive). Tobacco products are full of toxic chemicals, which are no doubt increasing the harm these products cause many fold. I see that an MD has commented that tobacco provides positive effects for some people, too. MDs can be wrong, just like anyone else (and theories are neither true nor false, but only useful or not useful), but I would suggest that any help cigarettes might offer these people is more of a “state of mind” issue, like the placebo effect. Mind you, the placebo effect is serious medicine - and usually has far fewer side effects than the real thing! The chemicals in those products cannot be doing anyone any overall good physically, regardless of any statistics.

I used to smoke, too. It’s not that it calms the nerves. Like alcohol, it is legal, and the mind sees it as changing the situation at the moment. That’s why it’s also a serious stress crutch. Stress? Don’t worry, you can change your state right now with a cigarette! (Some of the toxic chemicals aid in that process, too.) Cigarettes seem to give one a temporary burst of energy, but they are really stealing it in a serious way. I stopped by cutting down to a single puff (light it, put it out) 4-8 times a day, when I felt most stressed. When you get it down to that, you will understand just how much life force they are stealing every day. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had to really learn to HATE cigarettes before I could stop them for the last time. I don’t care how bad I might feel in the future. I would never pick up one of those damned things again.

Lisa said (March 25, 2010):

nteresting information. What is left out with respect to these statistics is that they don’t only represent dangers caused by smoking tobacco. Hardly any smoker smokes pure tobacco these days (it’s also much more expensive). Tobacco products are full of toxic chemicals, which are no doubt increasing the harm these products cause many fold. I see that an MD has commented that tobacco provides positive effects for some people, too. MDs can be wrong, just like anyone else (and theories are neither true nor false, but only useful or not useful), but I would suggest that any help cigarettes might offer these people is more of a “state of mind” issue, like the placebo effect. Mind you, the placebo effect is serious medicine - and usually has far fewer side effects than the real thing! The chemicals in those products cannot be doing anyone any overall good physically, regardless of any statistics.

I used to smoke, too. It’s not that it calms the nerves. Like alcohol, it is legal, and the mind sees it as changing the situation at the moment. That’s why it’s also a serious stress crutch. Stress? Don’t worry, you can change your state right now with a cigarette! (Some of the toxic chemicals aid in that process, too.) Cigarettes seem to give one a temporary burst of energy, but they are really stealing it in a serious way. I stopped by cutting down to a single puff (light it, put it out) 4-8 times a day, when I felt most stressed. When you get it down to that, you will understand just how much life force they are stealing every day. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had to really learn to HATE cigarettes before I could stop them for the last time. I don’t care how bad I might feel in the future. I would never pick up one of those damned things again.

Quiet Bear said (March 25, 2010):

I just read the article that attempts to scare people into thinking that tobacco is the cause of all the world's woes...

With just a little investigation, one can find and then surmise that it's the 600 or so chemicals that are sprayed on the tobacco that are causing all the problems from those smoking them... Beyond the 600+ chemicals, when they are burnt, they then form into over 3000+ new chemicals that attack every form of the body and its functions... I would not be surprised to learn that they attack the mental functions as well...

I am 51 and I smoke organically grown tobacco that I add organic peppermint and organic clove powder into the mix... I have smoked this blend for over 25 years and I can out run, out climb & out perform most kids in their teens and twenties...

People of the world have been consuming tobacco in various forms for thousands of years without ill effects... It wasn't until filters and the chemicals were added in the mid twenties and thirties, that problems began to occur... Take out the chemicals and filters (they put micro-fibers into the lungs that don't go away!) out of the tobacco and the problems end there...

This is all very easy to find out, with an open mind and a little time...

I don't agree with the author of this title, but I am very glad for your efforts in general... Thanks for what you do!

Frank said (March 25, 2010):

1. Tobacco is a natural nootropic ("smart drug") and improves cognition which is thought to alleviate the effects of some mental conditions, notably schizophrenia. In a US Veterans hospital, doctors sued the administrators over a "smoke-free" environment ban because tobacco markedly improved the symptoms of schizophrenia and reduced the need for other medications.

2. Tobacco use appears to prevent SOME stomach disorders. The wife and I are about Henry Makow's age, and quit smoking in our 40s. BOTH of us got ulcers within 18 months of quitting. Her internist told us that this is utterly common; in a free country, he noted, studies would conclude that lots of people with digestive disorders should take up smoking. A small amount of tobacco a day would be medicinal in this case.

3. Which brings us to... YES! Tobacco WAS a medicinal plant, used by natives to the Americas for thousands of years to help the mind focus (the peace-pipe ceremony was more than a ceremony: Tobacco is good for your attention and is the "natural" cure for Attention Deficit Disorder.)

4. But what changed the good to that bad? Try free enterprise: In the 1950s, citing stagnant market growth, tobacco companies ratcheted up the amount of tars and bred the strong, "Flavorful" leaves that were also more dangerous. The amount of cancer and lung disease skyrocketed... the rest is history.

While I'm not real optimistic, I encourage those who can to do some research on their own concerning this subject. The "war" against tobacco use has been rife with disinformation and outright fabrications, as we all can see. And like most unreasoned crusades, it has taken its toll on the innocent producer: My uncle was a fine man and a successful tobacco farmer in the excellent country near Scotland, Ontario. He was disemployed by his own government's insane grudge against tobacco, and as a war veteran and productive citizen, he deserved lots better.

FN said (March 25, 2010):

A friend directed me to the tobacco piece on your blog by Christine.

What she wrote is based on the ravings of Leroy Pletten, and if you visit the website link she supplied you can see more of them. Heh... he blames the Holocaust on Hitler's smoking as a youth, and loves to describe things like this: "In this typical murder by smoker case the husband bludgeoned his wife to death with 31 blows from a sledgehammer..." {The emphasis is Leroy's, not mine.}

I'd say Leroy is an archetypical example of someone who suffers from ASDS but it's unlikely he'll ever get treatment.

{ See: http://www.stahlheart.com/wispofsmoke/recovery.html for more on that }

Good luck with your blog. If you ever want a counterpiece on a smoking issue I'll be happy to do one up for ya!

Michael J. McFadden
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"
http://TheTruthIsALie.com

John (an MD) said (March 25, 2010):

This tobacco article is misleading, badly researched, and full of emotional nonsense. Mental illness is mental illness; related to mental illness only, probably genetic fundamentally and then modulated by life itself. Tobacco would be a wonder " drug " if it didn't precipitate lung cancer and diseases related to circulatory problems. Smoking cigarettes is wonderful; I smoked for decades until my mother ( a heavy smoker ) died from lung cancer. And now I smoke cigars. I don't inhale, not like Bill
Clinton, but I LOVE CIGARS. Let's LIVE our lives. I'm 66 and it doesn't matter anymore. Some people need to grow up ( not you, Henry ).

Gwen said (March 25, 2010):

Reproducing a Big-Pharma, Big-Med propaganda piece on your site is a disgusting, obnoxious attack on freedom of choice. There is only one purpose behind "research" such as this and that is to enable prohibition stage-by-stage. Just look around you and see how it is already happening. Private property rights have been hammered and smokers are the new McCarthyist targets.


You clearly have not done your own research on this.


Whose side are you really on anyway???


Shame on you.

--

Gwen

My site is not the Bible. I can entertain a range of views. Christine is a longtime reader and she felt strongly about this. So I asked her to write it up.

henry

Alan said (March 25, 2010):

For an alternative view of tobacco, you might check out William Campbell Douglass' work on the subject. I haven't read this one but I think he recommends smoking pure tobacco, not commercial cigarettes which have something like 150 chemicals in them which stimulate different parts of the brain in different people making them much more addictive than just the nicotine. I have also heard chewing the raw tobacco leaves has some health benefits but I have no personal experience confirming that. I'm not sure where you could find tobacco leaves in Canada however.

http://www.buy.com/prod/the-health-benefits-of-tobacco/q/loc/106/202302963.html

Heath Motley MD said (March 25, 2010):

Actually it prevents mental illness and Alzheimer's, Parkinsons. Schizophrenics smoke because it helps them not hurts. Nicotine chelates out and protects against flupride build-up in the hippocampus and pineal. No wonder they want people to stop.

For those still smoking, quitting would not reduce the ailments but would increase them. Asthma and allergies (for which traditionally smoking was considered helpful) have been rapidly rising, while smoking has been decreasing. Alzheimers and Parkinson, have been increasing, too. Smoking is strongly protective against Alzheimer's e.g. when you match people genetically and socio-economically, such as when comparing between family members, smokers have ten times lower risk of Alzheimer's than their non-smoking relatives! Of course, if you don't match the samples, but compare within general population, the smoking appears only mildly negatively correlated with Alzheimer's, and in recent 5-10 years even slighlty positively correlated. Similarly, smoking is strongly positively correlated with schizophrenia - schizophrenics smoke 2-3 times more often than general population, and smoke much more heavily than general smokers. Unlike Alzheimer's, schizophrenia usually starts in teens, often well before person has started smoking (or has smoked very little), hence it is obvious that smoking is a form of self-medication among schizophrenics rather than its cause (this has been also shown more explicitly).

http://www.forces.org/evidence/index.htm

Schizophrenia

Nearly 90% of schizophrenics smoke [NOTE: most of them chain smoke, yet they have 30-50 percent lower lung & other cancer rates, compared to general population of the same age]. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that schizophrenics may smoke in part because nicotine may improve their ability to filter out and ignore irrelevant sensory information, which may be related to an impairment of inhibitory mechanisms which act to decrease attention to repeated stimuli (sensory gating). whatsmokersshouldknow.com

Larry said (March 25, 2010):

Well I guess since according to your article I am mentally ill because I smoke a might as well file for medical disability and retire young (55)...NOT - get real mister..

---

Larry

I smoke too. I had not heard about this, and it struck me as newsworthy.

Henry