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.
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.
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 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
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
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
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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.
You can’t think of any benefits without googling for it?
If you didn’t have breakfast yesterday, how would you feel today?
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.
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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.
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?
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.
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.
You’re trolling right?
No we’re serious. Don’t you know, everything is super serious on the internet nowadays?
I’m not addicted but it does help me get through my day.
Yeah… you’re addicted.
I’m not addicted I could quit if I wanted to.
I stopped telling myself that twenty years ago… at one point or the other, even I couldn’t believe it any more.
you clearly just want to keep smoking, skill issue
- every single addict ever
And also every single non addict for that matter
You are technically correct, which as we all know is the best kind of correct.
Clearly.
Prove it. Quit for a month. Then you’ll have proven you’re not addicted. And by that time you’ll also have realized that you don’t really need it after all.
OP probably couldn’t even quit for a week, let alone a month. They’d have a “hard” day and give themselves a pass or some shit.
How do you know? They may be different from your average smoker
Do it then
Same, I could quit Lemmy if I wanted to. I just don’t want to be bored so I spend 24 hours a day doom scrolling Lemmy. I’m totally not addicted!
/s
Then do it.
Here’s a positive: cigarettes make a great mosquito repellent, because nicotine is a natural insecticide and the smoke/odor repels them. It also repels girlfriends and other humans, but still.
So you’re saying cigarettes filter out dweebs. How is that a bad thing?
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.
“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.
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?
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???
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.
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)
Is this serious, or joking/trolling? Smoking is expensive, and stinky. It is without any tangible benefits. You are being silly.
This is obvious trolling, but everyone here is so sincere.
Cigarettes aren’t good for you and it sounds like you’re not ready to hear this, but you are addicted.
Cigarettes have done me more good than therapy
Sounds like you need either a better therapist or to actually take therapy seriously.
lmao why would I do that
If I was addicted I would smoke more than a pack every day. It just helps me get through the day I could stop anytime I want.
So try that. Go a week without smoking and see if you can do it.
I roll the occasional smoke after lunch but it’s less than one a day. That’s how I know I’m not addicted: I go multiple days between having a smoke, I can smoke with friends on the weekend, but then not smoke by myself on weekdays. Try that to know if you’re really not addicted.
My girlfriend keeps asking me to do something like that but I don’t want to prove her right so I haven’t done it yet.
So you think she could be right? You just don’t want to do it? That reasoning doesn’t make sense. If you think she’s right you should be stopping right now.
so stop
“I”
“could”
“stop”
“any”
“time”
“I”
“want.”
Did you really say that with a straight face? I thought that was just what people said to mock people who were clearly addicted.
think about it. Even online, where there are all kinds of stupid misinformation, you couldn’t find any info to back your claim.
maybe she’s right and she loves you enough to threaten you to do something good for your health
maybe she’s right and she loves you enough to threaten you to do something good for your health
Yeah, this is a good thing OP. She cares enough to have an uncomfortable conversation with you.
In your shoes I’d show her I really wasn’t addicted by stopping.
yes! He should quit smoking and her too :)
If he didn’t care about me he wouldn’t get so mad
you sound just like a battered wife, stop condoning controlling behavior
you write like you live with a battered wife?
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.
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.
There. Are. None. Sorry, but you won’t find any.
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 have to be at least a few.
And what makes you think that exactly?
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.
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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”
There are none. It is carcinogenic.
I’m reading through the comments and every reply of yours is like another stroke of the paint brush. I will watch your dark art from afar.
Right? This is classic trolling.
poe tho
The one comment telling someone that their useless reply isn’t helpful was definitely correct. Otherwise…
You sound like a teenager. As an almost 20 year smoker, if you’re “not addicted” then quit now.
Health benefits aside, it’s a massive pain in the ass and a money pit. Everyone (rightfully) talks about getting lung cancer, but no one talks about how fucking annoying it is to have to stop what you’re doing every 2 hours to feed your cravings.
I’m not spending too much money on it I smoke under a pack a day, I could quit whenever I want to right now but I’ll just do it later.
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I’m totally on board with you and OP is deluding themselves. However, this part
The way it helps you get through the day would mostly be from getting relief from the withdrawal symptoms. Only addicts will get that.
is just factually incorrect. There are reasons people take up smoking to begin with, and the nicotine rush which causes relaxation is one of them.
Ignoring that won’t help people quit.
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Literally what I told myself when I was 16 lmao.
Buddy, you are not immune to nicotine addiction. You do not need to smoke a pack a day to be addicted, I currently smoke half a pack a day and am most definitely addicted. Test yourself, go a day without and see if you don’t get irritable and have cravings.
There are no benefits to smoking. Any benefits you percieve are the cigarettes relieving withdrawl symptoms.
As somehow who lost a close one to cancer, quit now and not later. The more you wait, the greater the chances you’ll get cancer. Don’t wait and regret it.
Ok, you have to be trolling. Are you? No one uses “I could quit whenever I want to right now but I’ll just do it later” seriously.
He’ll quit later, after his girlfriend has left him for a non-smoker who listens to her.
Nah, then he’ll have a reason more not to quit because OP is too depressed after the breakup.
Let’s assume a pack of smokes is only $7. In just one year of a pack every other day, that adds up to $1,277.
Is that yearly subscription worth it?
There is no way this is a real thought process lmao.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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
No benefits at all really. The smoke contains poison that causes cancer and nicotine causes vascular disease. If you really could quit anytime you should. But you can’t because you’re an addict. You should listen to your GF and quit. Otherwise you’re destroying your health and your relationship.
Source?
For the very well known health concerns of smoking?
