Lung cancer kills some smokers; but this harms ALL smokers….

Today's post: Monday, 8-27-2007

Do you smoke or does someone you care about smoke?

Most doctors know the most important reason that not smoking or quitting smoking protects your health. They do know the most important reason to NOT smoke or be around second hand smoke.

Here’s the horrible bad news: Most smokers DON’T know.

The 1964 report that smoking does tend to cause lung cancer is well known. So most smokers have heard that cigarettes are thought to cause lung cancer.

But most people who develop lung cancer are older people. And, the majority of smokers don’t get or die of lung cancer.

Most smokers know that they don’t seem to have lung cancer. The people they know who smoke don’t either. And, they know or have heard of smokers who never got lung cancer even by the time they are older.

So, since that tends to be ALL they know, they just expect to be in the lucky majority who avoid lung cancer & don’t take the health warnings seriously.

Unfortunately, when they do find out the much more important dangers of smoking and that they hurt ALL smokers – for sure including them, they find out when the damage is already done.

Sometimes they find out before the damage is irreversible. Too often they find out when they are irreversibly impaired or even dying.

So, what is it that they don’t know?

Earlier today we went online with our new website, http://www.iehealth.com/ which is centered around the health guidelines to follow to ensure you keep good health or which can help you restore your health.

One of the guidelines we discuss there is the recommendation that people NOT smoke as a health guideline.

Our take is that is a good guideline & is an accurate one. But that it is weak & ineffective for helping people keep good health.

Here’s what we recommend instead
-- & the HUGE reason NOT to smoke most smokers don’t know.:

“No smoking” in some ways is the single most important item on their list.

But it’s incomplete. Breathing second hand smoke is very nearly as bad for you. And, for the unlucky few, it can even be worse because the exposure is greater. (A bartender in a bar where all the patrons smoke can be exposed to 3 packs a day of cigarette smoke without ever smoking himself or herself.)

No smoking or exposure to second hand smoke – is a MUCH better guideline.

Secondly, most smokers have no clue WHY smoking is bad for you or how HORRIBLY bad for you it actually is.

So, I think many smokers will only follow that guideline if they do know this information.

Most smokers today only know that some smokers get lung cancer. And, particularly if they are younger, they may know no one in their circle of friends & acquaintances who smokes who has lung cancer. So, since that’s all they know, they just count on continuing to be one of the lucky smokers who don’t get lung cancer & continue to smoke.

Here’s what they don’t know.:

1. Smoking helps cause virtually EVERY KIND of cancer. Not just lung cancer. By one estimate, sixty percent of all people who have cancer now are smokers who would not have gotten cancer if they hadn’t smoked.

2. But that’s NOT the most important harm smoking does. Believe it or not, all the cancers smoking causes are the little problem !!

The big problem with smoking is that it directly causes heart & cardiovascular disease & speeds up the aging process.

Smoking INCREASES your homocysteine level; reduces your HDL level; & makes the HDL you still have less effective at clearing out excess LDL from your blood vessels.

The only good news is that instead of waiting many years to find out too late that smoking has caused cancer or a massive fatal heart attack, smokers today can have their HDL & homocysteine levels checked. Then they can see for themselves that smoking is beginning to harm them RIGHT NOW. And, it’s NOT guesswork. Their high homocysteine level will show them the proof NOW.

By the way, the cardiovascular diseases that cigarettes cause include erectile dysfunction, strokes, peripheral artery disease, foot amputations from peripheral artery disease, & kidney disease – NOT just heart attacks. And, smoking causes plenty of heart attacks.

Most smokers would decline to get on a jumbo jet they knew was going to fall out of the sky and crash.

But hardly any know that as smokers they are already following a path as deadly & over 100 times more likely to happen every year just from the cardiovascular diseases smoking causes.

So the third missing part of this guideline is to see to it that:

everyone knows ALL of why smoking is bad for you & has their homocysteine & HDL levels checked at least once a year.”

What should those numbers be to ensure good health?

Here’s what we posted on http://www.iehealth.com/ :

“These guidelines leave out homocysteine of 8.9 or less & HDL of over 40.

(Ideal homocysteine readings range from about 6.0 to 7.9; & HDL readings of over 60 are highly desirable with over 80 close to ideal.)

For many if not most people these two measures are much more important in assessing heart attack risk, death risks, & longevity than the LDL they did include. And, homocysteine of 9.0 & up is predictive of age related mental decline also. In addition, there are effective ways to improve your results on both measures.)“

*************

Doctors used to think that homocysteine readings of equal to or somewhat over 10.0 & was normal because so many people tested that way.

Unfortunately some still do. Mercifully, research shows that readings of over 9.0 are harmful. And, many doctors who know this work hard with their patients to bring these readings down to 8.9 or lower.

For people who don’t smoke & avoid second hand smoke, that’s doable.

Smokers tend to have much higher homocysteine readings. And, it’s unlikely that they can lower their homocysteine levels this much if they don’t quit & stay away from second hand smoke.


So, if you smoke, get your homocysteine & HDL checked.

And, talk to your doctor about quitting or a referral to a doctor who specializes in quitting.

Doctors now have several ways to make quitting easier & much more likely to work permanently. You can more than triple your odds with your doctor's help.

Or go to the American Cancer Society for information & support in quitting. They care & have helped thousands of people to quit.