Pipe Weed, Good or Bad

[Tar-Palantir]

Just to echo Bill Ferny a bit: I am a marathon and ultramarathon runner and it is not uncommon to see runners before and after a race ducking behind trees (or their cars) for a quick puff.

Keep in mind that the detrimental effects of smoking are not simply from the addictive drug nicotine. Tobacco today is processed with dozens of nasty chemicals, from processing agents to flavor enhancers to preservatives.

Physical damage to the lungs is the major concern for all smokers. The smoke itself is hot and can quite literally burn the lungs. Chief among what are destroyed are the alveoli, whose job it is to extract oxygen from the air you breathe. They are never restored once damaged, but one can increase their oxygen capacity in other ways. A little thing call anaerobic threshold reflects to what degree you are able use the oxygen in your blood. If you have a sedentary lifestyle devoid of periods of elevated heart rate, this number will be low regardless of how much air your breathe in. Conversely, even one who has a restricted lung capacity but a high anaerobic threshold, will be able to perform much better in most physically demanding tasks.

Additionally, only the heavier smokers will actually choke their throat and lungs with, well, phlegm. Which further hinders breathing. Pipe smokers (as in LotR), and cigar smokers especially, generally do not inhale to the degree of cigrette smokers. That is where pot-smoking is at the bottom of the barrel and the most detrimental. They enjoy not only inhaling fully, but hold it in their lungs as long as possible. And in huge draughts not puffs. Also they like to smoke the reprodudtive buds of the female plants rather than leaf which is what the Hobbits are smoking. Leaf is referred to as prime in the Shire, and considered only a last resort to the pot smoker. Just pointing out the obvious difference there.

Moreover, those in today's societies, especially those with a Western lifestyle, ratchet up the risk by their sedentary lifestyles, poor artery clogging diets, high blood pressure, major organ taxation with alcohol over-indulgences, high stress from work and sometimes the confusion of misplaced priorties - TV speaks more volume of that last one than I possibly could.

Anywho - If smoking is not heavily compounded with other risk factors, a little here and there won't kill you or Aragorn.



[ March 03, 2003: Message edited by: Tar-Palantir ]