My sister quit smoking because/when I got throat cancer although I didn’t convince her. I never smoked myself. She figured with family history she may be more likely to get cancer herself. I know not cause and effect.
I once told a guy I wouldn’t go out with him because I didn’t go out with smokers. He quit, and a month later asked me again. He wasn’t a very heavy smoker, though. We went out for about eight months in college, and he was a lot more serious about the relationship than I was, which is more or less why we broke up. I don’t know what happened to him, or whether he took up smoking again.
A couple of people I was in basic training with said they really hoped they wouldn’t start smoking after training ended, and were talking about what they could do to make the enforced quit permanent. I’ve never smoked, but I know a guy who was a 4-pack a day smoker, and had been smoking since he was about 12. He really wanted to quit, and had tried everything. When the patch came out, he tried that, along with a bunch of other psychological tricks. He was never without sugarless gum or mints for about two years after he quit,but it worked. He also put all the money he would have spent on cigarettes in a jar, and at the end of each month that he hadn’t smoked, he let himself spend it on anything he wanted.
One person from basic took up the money jar, and used that, and then about a year after basic, she got married, and had a baby, so she was really glad she wasn’t smoking, and was definite she wouldn’t start again at that point, because she didn’t want to expose her small child to it.
Sometimes it seems like every smoker I know is, by their own estimation, the only one in the world who doesn’t stink. Sure, they admit other smokers do, but they themselves don’t.
Yes, see above.
Do you have any notion what caused it? Second-hand smoke is apparently a myth, but if I ever got lung or throat cancer that’s where my suspicions would automatically go to.
PS, are you okay?
Second-hand smoke is not a myth; it just doesn’t cause lung cancer at the same rates in non-smokers as it does in smokers, which was originally claimed; in fact, it may not contribute much to lung cancer specifically, in non-smokers who don’t have other risk factors (like working in environments with poor air quality, or having genetic factors), because people don’t deeply inhale second-hand smoke.
However, second-hand smoke can be extremely dangerous to asthmatics, and to people with rarer, but even more serious conditions, like cystic fibrosis, or an inherited form of emphysema. It can also irritate the nasal passages and throats of non-smokers, making them more vulnerable to upper respiratory infections, and this is especially true for children. Not to mention, some people are just allergic to tobacco, burning or otherwise, but burning means it’s floating uncontrollably around the atmosphere. It’s easier to avoid a non-burning plant.
Laryngeal cancer is almost always the result of smoking, but neck cancer can be the result of a lot of things, including metastatic invasions of lymph nodes in the neck, and depending on exactly what is diagnosed when, and how the disease travels through a person’s system, neck cancer can become throat cancer.
If a person has throat cancer that began as cancer of the lymph nodes of the neck, I don’t know how much smoking would contribute, other than smoking slows healing, so two people with the same neck cancer might have different experiences of recovery if one were a smoker and one not, in that the smoker found recovery a tougher road.
I don’t know if there is a general “cancer” gene, as opposed to the many genes for specific cancers that have been discovered, but if there is, anyone with it ought to avoid smoking. If there is a lot of cancer in your family, particularly of people under 45, not smoking is probably a really good idea.
Yes doing well thank you. Finished treatment four and a half years ago. New scan last month. Still clean. Put about half the weight back on(lost 85 lbs) which is not good so working on that (9 lbs lost over last 2 months).
Mom smoked 4 packs a day when I was a kid but I left home in 1976 and she quit in 1978. Awful long delay. Lots of colon cancer on both sides of the family. I’ve had part of colon out due to adenomatous mass. I know throat(actually tonsil in my case) and colon arise from different embryonic tissues but figure some genetic tendency.
Dont smokers ever notice the extra dust it leaves in there homes or the yellow crap on their windows?
Reminds me of that scene in “Christmas Vacation” where the Mom is under alot of stress and sneaks a cigarette.
In a building where I used to work as a security guard, there was an employee lounge with brown - tinged white walls. The agency disallowed smoking throughout the building, and cleaned the walls in the lounge. They were pure white.
I have convinced 4 of my friends to quit. I told them about the horrific pictures I’ve seen of oral cancer patients. 2 quit by using a e-cig and 2 cold turkey. We are supporting each other. We all smoked for a long time. We are planing a trip together next year with the money we have saved - That’s a great incentive !
I’m not sure. I may have finally convinced my daughter to quit for good, since she needs an operation on her spine. Smoking retards bone growth and the surgeon will require that she stop. She claims that she’s cutting way back, but she is a serial liar, so I don’t know how true that is. I can only hope; at age 41, she needs to grow up.