First, since we are going to discuss tobacco in this article, let me start with what I’m talking about. I am talking about real, organic, additive-free tobacco, the kind you need to do a bit of searching for. I am NOT talking about the chemical-laden cigarettes that are available all around us. The two are about as comparable health-wise as farmer’s market fruits & veg versus Monsanto’s ?plant products.? In a similar vein to Monsanto twisting words (and arms) to sell us things like GMOs, the ?dirty tobacco? industry’s intentional deceit of the public is put together very nicely here:? Tobacco Explained: The truth about the tobacco industry…in its own words.? If you want to talk about your health issues from standard, extra-toxic cigarettes in the comments, just know ahead of time that those are exactly what I am NOT referring to!
You may have been led to believe that tobacco in ALL its forms is bad and should be done away with entirely. This is the conventional stance. If you didn’t already know, you’re on the wrong website if you’re looking for blind adherence to convention! As one who has researched and written extensively about the nightshade/Solanaceae foods and their potentially negative mechanisms on human health, it was quite a jump for me to be open to a different stance on tobacco (a nightshade plant that I had previous negative reactions to, just like all the other ones). While I used to be quite nightshade sensitive myself, through doing metabolism-boosting practices (involving a combination of things I have implemented from Matt Stone, Danny Roddy, and my own conclusions, some of which are alluded to in my article linked above), I can eat nightshades now without flaring up my chronic mid-back pain. Maybe that can be a future article, who knows?
That said, having the education and training that I’ve had in subjects like botanical medicine (fancy term for herbal medicine) and homeopathy, I’m OK with the idea that there’s a time and place for certain medicines, even ‘toxic? ones. Also familiarizing oneself with the concept of hormesis can make it easier to grasp the concept that certain foods or medicines may be helpful in small/acute doses yet bad in larger/chronic doses.
Moving on to the ?plague.? Maybe you’re aware that as of this writing, there are two bad-ass viruses emerging in other parts of the world, maybe you aren’t. One is a new so-called H7N9 ?bird flu? in China?132 infected,?37 dead, fatality rate 28%, and has already developed resistance to Tamiflu. Next, and more concerning according to the World Health Organization is the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus (recently renamed the novel Coronavirus, or nCoV to its close friends)?54?infected,?31 dead, fatality rate 57%, and has now possibly spread to the US.
A 50+% death rate is nothing to sneeze at. Sure, one of them isn’t technically a flu virus. Nitpick all you want. I’m after results and a better chance of surviving than Two-Face would give me.
Maybe this freaks you out, maybe you think I’m just fear-mongering. Maybe you’re glad I’m making you aware of it when the major news networks are mostly ignoring it. All are valid. Now that I’ve made you aware of it, let’s move on to an oft-disparaged herb that was found very useful against a previous plague’tobacco! My favorite method to ascertain whether or not something is likely to work is to look for historical usage, then look for more scientific research. Could this be true for tobacco in regards to viruses and ?plagues??? Let’s see?
One ?plague? of note that we’ll cover was the Great Plague of London, which occurred from 1665 ? 1666, killing roughly 100,000 people at an estimated 40% death rate. Maybe you believe the standard bubonic plague vector story?I don’t, I believe it was viral. Either way, tobacco was believed to be a preventative!
Let’s start with John Hayward, a man who spent lots of time around plague-infected people and dead bodies during the Great Plague:?
“This brings these two men to a further remembrance. The name of one was John Hayward, who was at that time undersexton of the parish of St Stephen, Coleman Street. By undersexton was understood at that time gravedigger and bearer of the dead. This man carried, or assisted to carry, all the dead to their graves which were buried in that large parish, and who were carried in form; and after that form of burying was stopped, went with the dead-cart and the bell to fetch the dead bodies from the houses where they lay, and fetched many of them out of the chambers and houses; for the parish was, and is still, remarkable particularly, above all the parishes in London, for a great number of alleys and thoroughfares, very long, into which no carts could come, and where they were obliged to go and fetch the bodies a very long way; which alleys now remain to witness it, such as White’s Alley, Cross Key Court, Swan Alley, Bell Alley, White Horse Alley, and many more. Here they went with a kind of hand-barrow and laid the dead bodies on it, and carried them out to the carts; which work he performed and never had the distemper at all, but lived about twenty years after it, and was sexton of the parish to the time of his death. His wife at the same time was a nurse to infected people, and tended many that died in the parish, being for her honesty recommended by the parish officers; yet she never was infected neither.He never used any preservative against the infection, other than holding garlic and rue in his mouth, and smoking tobacco. This I also had from his own mouth.”?
Considering his wife didn’t smoke, maybe real tobacco second-hand smoke wasn’t so bad for her after all!
From the History Learning Site, ?Cures for the Plague? page:?
“Those employed in the collection of bodies frequently smoked tobacco to avoid catching the plague.”
?And:?
?For personal disinfections nothing enjoyed such favour as tobacco; the belief in it was widespread, and even children were made to light up a reaf in pipes. Thomas Hearnes remembers one Tom Rogers telling him that when he was a scholar at Eton in the year that the great plague raged, all the boys smoked in school by order, and that he was never whipped so much in his life as he was one morning for not smoking. It was long afterwards a tradition that none who kept a tobacconist shop in London had the plague.
One would guess that remedies for the plague that actually worked for caretakers and dead-body-collectors would be paid attention to, and none ?enjoyed such favour as tobacco.? This would seem important, no?
I get it, historical quotes and anecdotes are nice, but where’s the science, you ask?
Tobacco smoke condensate has been shown to inhibit the following viruses:
- Vaccinia virus (aka smallpox)
- Poliovirus type 2 (aka polio)
- Encephalomyocarditis virus
- Vesicular stomatitis virus
- Reovirus type 2 virus
- Hepatitis C virus (separate study)
It should be noted that the study involving the first 5 viruses was done with pretreatment with the tobacco. This implies one would need to be using the tobacco before they got infected.
Nicotine has been shown to inhibit the following pathogens as well:
- Candida albicans (the dreaded scourge of the alternative health world)
- Escherichia coli
- Klebsiella pneumoniae (can cause?pneumonia)
- Listeria monocytogenes
- Viridans streptococci
- Crytococcus neoformans
It should be noted that the inhibition of the above pathogens was achieved with concentrations that can be achieved in the mouth with chewing tobacco.
The effect of chronic exposure to tobacco smoke on the antibacterial defenses of the lung
These studies indicate that chronic exposure to tobacco smoke does not impair, and in fact may stimulate, the host defenses of the lung, as evaluated by in vivo and in vitro pulmonary alveolar macrophage function.
Enhancing the host defenses of the lung would be a good thing in regards to respiratory viruses, flus, and pneumonias, right?
The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic was theorized to kill a higher number of 20-40 year olds due to a ?cytokine storm.? This is described as a hyper-immune response, with excessive amounts of immune system proteins being released and triggering inflammation and damage. It just so happens that when researchers used ricin (of bioweapon fame) to induce a cytokine storm in mice, giving them nicotine 2 hours later reduced organ damage, delayed mortality, and drastically improved survival rates!
On that note, is tobacco and/or nicotine useful in any other health conditions? It… would… seem… so.?
In conclusion?
- Tobacco?has a history of being successfully utilized in a plague.
- Tobacco and/or nicotine has been shown to inhibit multiple pathogens.
- Nicotine has been shown to reduce the complications of the ?cytokine storm.”
- There may be multiple other health benefits to tobacco.
Have I started smoking organic roll-your-own tobacco yet?? Not quite. If I see more signs of a pandemic virus spreading across the US anytime soon though, you’ll definitely catch me taking extra breaks and hanging out at the tobacco shops more!
Dr. Garrett Smith is the author of Solving the Paleo Equation and host of www.drgarrettsmith.com.
Do you have tobacco brand suggestions?
Try Nat Shermans, been smoking them for the last 10 years, they burn a lot longer bc they arent sprayed with harmful chemicals. My great grandfather used say 3 or 4 a day could be beneficial.
Jojo, I would do more research on Nat Shermans to be sure. American Spirits can call themselves additive free because they are under the legal limit. Also, consider the paper, which is where a great deal of additives are put because it favorably affects the flow rate. I could sell you “100% additive free tobacco” but that says nothing about the paper. Just some food for thought! Since RJR owns American Spirits they have become fire safe cigarette compliant. An additive free product that is inherently combustible? Hmm! Just some food for thought :)
Boy, this is really stupid. The most obvious reason why people would have thought smoking inhibited the plague was that they believed that bad air was responsible for the plague. And the plague was viral? You know, sometimes science really does know some things and just believing the opposite of whatever the experts say doesn’t cut it.
Very interesting indeed!
First! Did you see the recent articles proclaiming that consuming RAW cannabis leaf/flowers and RAW cannabis juice doesn’t get you high (it has to be heated to get you high) and helps cure cancer, heart disease and diabetes?
Garrett follows a lot of the research there, so it’s pretty likely he will write something on it in the future.
I, too, would welcome an even-handed article on cannabis written by Garret. I have no doubt that there are benefits to be had from cannabis (and for that matter from stuff like psilocybin mushrooms-against depression-and even LSD which proved early on to be very effective against alcoholism). However, I also think the pro-cannabis side often overlooks potential problems.
Hoping that heated cannabis is just as effective as unheated, because I want to have some fun, too!
One of the problems with the ‘War on Drugs’ is that the information is so one-sided and alarmist, that if you do dabble in illicit drugs and nothing happens, you stop trusting the system. So a series which highlights health benefits (even if they are very specific) or just the feeling of improved health from a stress system being activated would be a very interesting and important topic to explore.
As I pointed out to Thomas below, probably the best way to think about it is to equate illegal drugs with pharma drugs, because the physiological effects are similar in that you have chemicals forcing a big change on the body. Anytime you are forcing something on the body (like a drug or other substance that causes a reaction) your body will fight against that to regain homeostasis and side effects and all kinds of things can happen. Really neither is ideal. The only answers are in healthy lifestyle changes that will build up your body, health and mental well-being. Trying to use any sort of drug to improve your mental state is likely to be a dead-end path in the end.
Totally agree, I just think that more needs to be said about illicit drugs and addiction. One of my friends from college OD’d on heroin about 3 years ago. It was so sad, he was a rehab counselor and had written extensively about how his addiction developed. Essentially he was a pothead in college without a problem, but heavily addicted. Then he got the idea that heroin was great for creativity, and as soon as he tried it, he was hooked. With his pattern of addiction, he should never have tried heroin, even more so then the general college population. Because the health message about these drugs is completely one-sided and hides any short-term benefits, people don’t have accurate information and it further undermines their ability to make rational decisions.
I’m sorry to hear about your friend. I think too many people lack a healthy respect for drugs, probably because of our pop-a-pill culture. I am shocked that he did not understand the dangers, especially being a rehab counselor. I have heard that heroin is instantly addictive from the first time. I know two people who have used and both had the same ending as your friend, unfortunately.
I think the real issue at stake is people thinking that drugs of any kind are going to be some savior, and this is absolutely a cultural phenomenon. Unless it’s an emergency or you are extremely ill, they likely will cause many more problems than they will help.
Well, I think the tragedy of my friend’s death is that he understood the risks, but could not overcome his addiction. I know at least a half dozen who at some point injected heroin, with all different outcomes. The main similarity I see in all the people that I known who have done drugs over a prolonged period of time, is that they all seem emotionally or developmentally stunted one way or another. It’s consistent, and yet I have never seen any literature tying long-term drug use to stalling the development of maturity. Instead, most professionals associate taking drugs with emotional problems and therefore dismiss a significant impact, which I think impedes recovery.
Yup totally agree. Pharma psychiatric drugs stunt emotional development, too. It is indeed tragic in both cases.
My counsellor agrees with you about the maturity thing.
There’s an artist doing a really interesting series of self-portraits after taking different drugs: http://bryanlewissaunders.org/drugs/ The results of certain ones (like bath salts) are truly terrifying. I love the psilocybin mushrooms drawing.
Holy s**t those portraits are incredible! Thanks for sharing.
Holla! I smoke American Spirits. 100% real tobacco, no additives, no chemicals, from small farmers. I too actually believe that the smear campaign against cigarettes is misaligned, and really needs to be directed towards commercial chemical-laden cancer sticks. I have to remind people, “Wtf do you think is different from this cigarette I hold, and that Starbucks in your hand?” FYI…..Part of why I smoke is it helps with my bowel movements. I swear. I tried to research why it does, and couldn’t really find much but their is no mistaking. Props to 180 for flipping the script, and getting out of the damn box.
There are some studies that associate tobacco smoking with higher thyroid hormone levels, so that may be it.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23581474
Nicotine is a stimulant, like caffeine, so it helps bowel movements for the same reason as a cup of coffee
http://www.gutsense.org/constipation/faq.html
at the “does smoking cause constipation?” part.
“…smoking stimulates moving the bowels because the continuous swallowing of the nicotine-laced saliva stimulates the gastrocolic reflex ? an involuntary condition that initiates bowel movements. Also, the smoke itself increases the level of CO2 in the blood. The ensuing vasodilation (widening) of the blood vessels helps intestinal peristalsis and amplifies the urge to move the bowels.”
take it for what it’s worth I guess
Nice work Garrett, that’ll really screw with peoples minds. My own experience with tobacco (as a non smoker comes from an Auntie that got pretty sick from smoking da chemicals. Whilst assisting me at a bike competition in Andorra she was able to get tobacco direct from farms and eventually went on to grow her own. She’s since given up but during her time smoking locally grown tobacco she noticed her poor health improved and her addiction subsided causing her to smoke purely for pleasure and not for need.
Incidentally she’s never suffered during any plagues either.
I think Ray Peat draws a correlation between the obesity epidemic and the decrease in tobacco use in an article. I don’t think I know a person who stopped smoking without some weight gain, so maybe he has a point. Personally I find it hard to balance the information when the lobbies are so strong on these issues.
Not enough here to completely convince me, but I will keep an open mind. We’ve become somewhat contrarian around here, and as someone already pointed out, going against the mainstream does not necessarily make you right. Some question for Garrett.
1) What do you reckon from your research to be the amount needed to have these positive effects? I am most interested in the anti-inflammatory properties. Obviously we are dealing with something here that could cure the disease but kill the patient, so this is an important question.
2) What do you thing the preferred medium to be? Smoking, chewing, a supplement as the one referenced in the thyroid article? What about those nicotine chewing gums?
3) Has it been shown to improve any common ailments that we could experiment with? i.e. the common cold.
1) If there was an actual “plague” in our midst, I’d probably become a chain smoker, haha! For prevention purposes, my guess is that most of the benefits would come from 1-2 (unadulterated tobacco) cigarettes worth a day.
2) My thoughts on preferred medium would lean towards inhalation, particularly for respiratory-oriented viruses.
3) The research I’ve found showed that tobacco smoke and/or nicotine were not effective against all pathogens, so I can’t really give you a test, as most of the pathogens listed are pretty bad ones that you don’t want, ever. Also, pretreatment was noted to be necessary. If you wanted the anti-inflammatory effects, they may be concentrated in a compound called anatabine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/'term=anatabine) and sold in pill form as Anatabloc. Nicotine is easily available in e-cigs, patches, gums, etc. If I was going to use pure nicotine, I would go for the purest source I could get (ex. not the gum, too many ingredients like artificial sweeteners), which would probably be an unflavored e-cig juice, if they even make one…
An idea popped into my head right after I posted. Vaporizers are becoming very widely available these days. Vaporizing tobacco would likely get you the full complement of compounds found in whole tobacco, while eliminating or reducing the combustion byproducts. That may be the best of both worlds.
I read a post from Keoni Galt about tobacco a while back, after which I bought my husband a box of organic cigars. http://hawaiianlibertarian.blogspot.com/2010/12/red-pill-reality-dispelling-blue-pill.html
Um yeah… have you seen all the obnoxiously anti-women things he posts and links to?
This is an interesting topic, I year back or so I took up smoking and smoked 2-5 American Spirits per day after reading some books about the health benefits of tobacco and how all the great artists and creative thinkers, writers, etc used to be smokers. I think smoking tobacco is a pretty effective antidepressant since it seems to act in several ways to increase dopamine signaling in the brain. When I first took up smoking I definitely noticed an increased drive and zest for life and felt more productive and sociable.
Unfortunately my sinuses didn’t agree at all with smoking, after a couple of months I started to get morning headaches and bouts of sinusitis that become more frequent and severe with time. In the end I started to have problems with my ear, and would always get massively ill whenever I took an extended break from smoking, so I quit after about a year. I felt like absolute shit for months after qutting and would get flu-like episodes lasting days like every week.
I think the basic harm with tobacco smoking is that it chronically raises cortisol levels and suppresses your immune function, which acutely makes you feel better since you have less inflammation and are mentally stimulated by all the dopamine and stress hormones, but ravages your body in the long term due to the impaired regenerative function. When you quit smoking its common to be hit with a freight-train worth of accumulated damage (“smokers flu”) as cortisol and dopamine levels go down, not entirely unlike what happens when people recover from low-carb or low-calorie dieting.
American Spirits have been mentioned several times. RJ Reynolds owns American Spirit. I don’t trust any major cigarette manufacturer to tell the truth, so I personally would never use that brand.
Garret, are you suggesting that the side-effects that Collden experienced might not have happened, had he smoked a purer cigarette? I find that hard to believe.
Several things could have been going on:
1. The dose makes the poison. Maybe Collden had more than his/her body could handle (sorry, couldn’t tell gender from the post and didn’t want to assume).
2. Like alcohol, cigarette manufacturers don’t have to disclose everything that is in their product. Maybe the tobacco is clean, but who’s to say what might be added to the paper or the filter? I don’t know all the regulations (or lack of) in the “organic cigarettes made by major manufacturers” arena, nor will I ever.
3. Many people, myself included, have noticed sinus issues eliminated or decreased greatly through improving the general metabolism. A slower metabolism is often associated with symptoms of (what are often termed) food intolerances, an obvious one is getting sinus issues (I still get sinus issues from gluten, but not from dairy any longer, for example). The reaction to tobacco, even though inhaled, could fall in a similar vein to this, particularly if when Collden was smoking coincided with a “low metabolism”.
4. Something can be fine for many people yet not be OK for everybody, for reasons we may never know.
Just thinking out loud.
Male here, I mean I was smoking about a quarter pack per day so clearly far less than the average smoker.
Yeah I can’t rule out that my sinus problems weren’t facilitated by a weak metabolism as I was eating tops 2000-2500 kcal during this period, most of my colleagues and friends smoke and far from everyone seem to get sinusitis or headaches from it, though maybe its just habituation due to having smoked for many years.
I have no doubts about the many positive effects of cigarette smoking. But with all due respect, as an ex-smoker and as someone who used to almost exclusively associate with smokers, sinus trouble, coughing issues, all of those symptoms appear to invariably bother smokers. Sometimes it’s just when they wake up, sometimes all day. I personally quit because of a constant sore throat, among other reasons. Isn’t the most obvious reason for this just plain old irritation from smoke? I mean, extol the virtues of pure tobacky all you want, but smoke is smoke and the pipes aren’t designed to inhale it. Again, that isn’t to say that in medicinal doses it can’t be appropriate, but like, I rolled my own organic shit and so did/do a whole bunch of my counter-culture/hippie dippie pals and yet the cilia still became paralyzed and the bronchitis was frequent and one dear friend constantly felt like she was “breathing through a wet paper towel” because her airways were so irritated. I can personally say that since I quit 4+ years ago, I haven’t had one sinus infection or bronchitis type issue, something I used to get at least annually.
all smokers who smoke mainstream cigarettes, yea. i have a friend who grows his own tobacco. i’ve smoked it on a couple occasions and it’s a much different feeling from when I would smoke something from RJ Reynolds. My friend claims that the only time he has any issues with tobacco is when he doesn’t smoke his homegrown for a couple weeks. and when he switches back, he still goes through some sort of withdrawal. he said there is a distinct difference between withdrawal of what he grows and the withdrawal you experience with “mainstream” cigarettes.
Well, I dunno. Something tells me that inhaling a pack a day’s worth of smoke is going to produce some level of irritation no matter what. I don’t know how much your friend smokes, I’m talking smoker smokers. And he may feel like he has no issues with smoking because his baseline feeling with his homegrown stuff is better than how he feels when smoking Marlboros, but he could still be feeling subpar and not know it. I had been smoking since I was 12 when I quit, and I never thought I had issues with getting out of breath. I prided myself on it, all my friends would be gasping and wheezing while out on runs or hikes and I’d be “fine.” Well wouldn’t you know it, after I quit, my lung capacity was vastly vastly improved. I didn’t know it could improve as much as it did because I’d been smoking for so long, I had lost all concept of life with non-smokin’ lungs. And I was smoking organic tobacco at that point. Not homegrown, but hey. I also noticed an improvement in how I felt after I switched from Marlboro to organic, but how I felt once I quit was incomparably better.
Dr Smith,
I am so pleased that you differentiated pure tobacco from the processed cigarettes, as it is something that I have been saying to deaf ears for years. My ancestors and I live/d in cold misty conditions and in winter will/would occasionally use tobacco. I will not consider anything other than pure tobacco that has been grown and cured without chemicals that I self roll with hemp paper, but I prefer not to smoke as I think the down side far outweighs the benefits.
I was concerned that you did not mention that curing tobacco properly is not so straightforward and that care must be taken as well as with the storage so that fungii do not grow. I have been told that this is why one of the first things they do to process tobacco is soak it in formaldehyde. This is important information, as people buying unregulated tobacco, or chop chop as it is called need to be careful that they buy it from someone who knows what they are doing. Tobacco may protect from some nasties, but if not handled properly can be a way of introducing nasties.
Also to quote Collden,
“I think the basic harm with tobacco smoking is that it chronically raises cortisol levels and suppresses your immune function, which acutely makes you feel better since you have less inflammation and are mentally stimulated by all the dopamine and stress hormones, but ravages your body in the long term due to the impaired regenerative function. When you quit smoking its common to be hit with a freight-train worth of accumulated damage (‘smokers flu?) as cortisol and dopamine levels go down, not entirely unlike what happens when people recover from low-carb or low-calorie dieting.”
I think that this is spot on and something that you have not yet addressed. To this comment, I would also add that it distorts your sense of when you should eat, hence it is abused by chronic dieters. I have learnt from this blog how engaing the stress response can trick the body into thinking that something is beneficial when it does long term damage. I think that the action of tobacco, as indicated above plus the addictive process this generates has all the hallmarks of a stress response.
So, do you think smoking Premium cigars would be a better choice?
I think roll-your-own would be a better choice, or simple organic tobacco in a vaporizer.
American Spirit has loose leaf “organic” tobacco. I don’t if the term “organic” is regulated like it is with food, so it’s hard to know what it means exactly.
Excellent points Collden! Had it not been for the sinus problems, do you think you would have continued?
Probably would have for a while yeah, mentally and socially I was still digging the effects, still smoke a couple of times per month when I go out.
I do think the health hazards of smoking have been vastly overstated and is supported mostly by low-quality epidemiological research that would never have been so readily accepted if we didn’t already have such a strong cultural bias against tobacco. About lung cancer its odd to note that several of the countries with the highest prevalence of smoking like Greece and Japan have low rates of lung cancer and some of the highest overall life expectancies, not to mention the virtually disease-free Kitavans who all smoke like chimneys, so clearly smoking is far from the most important determinant of health and longevity.
In Japan it is believed that the filter is what causes cancer, not the tobacco. Japanese cigs are made with a charcoal filter. Here in the USA the only cig I know with a charcoal filter is Parliaments made by Phillip Morris. However, all cigs sold in the USA now have to be made with a dangerous
chemical laden paper designed to put the cig out when not being puffed in order to prevent fires. (you can thank President Obama for that.)
I don’t like this kind of posts… I’ve decided I will only read things that Matt posts.
Some Ray Peat statements on smoking:
http://peatarian.com/private-corresponding#smoking
“Smoking
In old people, a little nicotine can have a balancing effect, improving alertness, and probably protecting nerves, for example in the negative association with Parkinson’s disease. But in younger people, its vasoconstrictive effect tends to promote the development of wrinkles in the skin, and I think it’s likely to contribute to periodontal disease.
[NIACINAMIDE FOR STOPPING SMOKING] After middle age, nicotine isn’t likely to become addictive, and in small amounts it has nerve protective effects. Some of those effects probably overlap with the nerve protective effects of niacinamide. I haven’t experimented with nicotine or tobacco, but I think transdermal application is preferable to smoking; carbon monoxide and other serious toxins are produced by burning the tobacco. “
Oh yes. As a 24 year old smoker, I was developing deep lines around my mouth that as a 28 year old non-smoker are gone.
I’m 34 smoking for at least 15 years, no lines around the mouth. Also using straws will leave those lines as well.
Has anybody tried to smoke sugar, will it make you smoking hot ?
No, but it will make you look like a f*cking idiot
Is tar in all cigarettes even in real, organic, additive-free tobacco?
Yeah, it’s just what happens when you burn tobacco leaves. Probably any leaves to some degree.
I am a contrarian so I dig it.
When I heard the percentage of people who smoke and don’t get cancer I was shocked. I was raised to think smoking = cancer. But clearly that is not the case. But hard to know who would be susceptible. It also goes with my philosophy that everyone should have at least one vice. Too clean of living is not always healthy.
I would think that if a vaporizer worked that would be the way to go in using it medicinally. That way you eliminate the smoke.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/102140682/Nicotine-Benefits-2
Nice addition!!!
This paper is said to ba authored by Wanda Hamilton at the top. At the bottom, by the same author, Dr Heath Motley is a book about “adiposity 101” which appears to advocate low carbohydrate dieting!
I’ve just spent an interesting hour looking into the backgrounds of Dr Motley and Wanda Hamilton, here is what I found:
Dr Heath Motley:
His qualifications: “I am a graduate of Life West Chiropractic College in Northern California. I’m also a CERTIFIED Applied Kinesiologist and a previous member of the College of Applied Kinesiology.”
He is into the low carbohydrate, hunter-gatherer stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShV7bEeZlc
Wanda Hamilton: here is some information on her on forces.org
http://www.forces.org/research/files/wandah.htm
Here is some information on forces from the ANR or the Americans for non smokers’ rights:
http://www.no-smoke.org/getthefacts.php?id=73
I use snus fairly regularly; the Swedish pouches of tobacco that you tuck under your lip. I love the buzz from them and I do feel more alert and quick-witted when I have had snus that day. My reflexes seem to be faster also. In general I just feel sharper.
On topic, I also rarely get sick. I can’t remember the last time I had a respiratory infection of any kind and I’m currently surrounded by people at home and work who are full of colds and flu (it’s winter here) and I seem to be happily immune to it all.
i think if you want to know what the herb tobacco is good for, you should ask the native americans. (or if you are REALLY in tune, ask the herb itself!) it says in wikipedia, that tobacco was often used as an it was used as an entheogen (i didn’t know what that means either, it means a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context.)
Because of its sacred nature, tobacco abuse (thoughtlessly and addictively chain smoking) is seriously frowned upon by the Algonquian tribes of Canada, as it is believed that if one so abuses the plant, it will abuse that person in return, causing sickness.
my mother (who smokes) believes that native americans do poorly on alcohol and the europeans do poorly on tobacco. i think this is a theory with some validity.
on a personal note, i think drawing smoke into the lungs is something i (duh) avoid. who thought that was good? was it the same guy who ate a raw oyster first time?
When I started the article I thought that John Hayward smoked so he wouldn’t smell the odor of the dead bodies he was carrying to the grave! The smell of stale tobacco on smokers clothes makes me gag- stained teeth, horrible breath, wrinkles….I’ve also read that 3rd hand smoke (heavy metals that you breathe when you smell stale tobacco on clothes, carpeting, furniture) is even worse than 2nd hand smoke!
And what about people with asthma- I wouldn’t think smoking would be very helpful for them?
If the research says it’s preventative, I’d only go for the vaporizer if the plague was coming. But it was an interesting article. Thanks for sharing!
Some herbs are smoked for asthma relief. Mullein is one.
I have no doubt that cigarettes are great for ADD types, sort off. Smokes always helped me to focus and frankly, I have had a much harder time focusing on much of anything since I quit. No coincidence. But I was definitely addicted to them. I felt much worse when I didn’t smoke, I couldn’t go home at night without making sure I had enough cigarettes on me, couldn’t go on a long walk without pockets for a pack and a lighter. Such a burden. Not to say all people will become addicts, but I will say that the people who benefit mentally from smoking are probably more likely to become addicted to them. Same as any drug. But yeah, if the plague sets it, smoke ’em if you got ’em.
Anyone have anything to say about cigarette smoke blown into ears to cure a cold? That’s an old remedy that folks swore by. And while I used to get deeper respiratory infections as a smoker, presumably from irritation, I never did catch garden variety colds or flus. But then I still don’t.
I’ve smoked hookah on average once every two weeks for the past eight years. I’ve never smoked cigarettes and can’t stand the 2nd hand smoke, I remember when they used to be legal in bars around my area; total nightmare.
Hookahs on the other hand can be an interesting alternative for people who want to experiment with nicotine. Not only is it an awesome social way to smoke, but the tobacco generally has no chemicals or additives, just tobacco and a small amount of nicotine. Also, the smell is extremely minimal. It doesn’t stay on clothes or your breath AT ALL. I’ve smoked hookah in a house living with others who don’t smoke anything and I’ve never had a complaint about the smell from a hookah. Hookah bars are pretty popular around the East Coast right now, and every major city I’ve been too for that matter.
Hookah smoking is absolutely wonnnnnnnderful. A buddy in college introduced me to it. I miss that shit.
a small amount of nicotine? isn’t nicotine just naturally present in all tobacco?
Nicotine content differs b/w shisha brands. It depends how many times the tobacco leaf is washed, and the type of tobacco for that matter. Shisha tobacco can very anywhere from .05% to .5%. I was once told cigarette can contain as much as 20%, but I’ve never validate this claim. The real benefit of shisha is that it’s a vapor with the tobacco being heated to about 300, whereas cigarettes can burn as high as 600-800 producing a smoke.
I remember Michael Miles had an article about tobacco on his blog Nutrition and Physical Regeneration. That blog is defunct so we’ll probably never find that article again. I’d been searching for it since I see so many ads about how tobacco is responsible for so many deaths and so much in health care cost. I simply don’t have the time/energy/desire to wade through the studies and search for contrary evidence the way Chris Masterjohn would. Right now I just have an inherent distrust of those ads.
I’m a little disappointed this article didn’t get into the mainstream arguments concerning cancer and addiction. I’d really like to see those arguments and the studies behind them picked apart by somebody in this community. The anti-viral and health promoting effects are interesting, and I will keep them in mind but I’d really like to see some strong counter-arguments to the mainstream. Or… if they don’t exist, why the mainstream is right.
You can still get access to a copy of his blog through the Internet Archive. Here’s the article on tobacco:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110823115925/http://nutrition-and-physical-regeneration.com/blog/2534/tobacco/reach-lucky-sweet/
I miss Nutrition and Physical Regeneraton. I stopped smoking 1 to 2 ciggs a few weeks ago since i moved to Las Vegas… hot weather makes me not really want to smoke. I have since developed a little rash on my right lower cheek that could be related to candida, and gained 5 pounds, which i am not to worried about. I normally smoked Peter Stokkebye Danish Exports which are impossible to find in Las Vegas for some reason, which is also why i stopped smoking. I have been smoking regualry for two years and i stopped like that… no addiction. I do miss enjoying a roley after eating dinner sometimes… or with my coffee. I have also read an old pub med study that found that women who smoked had lower incindents of breast cancer, which seems it could be anti estrogenic. I also read somewhere that the benefits of smoking start to dwindle after you 9th cig.
when i was young several times i tried ciggies. well, mom smoked and it did seem cool.
whenever i did i fell ill with some sort of respiratory problem. like the next day. but then again, sore throats and allergies are my thing. it was enough to keep me from ever taking up the habit.
so i personally don’t buy that smoking would protect me from anything. they seemed to bring down my defenses.
Wow. I have almost never heard of anyone talking about the benefits of smoking. Very interesting.
Rgds,
Matt
Thank you for this great article
It is Anatabine in tobacco that calms, focuses, relaxes and, most importantly, acts as a powerful antidepressant.
So when somone says I need a cigarette to “calm” down they are talking about Anatabine and not nicotine !!
Concentrated anatabine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/'term=anatabine) is sold in pill form as Anatabloc at 4,000 GNC’s. Each Anatabloc pill has 1 mg of anatabine.
So when you take one Anatabloc you have the equivalent of 12 hours of Anatabine. If you take 6 Anatabloc you have 72 hours of anatabline (equivalent to 36 cigarettes) but read below about self limiting MAOI impact.
So if you take say 6 Anatabloc during the day and then smoke a cigarette guess what??? You already have anatabine in your bloodstream so the cigarette has zero benefit of additonal anatabine. That is why a e cigarette with anatabine would be a killer product. It is not available yet. Only e cigarettes with nicotine.
Anatabloc has a safe monoamine oxidase inhibitor, or MAOI. MAOIs are antidepressants that aid in focusing and task accomplishment . MAOi, calms, focuses, relaxes and, most importantly, acts as a powerful antidepressant. The term “MAOI,” by the way, is often pronounced like the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Anatabine appears to be unique among MAOI inhibitors, in that it is SELF LIMITING (you could take a hundred Anatabloc and it would have no impact on your MAOI) It has what is termed (mathematically) an asymptotic dose/response curve, meaning that above a certain limit, for some reason MAOI inhibition levels off. The other key is the self limiting factor is different for each individual.
There are all kinds of clinical studies going on regarding anatabine. Read the testimonials at GNC website to see all the benefits people are experiencing because of its anti-inflammation benefits of Anatabloc. I am a user of Anatabloc and it has completely changed my life in many ways.
Nutraceutical Supplement ANATABLOC AT GNC works on reducing and modulating INFLAMMATION throughout the entire body hence amazing MUSCLE RECOVERY from exercise ,SLOWS AGING and REDUCES PAIN plus a natural ANTIDEPRESSANT that makes you feel YEARS YOUNGER ALL for a daily cost of less than a cup of coffee.
That is fascinating. I might try that out.
Who cares if it’s natural? Why wouldn’t there be the same negative effects from a MAO Inhibitor such as this as there are from prescription Mao Inhibitors?
The answer to that is yes. All these things, I don’t care if it’s a pharmaceutical drug or a “natural” MAOI or marijuana or whatever, it is all going to do the same sort of thing, which is force a change in the body which will have side effects. And then when the drug wears off, the body generally has the opposite effect to regain homeostasis. Anyone who has taken an anatomy & physiology class should know this.
This is why you crash after caffeine (i.e., first more energy, then less energy), why people on ritalin get more hyper when it wears off, etc. etc.
There really are no shortcuts in life. The only true answers are eating well, sleeping well, lowering stress, exercising, creating a happy life in which you feel fulfilled. Some herbs and things can help when they improve nutrition status, but anytime you are forcing something on the body (like a drug or other substance that causes a reaction) your body will fight against that to regain homeostasis and all kinds of things can happen.
So from what I can gather from this article, is that if I were to start smoking, I can end up looking as Hot as the woman/model in the top picture? Coool!! :)
Also I posted this before but its pretty interesting, a comparison between two identical twins, one who never smoked (A), and the other with 53 pack years (B).
http://www.cohortopia.jp/images/smoking_wrinkle.jpg
http://vorige.nrc.nl/redactie/doc/Tweeling_met_rimpels.pdf
Who looks healthier?
The information in this article, historical accounts from superstitious people during a plague that MIGHT have been viral (viri from space article linked to support that theory also not very moving) and some in vitro (I’m assuming) studies seem far from suggesting a real practical application for smoking for anything. I’m another ex-smoker and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone on any regular basis from any observations I’ve made of myself or other smokers. I think it would be a mistake to assume that tobacco has no valid medicinal use, but there just isn’t much to go on here. Lots of substances could inhibit those organisms, but it doesn’t mean that they will if consumed in a “safe” amount. I don’t think the information presented is worthless, but I think it is of scant use and the title is somewhat misleading and might better be “some information that might indicate possible medicinal uses of tobbacco”? I guess I expected something a little broader in scope and less speculative. Actually, I’m surprised it was even published here. Did I miss something?
Just FYI, two of the links in the article are to sott.net, an organisation that is a front for a UFO cult that are on a meat only diet and believe that nicotine protects them from being eaten by space aliens.
haha! That’s the sort of impression I got. I mean you can speculate on anything all day in any direction if you’re “open minded” enough, but to function we have to filter information and speculation to some extent. Searching sott for tobacco brings up 100% pro tobacco stuff. Perhaps we’re just huffing too many chemtrails to see the truth.
Check out this wild theory. If smoking isn’t really harmful, then why the vigorous anti-smoking campaign?
http://gnosticliberationfront.com/real_reason_for.htm
So can anyone recommend a decent brand???
Interesting. I wonder what the health benefits of Polonium 210 in cigarette smoke are too.
I thought you were actually going to talk about homeopathy — I’m sure there was a proving done on tobacco. I don’t see how inhaling smoke that messes with your CO2 in your lungs would not cause inflammation, which could lead to cancer. My stepfather smoked hand rolled tobacco– he was so addicted that after he went through chemo and radiation for throat cancer, he started smoking and got tongue cancer. They had to cut out most of his tongue, patch it with a big skin graft from his thigh ( the most horrible surgery I’ve ever see) and now he can’t talk and can only eat through a tube in his stomach. He’ll never taste anything again. He had to give up his career as a trial lawyer. He chokes on his own sinuses if he gets a cold and ends up in the emergency room. My kids will NEVER smoke because they’ve seen the stinky old looking grandpa turn into a very sickly dependent invalid who lost everything he enjoyed in life. There are much healthier ways to get through a plague and homeopathy has a great history of doing that!
Agreed. (There are some other good cures like oregano oil and certain essential oil blends, too, if need be.)
homeopathy isn’t the holy grail… neither is smoking… its all just smoke and mirrors… hehe…
Homeopathy is a broad and effective form of medicine. It’s not herbal and the provings (which are in depth studies of the effects of the remedies) are more thorough than pharmaceutical testings. Tabacum is the homeopathic remedy derived from tobacco and is used for various things, especially symptoms of the heart. Whenever a substance is on the more toxic scale, it tends to lend itself well to homeopathic use as a remedy in the minimum dosage (to avoid side effects as gross measures would do).
I’ve been lurking around here for a long time, and have loved all the information from Matt about different health approaches, and his perspective helped me see the disordered thinking I had around food and my body. I feel as though I have learned a lot, and have enjoyed the challenges to popular opinion about health and food.
When Matt mentioned bringing in guest bloggers, I expected the same quality of work and research. But instead we have article about weight gain and stress and the solution is to eat mindfully?not to end the stressful situations as much as possible, or to seek out help?but to pay attention to the food we’re eating. This isn’t science, it’s dumb and disempowering and potentially triggering for eating disorders.
I though that was bad. But this? Smoking can be good for you? I think 180 just jumped the shark. And it’s making me doubt everything I’ve gotten out of this site so far. I doubt I’ll be returning to 180degreehealth again. It’s been a fun two years, but seriously… what the fuck.
Bizarre post but brave nonetheless.
*lights up a hand-rolled Kendal Gold Shag smoke*……..
Yeeeeep, been waiting for an article like this….
*puffs*
It is the anatabine in tobacco that contains all the health benefits. Sold as Anatabloc at GNC.
Just see these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_X6UOkBtEo&feature=youtu.be
John Maginnes Anatabloc experience http://anatabloc.com/?p=435
I don’t smoke and never did, but I have long been suspicious of the anti-smoking lobby because it reeks so strongly of Puritanism. There’s little question that long-term heavy tobacco smoking is associated with illness (especially emphysema and lung cancer), but whether the risk is inherent or due to a combination of frequency and added chemicals is probably something that will likely never be answered because opposition to the very idea of smoking makes research into alternative equations essentially impossible.
Matt Stone, I kid you not — I was literally reading through your blog for the first time, having just read your books over the weekend, thinking to myself “Next thing this guy’s going to tell me is smoking is good for you.”
Hey, you didn’t hear it from me, lol. All smoking does for me is give me lung infections.
I fill my own cigarette tubes with American Spirit tobacco and use a TarGard permanent filter system.
The charcoal filter tubes sound interesting. For now I’m just using cheap Gambler tubes which probably aren’t the best. I’ll see if I can find any better tobacco and any better tubes.
The TarGard definitely traps a whole lot though. I don’t smoke without it, especially not after seeing what piles up in there after a few cigarettes.
I also smoke Calea Zacatechichi sometimes at night before bed. It’s an oneirogen – dream enhancing substance – and it does give you very vivid dreams that feel so real it’s easy to mistake them for real life. It’s pretty crazy.
I like using that in particular for dealing with emotional issues. I’ve been going through a very hard time, and smoking Calea has helped me process some things by helping to produce very relevant, emotionally and metaphorically rich dreams.
I used to be so paranoid about smoking. When I finally decided to try it I found that I really enjoyed it. There are risks, of course, but I think by making your own cigarettes with quality ingredients, and especially using a filter like the TarGard, you can minimize the damage.
From Wiki:
“Tar includes the majority of mutagenic and carcinogenic agents in tobacco smoke.”
I never smoke without the TarGard, and I’ve heard from other smokers that started using it later on that it made their chronic cough go away, and it also stopped staining their teeth. When you see the buildup in there, it’s pretty shocking.
People can accept that drinking in moderation can be healthy. Why not smoking in moderation?
This “scientific” overview is laughable, as is the extent of confirmation bias in this comment section.