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Both my parents are lifelong smokers from their early teens and were a year or two apart in age. My mom died of lung cancer at 54. My dad is still going stron

Both my parents are lifelong smokers from their early teens and were a year or two apart in age. My mom died of lung cancer at 54. My dad is still going strong at 77 and smokes Camel unfiltered. Humans are weird. Regardless, you don't want to die from lung cancer. It is pretty horrible. Your body attacks itself, fluid collects in the lungs, it is painful, and you basically drown from within. Your only option is high doses of morphine and one day you just don't wake up. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

NikolaNovak 3y ago
We are, sadly,practically twins in this. My mom died from lung cancer at 50. Horrible horrible way to go. My dad is 79 and (thankfully) going reasonably well. Bit started smoking in early early teens ;-(
- gerdesj 3y ago
  My mum never really smoked. She died from cancer (a rather cruel, ladies only one to start with. A reprieve with all clear and then it re-appeared after 18 months, and went berserk) around 30 years ago. My dad did smoke for around 30 years but just stopped in the mid eighties. He's still with us but at one point a few years back a surgeon gave him a heart massage - as in heart in hand - and he came back. Long story! I am 53 as of Pearl Harbour day. I smoked for around 30 years (I've double checked all these 30 year timescales). I gave up April 2018. My personal message is that the effects of smoking can be rather insidious. You don't notice the shortness of breath for years until you realise it isn't normal. You might blame it on getting older or less active or whatever but it isn't. I gave up when I had obvious trouble breathing in bed after yet another chest infection. Five and a half years later I am much better off but still have snags. I will be visiting a doc soon and expecting a diagnosis of a variety of COPD. I will also be asking for a PSA test sigh. I can run up hill a way etc but I run out of puff very quickly. Even if you avoid cancer itself, the other side effects are ... insidious. On the bright side, I'm roughly £3-4000 per year better off, have a sense of smell and taste and still going 8)
  - latchkey 3y ago
    Congrats to you for kicking a really nasty habit. Seriously. Best thing you could do to lessen the effects as you age.
    - gerdesj 3y ago
      Cheers mate. It was quite hard and I'm still not too sure how I managed it. My original plan was to hit the vape but my epiphany was: If nicotine is the addictive substance then patches and vapes etc would work 100% guaranteed. There is the "habit" thing that is also trotted out as a thing - nope, not for me. I had no problem being in a pub and having a few sherbets (alcohol/booze), nor did I find after dinner/supper an issue. I am convinced that somewhere amongst all the other stuff in a burning fag, is what is really, really addictive. It isn't nicotine.
hinkley 3y ago
People always talked about how long George Burns survived as a cigar smoker, but luck, genetics and how much you inhale all alter your risk profile. Cigar smokers tend not to inhale, but they still expose their throats and stomachs to all that smoke. Throat cancer sounds terrible. Camel unfiltered is some sort of statistical anomaly. Hope for those genes.
- latchkey 3y ago
  > Camel unfiltered is some sort of statistical anomaly. Hope for those genes. Never mind the addition of both of my parents alcohol abuse. My dad's mom lived to nearly 100. Lost one lung to cancer. It must be genes. I've never smoked a day in my life (except all the 2nd hand growing up) and I'm on the generally more healthy side of life, I bet I die from some sort of cancer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - throwup238 3y ago
    It's definitely in large part genetic. Similar to how some people get sick frequently and others don't - the immune system plays a large part in someone's risk for developing cancer but we've only started really internalizing that in medical research over the last decade or two.
- AceJohnny2 3y ago
  A former colleague died of throat cancer. He was an avid tobacco chewer.
  - objektif 3y ago
    This is what I do not get. Is it the smoke that is bad or the tobacco? If it is the tobacco it must frigging be the most dangerous material on earth. What other plant kills you just from chewing it?
    - qayxc 3y ago
      > What other plant kills you just from chewing it? There's plenty. They're just not common in western cultures. Khat causes oral cancer, for example, but outside of Africa and parts of west Asia it's basically non-existent as a drug. Chewing areca nuts wrapped in betel leaves can also cause cancer in the oral region, but is only commonly consumed in south-east Asia and largely unknown in the rest of the world. And these are just examples of plants that are used recreationally/in cultural ritual - certain herbs and plenty of plants in general will kill you outright if you consume too much of them or eat/drink the wrong thing while doing so.
mongol 3y ago
Throat cancer is no fun either. Also associated with smoking. Eventually you can't swallow and basically start starving to death.
gedy 3y ago
Yeah my mother has been smoking since Kennedy was president, and she's still going. I do think that even without cancer or emphysema, the quality of her life is poor. My wife plays sports with ladies older than my mom and it's a bummer to see mine unable to do much.
- latchkey 3y ago
  Agreed. While my dad is still alive, he has all the textbook ailments from being a lifelong smoker / drinker. His quality of life is shit. His legs are swollen red tree stumps, skin is splotchy and very thin/prone to bruising/bleeding, overweight, can't walk more than a few feet without getting winded, who knows what's internal, but he spent 6 months in the hospital with a mrsa infection. Brain function is also clearly diminished. I love him a lot, but there is no way that I want to end up anything like him. Just looking at him, it was easy for me to stop drinking entirely. It is poison.
jejeyyy77 3y ago
the vast majority (90%) of lifelong smokers never develop lung cancer.
- kbelder 3y ago
  This is an important point, and making it doesn't mean you condone smoking. "A study in Preventive Medicine Report looked at the risk of smokers developing lung cancer. The researchers found that the average risk for nonsmokers over the study period was 1.8% for males and 1.3% for females. The risk jumped to 14.8% for males and 11.2% for females in current smokers. However, the study did not take into account the number of cigarettes each person smoked per day." https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/smoking-lung-cancer#statistics https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/smoking-lung-cance... It's higher than 10%, but still, doesn't happen to most smokers. That's why so many of the anecdotes in this thread... person X smoked and lived to 90, person Y smoked and died at 35... don't make a strong point, other than cancer is purely a game of odds, and smoking increases risk by 5-10 times. Still, it shouldn't be surprising if somebody smokes and doesn't get lung cancer. That's the most likely outcome.
000ooo000 3y ago
My old man is over 70 now, lifelong smoker. One of his first jobs in his mid-teens was breaking up asbestos lining in steel moulds/pipes, and he sometimes tells me of the slew of now-banned chemicals his old man would use around the home, e.g. IIRC, some kind of pest detterent powder he would sprinkle handfuls of in the pantry, which was some variety of DDT. It's crazy to me that he's still going; I still expect a call some day, "well, turns out it's got me".

NikolaNovak 3y ago

We are, sadly,practically twins in this. My mom died from lung cancer at 50. Horrible horrible way to go. My dad is 79 and (thankfully) going reasonably well. Bit started smoking in early early teens ;-(

gerdesj 3y ago
My mum never really smoked. She died from cancer (a rather cruel, ladies only one to start with. A reprieve with all clear and then it re-appeared after 18 months, and went berserk) around 30 years ago. My dad did smoke for around 30 years but just stopped in the mid eighties. He's still with us but at one point a few years back a surgeon gave him a heart massage - as in heart in hand - and he came back. Long story! I am 53 as of Pearl Harbour day. I smoked for around 30 years (I've double checked all these 30 year timescales). I gave up April 2018. My personal message is that the effects of smoking can be rather insidious. You don't notice the shortness of breath for years until you realise it isn't normal. You might blame it on getting older or less active or whatever but it isn't. I gave up when I had obvious trouble breathing in bed after yet another chest infection. Five and a half years later I am much better off but still have snags. I will be visiting a doc soon and expecting a diagnosis of a variety of COPD. I will also be asking for a PSA test sigh. I can run up hill a way etc but I run out of puff very quickly. Even if you avoid cancer itself, the other side effects are ... insidious. On the bright side, I'm roughly £3-4000 per year better off, have a sense of smell and taste and still going 8)
- latchkey 3y ago
  Congrats to you for kicking a really nasty habit. Seriously. Best thing you could do to lessen the effects as you age.
  - gerdesj 3y ago
    Cheers mate. It was quite hard and I'm still not too sure how I managed it. My original plan was to hit the vape but my epiphany was: If nicotine is the addictive substance then patches and vapes etc would work 100% guaranteed. There is the "habit" thing that is also trotted out as a thing - nope, not for me. I had no problem being in a pub and having a few sherbets (alcohol/booze), nor did I find after dinner/supper an issue. I am convinced that somewhere amongst all the other stuff in a burning fag, is what is really, really addictive. It isn't nicotine.

hinkley 3y ago

People always talked about how long George Burns survived as a cigar smoker, but luck, genetics and how much you inhale all alter your risk profile. Cigar smokers tend not to inhale, but they still expose their throats and stomachs to all that smoke. Throat cancer sounds terrible. Camel unfiltered is some sort of statistical anomaly. Hope for those genes.

latchkey 3y ago
> Camel unfiltered is some sort of statistical anomaly. Hope for those genes. Never mind the addition of both of my parents alcohol abuse. My dad's mom lived to nearly 100. Lost one lung to cancer. It must be genes. I've never smoked a day in my life (except all the 2nd hand growing up) and I'm on the generally more healthy side of life, I bet I die from some sort of cancer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- throwup238 3y ago
  It's definitely in large part genetic. Similar to how some people get sick frequently and others don't - the immune system plays a large part in someone's risk for developing cancer but we've only started really internalizing that in medical research over the last decade or two.
AceJohnny2 3y ago
A former colleague died of throat cancer. He was an avid tobacco chewer.
- objektif 3y ago
  This is what I do not get. Is it the smoke that is bad or the tobacco? If it is the tobacco it must frigging be the most dangerous material on earth. What other plant kills you just from chewing it?
  - qayxc 3y ago
    > What other plant kills you just from chewing it? There's plenty. They're just not common in western cultures. Khat causes oral cancer, for example, but outside of Africa and parts of west Asia it's basically non-existent as a drug. Chewing areca nuts wrapped in betel leaves can also cause cancer in the oral region, but is only commonly consumed in south-east Asia and largely unknown in the rest of the world. And these are just examples of plants that are used recreationally/in cultural ritual - certain herbs and plenty of plants in general will kill you outright if you consume too much of them or eat/drink the wrong thing while doing so.

mongol 3y ago

Throat cancer is no fun either. Also associated with smoking. Eventually you can't swallow and basically start starving to death.

gedy 3y ago

Yeah my mother has been smoking since Kennedy was president, and she's still going. I do think that even without cancer or emphysema, the quality of her life is poor. My wife plays sports with ladies older than my mom and it's a bummer to see mine unable to do much.

latchkey 3y ago
Agreed. While my dad is still alive, he has all the textbook ailments from being a lifelong smoker / drinker. His quality of life is shit. His legs are swollen red tree stumps, skin is splotchy and very thin/prone to bruising/bleeding, overweight, can't walk more than a few feet without getting winded, who knows what's internal, but he spent 6 months in the hospital with a mrsa infection. Brain function is also clearly diminished. I love him a lot, but there is no way that I want to end up anything like him. Just looking at him, it was easy for me to stop drinking entirely. It is poison.

jejeyyy77 3y ago

the vast majority (90%) of lifelong smokers never develop lung cancer.

kbelder 3y ago
This is an important point, and making it doesn't mean you condone smoking. "A study in Preventive Medicine Report looked at the risk of smokers developing lung cancer. The researchers found that the average risk for nonsmokers over the study period was 1.8% for males and 1.3% for females. The risk jumped to 14.8% for males and 11.2% for females in current smokers. However, the study did not take into account the number of cigarettes each person smoked per day." https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/smoking-lung-cancer#statistics https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/smoking-lung-cance... It's higher than 10%, but still, doesn't happen to most smokers. That's why so many of the anecdotes in this thread... person X smoked and lived to 90, person Y smoked and died at 35... don't make a strong point, other than cancer is purely a game of odds, and smoking increases risk by 5-10 times. Still, it shouldn't be surprising if somebody smokes and doesn't get lung cancer. That's the most likely outcome.

000ooo000 3y ago

My old man is over 70 now, lifelong smoker. One of his first jobs in his mid-teens was breaking up asbestos lining in steel moulds/pipes, and he sometimes tells me of the slew of now-banned chemicals his old man would use around the home, e.g. IIRC, some kind of pest detterent powder he would sprinkle handfuls of in the pantry, which was some variety of DDT. It's crazy to me that he's still going; I still expect a call some day, "well, turns out it's got me".