hmm...

[Subotaj]

http://www.healthbolt.net/wp-content..._2070x1530.gif

[DubintheDam]

Impressive reassurance should I decide to give up, which is, despite my love of pipe smoking always an option worthy of contemplation...on a similar thread I found this story from a Manchester, England website:

How I gave up smoking my pipe

Peter Harris
2/10/2006

I SMOKED my first pipe, a modest cherrywood, with a bulbous clown-like nose on the bowl, sitting around a campfire in a field near Nefyn on the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales. I was just 18, had just left school and it was an act of bravado, free for the first time from parental restraints. Never did I think for an instant it would become a lifetime's habit but it did.


Over the years, I amassed a collection of briars, meerschaums, clays and porcelain pipes, some to smoke and the rest, antiques fashioned in every conceivable shape from grotesque skulls to Mr Punch and a Sherlock Holmes calabash, to admire in display cabinets. I experimented with tobaccos from around the globe, from mild Virginias to whisky-flavoured Dutch aromatics, potent continental latakia and sundry brands, many now defunct, with names such as Baby's Bottom, Parson's Pleasure and cut-from-the coil Twelve Inch. Among family, friends and colleagues, my pipe became my hallmark.

Party piece
My ability to don and doff sweaters without removing it from between my lips became my party trick and I enjoyed playing to the gallery. Everyone knew, too, that all matches and lighters were 'mine' and no one ever complained when I misappropriated them. According to an article I read in the old Picture Post, the 'world never comes any nearer than the end of your pipe' and I always liked to think it was true.


A pipe was also perfect for filling the thinking-time between sentences when composing that literary 'masterpiece' or before answering awkward questions. Harold Wilson used the technique masterfully. So, never did I think I would ever give up my beloved pipe. But I was wrong. I am now officially a non-smoker. Not an ex-smoker, I am told, but a non-smoker.

All change
I can now write 'non-smoker' with impunity on questionnaires I receive from my GP and insurance companies. Whereas previously I would write 'pipe smoker (but never inhale)' as though it were less of a social stigma and negated the health risks. My conversion began when my wife decided it was time to give up her cigarettes and, in a moment of rashness, I pledged to give her moral support and follow suit.


But, for me breaking the habit of lifetime required more than mere willpower, nicotine patches, chewing gum or plastic 'puffers'. I was addicted not just to nicotine but also to the pipe itself, its comforting tactility and all the rituals and paraphernalia associated with it. To crack the addiction, we enlisted the professional expertise of smoking-cessation specialist, John Forster, an exponent of neuro-linguistic programming, of Manchester-based Success Strategies, who gives a guarantee to his patients they will become non-smokers after just one hour without 'dreaded cravings, awful irritability, loss of enjoyment and nicotine withdrawal weight gain' We had to put it to the test.

Can anyone give up?
To date, he has treated more than 500 men and women, aged from early 20s to patients in their late 70s, among them doctors, high court judges, single parents and several married couples. He claims an impressive 97 per cent success but confessed that he had never before taken on the challenge of a pipe smoker. I would be a first.


Unlike other smoking therapists, John employs a double-barrelled attack, utilises not only hypnosis to open up the mind to anti-smoking suggestion. He also, and uniquely, employs a revolutionary electronic box of tricks that cancels out your addiction to your particular brand of tobacco small samples are analysed by the machines) and removes the nicotine from your bloodstream in just two or three days without any interim cravings.
Could that be possible? As a medical writer I am highly sceptical of any unorthodox 'cures' and had real doubts as to whether autosuggestion plus a desktop machine that reminded me of a lie detector would prevent me from ever again buying my 25gm of Condor Virginia Blended.


The machine, known as a bio-resonance analyser, was developed some 25 years ago by a German doctor, Hans Morrell, after his son-in-law Eric Rasche, a sound engineer, noticed it gave a electrical reading from certain parts of his body but not from others.

Research
Intrigued, Morrell undertook to research the phenomena, eventually producing a map of the human body that corresponded to the yin and yang meridian paths known to acupuncturists. What began as an academic exercise, progressed to have therapeutic applications, initially for the treatment of allergy patients. Morrell's 'eureka' moment came when he realised that by inverting the unique frequencies produced by individual patients, it was possible to cancel them out and neutralise the allergy.
In visual terms it's a little like converting a film negative into a positive print. MORA therapy, as it was first known (combining Morrell and Rasche) quickly became a popular remedy throughout Germany, spreading later to Poland, where its potential for smoking cessation was first observed.
Uniquely, John Forster now combines the wizardry of bio-resonance with neuro-linguistic programme (NLP) to attack tobacco craving both mentally and physically. 'There are four main reasons why people want to give up smoking,' he says. 'Top of the list is health, followed by fitness, changes in the law and money.'

No-smoking culture
These days people are certainly very conscious of the changes in the law and the fact that there are increasingly fewer and fewer places in public where they are permitted to smoke.' It was precisely for those four reasons that my wife and I decided to quit. The day is fast approaching when, apart from your own garden shed, and perhaps a small Inca village in Peru, there will be a universal ban on smoking in public. The choice then would be pariah or hermit and we didn't fancy either. John Forster's treatment package also comes with what he calls a 'lifetime guarantee', which means that if we are ever again tempted to light up, our flagging resolve to fight temptation can be bolstered with a clinic top-up treatment session at no further cost. It's a pledge he gives to every patient.


During my initial counselling John expressed real concerns that, whilst my wife was the 'perfect patient', I had a love affair with my pipe and had no real desire to give it up. Even when I convinced him of my determination, he recognised that I would be a special challenge ' my relationship with my pipe being very different from that to cigarettes. But our fears of failure proved groundless.

Success
My wife has never had the desire to smoke a cigarette since and my pipes are now consigned to a large glass jar, uncharged and unlit. Even my treasured antique collection is going up for sale on Ebay. After a lifetime we have severed our umbilicals with Mother Nicotine and that, we estimate it will save us up to '1,500 a year. This saving, we have decided, deserves a celebratory meal in our favourite restaurant, in the non-smoking section, of course.

Success Strategies is in Princess Street, Manchester
There is also free support for giving up smoking offered through a range of locally-based NHS services. You'll get practical help to stop smoking from people who understand what you're going through. Most services offer both group and one-to-one help. Your adviser will tell you all about treatment such as nicotine gum and patches, helping you get this medication on prescription. One in two people who use their local NHS Stop Smoking Service are not smoking four weeks later.

[IHT]

Originally Posted by Subotaj

http://www.healthbolt.net/wp-content..._2070x1530.gif

i believe that is for cigarette smokers.

[wharfrathoss]

i would hope that unlike the smoke nazi's, people here would be able to differentiate between pipes/cigars & cigarettes, but it appears i may have been wrong-personally, i consider the pipe a blessing, as it allowed me to give up cigarettes-i had smoked 1 to 4 pks/day for 19 yrs-smoking a pipe (& cigars) gives me a way to relax & do something i enjoy w/o the health consequences of inhaling cigarette smoke-i now don't get chest colds, wheeze, hack up nasty stuff, etc., or have nicotine cravings-i understand that smoking inherently is unhealthy, but at this point the benefits outweigh the risks-if there ever comes a time when i must reevaluate for whatever reason, i feel i will be able to do so w/o nicotine withdrawl making the decision for me-JMHO, YMMV

[JacksonCognac]

Originally Posted by IHT

i believe that is for cigarette smokers.

Yeah my thoughts exactly. I'm not too worried about pipe smoking affecting my health. I'm most concerned about my lungs and for that reason I smoke in well ventilated places to avoid much second hand smoke.

I do on occasion smoke cigarettes and when I do I feel the negative effects afterwards.

[Mad Hatter]

Originally Posted by wharfrathoss

i would hope that unlike the smoke nazi's, people here would be able to differentiate between pipes/cigars & cigarettes, but it appears i may have been wrong-personally, i consider the pipe a blessing, as it allowed me to give up cigarettes-i had smoked 1 to 4 pks/day for 19 yrs-smoking a pipe (& cigars) gives me a way to relax & do something i enjoy w/o the health consequences of inhaling cigarette smoke-i now don't get chest colds, wheeze, hack up nasty stuff, etc., or have nicotine cravings-i understand that smoking inherently is unhealthy, but at this point the benefits outweigh the risks-if there ever comes a time when i must reevaluate for whatever reason, i feel i will be able to do so w/o nicotine withdrawl making the decision for me-JMHO, YMMV

Uh, yeah - WTH?

[mugwump]

It just isn't the same beast in any way, shape, or form. Most cigarette smokers are highly addicted to nicotine and quitting is one of the hardest things for them to do. I smoke an occasional cigar or pipe, feel no nicotine addiction whatsoever, can and have gone months at a time without a smoke, and am sick and tired of having all tobacco users lumped together. The negative health effects of smoke inhalation are well documented but still somehwhat controversial while the few studies done on cigar and pipe smokers run the gamut from some ill effects to a prolonged life.

[Senator]

For what it's worth, the biggest cause of death is life itself.

If pipe smoking were like cigarette smoking, I wouldn't have anything to do with it. To me, lighting up a pipe is like taking a walk outside in the winter time and taking in the scents of my neighbour's fireplaces burning a few logs. It's the experience I get out of it rather than a "fix".

I don't inhale...but I'm not so naive to believe the second hand smoke isn't an issue. But then again, I try to smoke in a well ventilated place and do what I can to minimize it. I liken the second hand smoke as much of an issue as smelling the exhaust of a car as I stroll down the street....neither are great for you in massive quantities.

[pistol]

Originally Posted by mugwump

It just isn't the same beast in any way, shape, or form. Most cigarette smokers are highly addicted to nicotine and quitting is one of the hardest things for them to do. I smoke an occasional cigar or pipe, feel no nicotine addiction whatsoever, can and have gone months at a time without a smoke, and am sick and tired of having all tobacco users lumped together. The negative health effects of smoke inhalation are well documented but still somehwhat controversial while the few studies done on cigar and pipe smokers run the gamut from some ill effects to a prolonged life.

True, pipe/cigar smokers rarely get lung cancer, but it's extremely naive to think that we aren't at a much higher risk for mouth/tongue cancers than non-smokers. Tobacco smoke (of any kind, not just cigarettes) contains many known carcinogens. Obviously, I smoke pipes/cigars, so I'm willing to take the risk, but my Godfather, who smoked several cigars a week, died of mouth/throat cancer at the ripe old age of 58. I enjoy smoking cigars/pipes, so I'm not going to quit anytime soon, but I'm well aware of the health risks. A good friend of mine is a head and neck oncologist and he's constantly chastising me as he removes tumors on a weekly basis from the mouths of cigar smokers. Also, we are at increased risk for other cancers all over the body because the by products from tobacco combustion spread through our bloodstream and lymphatics. For example, the University of Texas' Cancer Center says tobacco use is the number one cause of bladder cancer (one of my Cardio-Thoracic surgeon friends confirmed this for me), check the link http://www.mdanderson.org/diseases/bladder/
That page talks specifically about the lungs absorbing chemicals from the smoke, but as we all know, the blood vessels in our mouths absorb just as many chemicals (that's why smokeless tobacco is so addictive and dangerous).

[mugwump]

I don't doubt that there are increased health risks I just hate that as an occasional, once or twice a week, pipe and cigar smoker I'm automatically lumped together with pack a day cigarette smokers. All smoking activity is painted with one, broad brush that is unfortunately informed solely by the most addicitve and destructive form of tobacco use.