From: Kevin Freels (megaquark@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Sep 08 2003 - 18:47:54 MDT
Thanks everyone for all the feedback. I'm going through it all now and
hopefully I can form it all into a good overall plan. The most difficult
thing I am dealing with is that after 4 days of being a non-smoker, I kind
of feel mentally incapacitated. I can't type worth a darn and I have to
struggle to make a coherent sentence! I honestly feel drugged!
During the next few weeks, I apologize if my thoughts seem a bit random or
my logic a bit impaired.
Again, thanks for the help!
Kevin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 6:53 PM
Subject: Re: just getting started
>
> On Mon, 8 Sep 2003, Kevin Freels wrote:
>
> > I am right at my "ideal" body weight, but I expect to put on a few
pounds
> > while I adjust to being a non-smoker.
>
> Ok, that is good -- but don't go for self-fullfilling perspectives.
>
> > I'm also only 5'3" so I am a good candidate for a Mars mission :-)
>
> There you go spike -- a volunteer from the audience!
>
> > Until recently I had been of the opinion that cancer cause smoking, not
the
> > other way around.
>
> No -- it is very clear and well documented -- certain enzymes, primarily
> found in the liver transform molecules found in smoke into cancer causing
> (carcinogenic) molecules -- but whether one has those genetic (enzyme)
> variants cannot be determined (easily) currently. This explains why some
> people smoke and get cancer and other people smoke and don't get cancer.
>
> This is clear: Some people are susceptable to addiction (largely
genetics).
> Some of those people smoke. A subset of those people get cancer and
> have a diminished lifespan.
>
> > (Have you ever met an alcoholic non-smoker?)
>
> I know of individuals, who once did smoke, who would probably fall into
> this category -- i.e. they don't smoke but can be considered alcoholics.
>
> > Now I know it was the nicotine talking.
>
> And as I pointed out -- I don't think it is the nicotine that is
particularly
> bad -- it is all the other stuff that is in the smoke.
>
> > I used to eat 3 peanut butter sandwiches per day. Yet my
> > body weight has never been below or above average.
>
> Peanut butter sandwiches are probably not particularly bad. You probably
> have a fast metabolism that explains being able to maintain the weight
level.
>
> > My great-grandmother died at 96 a few years ago.
>
> Suggests that (at least from one source) that one may not have the genes
> that lead one from smoking to cancer -- but that probably only involves
> about 12% of your risk factors (one has to take all of the other relatives
> into account).
>
> Robert
>
>
>
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