Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Leonard Nimoy: Smoking Is Illogical

Posted by timothy on from the even-with-little-dollar-signs-on-the-tube dept.

An anonymous reader writes "My boyhood hero, actor Leonard Nimoy, has developed lung disease. To those still smoking and in the grips of marketing induced denial, he says 'quit now.' Small acts of goodness make the universe a better place."

9 of 401 comments (clear)

  1. For someone who said "live long" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    not supporting life extension is also illogical. Space fans really need to get their priorities straight, it's highly unlikely that any Star Trek-level of technology will ever happen, so if you want to explore the immense void out there, you'll have to live longer, a LOT longer. So never mind just quitting smoking; we'll need a serious, global, universal project to really understand life processes and extend youth.

  2. 82 years old by Kohath · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Leonard Nimoy is 82 and he probably has a few more years ahead of him. Was he planning on living to be 1000 years old?

    Smoking has pluses and minuses. News flash: people like to smoke, just like they like drinking alcohol and using other substances. Ask a heroin user whether he likes heroin -- he loves it. So it's not illogical to take heroin, but it's a choice that can have a negative long-term effect.

    If you're already 82, like Leonard Nimoy, you might want to try smoking. Or heroin. The benefits are immediate. And you probably won't live to experience the consequences.

    1. Re:82 years old by Kohath · · Score: 5, Interesting

      People have been smoking tobacco for about 1000 years now. Why do you think they started doing that? How far up your own ass would you have to be to deny even the possibility of a pleasant neurochemical effect?

      Here's a quote an article:

      This chemical enters the blood and after about seven seconds, it enters the brain, affecting exactly the same dopamine receptors, giving the brain the message that a rewarding activity has just been performed. Smokers report a feeling of calmness and mild euphoria when they have a puff of a cigarette.

    2. Re:82 years old by arkhan_jg · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The high goes away pretty quickly as your brain adapts, though nicotine remains a mild stimulant. After that, you mainly just get the relief of feeding the addiction - you go into withdrawal pretty quickly once you're addicted. In addition, it's psychologically addictive as you get used to the relief, and associate it with the physical act of smoking. Thus quitting is very hard, even with nicotine replacement therapy, and why most who try to quit fail, repeatedly. Nicotine is supposedly as hard to quit as heroin.

      Personally, I've switched to vaping from e-cigs. The same stress relief my brain associates with the physical act of smoking, a much lower dose of nicotine* (similar to caffeine in its effects) without all the tar, benzene and the many other carcinogens from combustion. Better to quit outright of course, but this is a workable half-way house for now, and much cheaper to boot.

      * I've scaled down the amount of nicotine in the liquid to much lower than I started with.

      --
      Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
  3. Re:Illogical by cold+fjord · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're 82, Leonard. Holding yourself up as an example of the ravages of smoking after reaching the age of 82 is illogical.

    Refusing to acknowledge what science teaches us about disease is illogical and yet you are holding yourself up as an arbiter of logic.

    Refusing to accept death at 82 is illogical.

    There is no logic to dying before necessary if he can still do productive work or enjoy life.

    Go with grace.

    What an interesting contract to your words in this post and this post. It is almost as if you don't really mean it. You seem to lack empathy. Isn't there a word for that?

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  4. Re:Seriously - GTFO by Deathlizard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Considering that he is sort of an icon to nerds and is dying of a recently announced disease, I would considering it newsworthy.

    Although I doubt that smoking is the main reason he has COPD now considering he stopped smoking so long ago, but it may have been a contributing factor. He was an avid Photographer, and if he did a lot of darkroom work, he could have contracted the disease from breathing in the Caustic Developer Chemicals.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
  5. Re:Beta is illogical by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Interesting

    She's dead Jim., Dice filling the pipe with Slashvertisements (because they thought they could get paid for Slashads AND for regular ads) has killed the revenue, they took a complete writedown on the site already. Frankly at this point all one can do is move to Alt when its ready because Dice considers /. a BRAND and by "rebranding" they think they can make it into another Digg/Gawker/Fark. Hell the comments section might as well have "powered by Disqus" for all the ripping off they did.

    As for TFA, as someone who smoked for 30 years and tried everything,patch,gum, pills, the only thing that worked was the "Ego style" ecigs, the ones with the separate tank and the 510 threading. Thanks to those I've been cigarette free for going on 3 months and have gone from a 30mg to 24mg to 18mg, although I'll probably stay on 18 a couple months as I tried 11mg in a VG and couldn't tell I was smoking the thing, maybe an 80/20 PG to VG will let me drop below 18Mg.

    But as TFA shows the sad thing is you WILL get COPD, doesn't matter how long ago you quit as you WILL get it if something else don't get you first. So if you are quitting do it because you don't want to be smelling like smoke or be out of breath, because if you have smoked more than a couple of years you might as well accept COPD is in your future regardless.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  6. Re:Beta is illogical by deviated_prevert · · Score: 5, Interesting

    " But as TFA shows the sad thing is you WILL get COPD, doesn't matter how long ago you quit as you WILL get it if something else don't get you first. So if you are quitting do it because you don't want to be smelling like smoke or be out of breath, because if you have smoked more than a couple of years you might as well accept COPD is in your future regardless."

    Negative thinking is a large part of what causes the addiction to be so difficult to break. Beat me it feels good syndrome. IT IS NOT true that you are doomed even if you quit. Also the only attitude to take is that you will be tempted for the rest of your life to smoke. The difference is that you need to make a habit out of not smoking. Don't get all sweated up there is no doubt that in the first week after quitting it will be difficult, such is the nature of the drug. Another misconception about tobacco is the fact that it calms your nerves. THE BULLSHIT fact is that it is essentially a speed ball concoction, at first the carbon monoxide brings you down as does the reduction of 02 in your blood stream. Yes it calms your nerves and the nicotine acts initially as a sedative as well, but the fact is that then after about 4 minutes it actually increases your heart rate and in reality nicotine is a form of speed as well. Most people are not aware of these facts and think that they are actually settling their nerves by havin' a butt. BUT IT IS A LIE, and you fool yourself into believing the soothing tones of the Marlboro Man lighting up on horseback.

    Remember dada, dada dada, --dada, dada dada. As Yule Brynner rides off into the sunset. The tobacco companies up in Canada actually own part of one of the largest drug store chains, they did not suffer, but their victims do every day.

    DON'T GIVE UP THE FIGHT and roll over and play dead, it can be beaten. Besides the more you try to quit the more you will learn how not to smoke and also reduce the insult to your body. But don't be negative to others about quitting it is just plain wrong and I am sure Mr. Spock and even the Marlboro man would agree.

    --
    This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
  7. Re:Beta is illogical by LVSlushdat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But as TFA shows the sad thing is you WILL get COPD, doesn't matter how long ago you quit as you WILL get it if something else don't get you first. So if you are quitting do it because you don't want to be smelling like smoke or be out of breath, because if you have smoked more than a couple of years you might as well accept COPD is in your future regardless.

    I don't know about that.. I smoked in my early 20s, during the 8 years I was in the Army, and for about 2 years after I got out, for a total of about 10 years. One day, I reached into my shirt pocket, by habit, to grab a cigarette, and I had an epiphany.. I asked myself.. "WTF are you doing to yourself???" I wadded the nearly full pack up and threw it away.. All of my friends smoked heavily and when I told them "I QUIT!", they laughed and said "nah, you'll be back..." .. Well, here I am, 40+ years later, and I've not had another cigarette since... Thanks to the "cold turkey". In fact, the smell of burning tabacco so revolts me, I get sick to my stomach when I have to negotiate the flocks of smokers puffing away outside many stores/coffee shops today.. In my last physical, last year, nothing about any COPD or emphysyma or .. (shudder) cancer... Guess I'm the exception...

    --
    THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)