Pipe smoking and health...

[R.C.Reichert]

You can try and push it as much as you like but there are facts showing that if you smoke you're 50% more likely to get Alzeimer's disease after the age of 50. Also studies have shown that smoking regularly creates miniature strokes in the brain quite frequently which just messes up your head in general(which I would have to say does not benefit ones judgment in any human affairs IMO!!!) and obviously contributes to brain disorders.
I quit smoking & drinking 7 months ago and have never felt better but if I did happen to take up smoking again I would definitely purchase a nice wooden pipe!

Precisely why I smoke a pipe and not cigarettes. I smoke for pure pleasure and relaxation...it's like a mini vacation in my mind. I personally think cigarettes are filthy and disgusting.:barf: Almost every cigarette smoker I know leaves their stinking butts lying around...in the driveway, in the lawn, and in my rock garden. It's really annoying. It seems like they have this need to smoke at least every 20 minutes or they get really agitated. I can sit down with my pipe once or maybe twice a day and not bother anyone. In fact people always comment on how they love the aroma. I don't leave any nasty cigarette butts lying around either. Pipe smoking is a fairly eco-friendly hobby I would say as compared to smoking cigarettes. In my opinion, pipe smoking is an enjoyable hobby when done in moderation....cigarette smoking is just an addiction.

 

[jackknife]

Precisely why I smoke a pipe and not cigarettes. I smoke for pure pleasure and relaxation...it's like a mini vacation in my mind. I personally think cigarettes are filthy and disgusting.:barf: Almost every cigarette smoker I know leaves their stinking butts lying around...in the driveway, in the lawn, and in my rock garden. It's really annoying. It seems like they have this need to smoke at least every 20 minutes or they get really agitated. I can sit down with my pipe once or maybe twice a day and not bother anyone. In fact people always comment on how they love the aroma. I don't leave any nasty cigarette butts lying around either. Pipe smoking is a fairly eco-friendly hobby I would say as compared to smoking cigarettes. In my opinion, pipe smoking is an enjoyable hobby when done in moderation....cigarette smoking is just an addiction.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Will Power]

I should not have read this thread:grumpy:

Gave up pipe-smoking about 10 years ago, due to serious health issue and here's my feedback: Can't say I feel better or taste things better at all. I don't concentrate as well that's for sure.Miss the relaxation it gave. Don't miss the sometime tongue burn though I was a heavy smoker, didn't inhale, looked down on cigarettes, the additives in the so-called tobacco just to make it burn appalled me, they taste vile as well:barf: Wasn't difficult to give up surprisingly, but it did mean destroying most of my decent pipes just to be sure

Years ago a village doctor assured me that pipes constitute very little health risk and not much profit or addiction to the tobacco industry hence their investment in pushing cigarettes which are unambiguously dangerous. He was a non-smoker but I'm unsure about his advice. Hence my interest in this thread. Pipe smoking must constitute a danger in the form of many mouth/oral cancers and the throat, the tar is a carcinogen after all. It may impact on blood pressure or cardio vascular disease as well.

Still...I've got two unopened 50 gramme tins of a much liked blend lurking away in a cupboard somewhere, unopened so it still could be fresh:thumbup:Too bad you can't get Balkan Sobranie FLAKE any more!

 

[R.C.Reichert]

I think the health issues come into play when the "hobby" is no longer taken into moderation. This is just my understanding and it might be wrong, but I suspect that the early Native Americans who smoked out of their peace pipes understood the fact that tobacco, being a spiritual gift, was meant to be used in a respectful manner, and not to be used foolishly and excessively. I try to be respectful of my tobacco use and I too consider it a "gift" of sorts from nature. When used wisely it can be very enjoyable and possibly even life-giving, but when used unwisely, it can be like your worst enermy, becoming addictive and sucking the life right out of you.