smoking and lack-of-heart disease

Kirsten is 47, a smoker and a nurse who should be setting a good example for the community in regard to healthy living but she fumes at scare-mongering, heartless, anti-smoking propaganda and maintains that smokers are no more or less healthy than non-smokers.
"Smokers are being blamed unfairly for the rise of lung cancers, heart diseases and spiralling national health costs," sighs Kirsten, "but I'm seeing far less smokers on my wards than I did thirty years ago."

"What I am seeing more of in my wards is patients who are far more obese and a far lot older than before," says Kirsten, "and that's a fact that airlines, funeral parlors and all health-related industries are noticing."

"When airlines and funeral parlors have been forced to widen their seats and coffins to cater for rising obesity -- and the average age of air travellers and dearly departed has also risen -- you get to understand that all the hype about smoking is a smokescreen to hide the true facts about community health."

"Sure, lung cancer is on the rise but so is every other type of cancer and heart disease," laughs Kirsten, "and it's all because people are living longer these days."

"If disease incidence and death statistics were published by age rather than per capita, everyone would see that the vast majority fall into the older age groups where you'd expect people to be developing degeneration of their vital organs. And, where they don't, obesity is the prime causative factor, not smoking."

"When you're 88 years old does it really matter if you die of lung cancer, heart disease or a bee sting?" laughs Kirsten. "Of course not, so why should it bother anybody else?"

"Antibiotics and modern medicine have eradicated diseases that once wiped out millions of people are these diseases are being replaced on the death statistics with conditions like lung cancer and heart disease that most people once never lived long enough to develop."

"The number one cause of heart disease is aging," says Kirsten. "If you stop smoking or change your diet in middle age -- by which time the aging process has set in -- you're not going to improve your chances of avoiding heart disease. The clock is ticking away and will stop exactly when it is programmed to stop unless something intervenes to make it stop earlier."

"Get it?"

"What's more, medical opinion is divided as to how much cigarette smoking is directly responsible for the rise in lung cancer and heart disease," adds Kirsten. "Very few people die of one thing or another. There are always a myriad of factors involved in disease and death. If an old lady with osteoporosis dies from a fall while she's smoking is the cause of death an accidental fall, osteoporosis-related or smoking-related?"

"Doctors have carte blanche, almost, to record causes of death as they see fit," says Kirsten, "and believe me, I've seen some records that are plainly wrong. In relation to AIDS, I can accept that pneumonia might be a kinder cause of death for the sake of the relatives than the true cause -- but in relation to lung cancer and heart disease I object to smoking because listed as a primary cause just because the deceased was a smoker."

"Fanatical anti-smoking health workers are naturally prone to inflate the figures of smoking-related disease incidence and causes of death, but thankfully there are still many in the professions who are open to consider factors other than smoking."

"Apart from the obvious reason -- that we're living longer -- factors such as increasing air pollution (from carcinogens not known thirty years ago), the stresses of modern living (more people on the planet, and increasing daily), personal stressful circumstances and all manner of bugs need to be taken into consideration when assessing lung cancer and heart disease in smokers."

"Whenever I see a list of risk factors I feel like adding ridiculous things like 'wearing pink shirts'," laughs Kirsten, "because that's just about as true as everything else."

"If just one non-smoker -- such as Dana Reeve -- dies of lung cancer," says Kirsten, "then it's pretty obvious that cigarettes are not the primary cause of the disease and other factors have to betaken into consideration. Bearing in mind that it's only recently that a bacteria was found to cause stomach ulcers and a virus was found to cause cervical cancer, it's imperative to keep an open mind."

"I'm pretty sure, too, that anti-smoking propaganda has had a lot to do with the spiralling increase in obesity," says Kirsten. "I'm seeing less smokers on my wards than I did thirty years ago because so many people have quit and started stuffing their faces with food instead."

"Everyone I know who has quit smoking has put on a lot of weight," says Kirsten, "and because obesity is more a health risk than smoking I believe the medical profession has a duty to make this fact more well known."

"I am most certainly not going to come out as an advocate for the tobacco industry -- I hate their sly tactics to increase addiction as much as I hate the anti-smoking lobby for creating fear," says Kirsten."What I am saying is that people who are happy smokers should not be bombarded with lies, damn lies and statistics to scare them into quitting."

"There are plenty of doctors who smoke but they are too cowed by the system to publicly counteract the anti-smoking propaganda," says Kirsten. "Like me, they are supposed to set a good example for the community in relation to healthy living but unlike me they have more to lose from the exercise."

"They believe it's better to keep quiet, keep a low profile and in time -- like alcohol prohibition -- the focus will go off smoking onto something else," sighs Kirsten. "They are probably right -- it's just a fad -- but I still believe it's unfair to jerk smokers around and rip them off."

"Here in the public health system I don't see any of the extra taxes being ripped off smokers being spent to pay for the so-called costs of 'smoking-related diseases'," says Kirsten. "So, if you expect your smoking dollars to ensure good treatment in hospital should you develop lung cancer or copd in old age, forget it."

"I've known many smokers who lie about being smokers when they need to come to hospital for some minor treatment," says Kirsten. "It's medically unwise, but understandable within a punitive system fed by anti-smoking hysteria where you're treated badly if you admit to being a smoker. Would you freely admit to being a Jew in a Nazi German hospital with someone like Dr Mengeles likely to treat you?"

"Forget about heart disease in smokers, it's lack-of-heart disease that's the real problem with our society."