Good points. I think many more people are not dying of other diseases which were prevalent before. To a certain extant, the older one gets, the more likely it is that one will develop cancer.My Grandmother smoked Woodbines unfiltered. My Grandfather smoked Capstain Navy. Both cigarettes could strip the bark off trees. He died aged 96, she died aged 92. Both born around 1880. (That seems incredible now, that I knew people born during the reign of Queen Victoria.)
There are always individual examples that seem to be contrary to proper studies.
I've often wondered is there a weird link. Maybe those who are prone to smoking are prone to chest diseases or, going by the original study posted at the top, perhaps those who are prone to smoking are lifelong are resistant to diseases that smoking causes? Rather like those that naturally take to swimming when young are less likely to die by drowning?
Cancer went from being almost unheard of when I was young, born 1957, to being now common place. Maybe the causes of cancer are by some other reason but now amplified by modern life styles? Cancer of all types is definitely on the increase, smoker or non smoker. There must be a reason for that?
Great minds think alikeOne reason is simply that we have stopped people from dying from all the other things, like tuberculosis. So more people live long enough to develop cancer.
None of the above explains the reason that many more people now die of cancer than previously. Especially children. When I was a kid, no other kids died of anything, let alone cancer. Now it almost seems, sadly, common.
TB is now on the increase having been in decline up to the 90's.
FTFY.the older one gets, the more likely it is that one willdevelop cancer.die.
When I studied Environmental & Public Health at degree level one of our (non-smoking) lecturers drew attention to the fact that many deaths from lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos were wrongly attributed to cigarette smoking, simply for the reason that the dangers and processes of asbestos were not known about at that time. Lots of working class people came into contact with asbestos during their everyday work and they were also the heaviest smokers as a demographic cohort.My Dad's father (Poppa) smoked a pipe since he was a lad. He died in his 80s, but not from lung cancer. Nope, he died from a nasty reaction to a new medicine that had been introduced (can't remember what).
My Dad was a smoker until his early 30s. No lung problems there, no cancer. Lived to be 90.
My Mum's father was a non-smoker, non-drinker, died at 86. He had emphysema.
So it's pot luck and genetics.
Grandad (father's side) was born in 1879. Lied about his age for most of his life, but I have documents where he crudely altered 1879 to 1889. And my Dad altered 1910 to 1919. Both of them in the Merchant Navy before Dad became a bareknuckle fighter. Eventually after an injury that stopped him fighting a former sponsor of his got him a job at the Savoy Hotel, were he was trained as a full blown Escoffier qualified chef.My Grandmother smoked Woodbines unfiltered. My Grandfather smoked Capstain Navy. Both cigarettes could strip the bark off trees. He died aged 96, she died aged 92. Both born around 1880. (That seems incredible now, that I knew people born during the reign of Queen Victoria.)
There are always individual examples that seem to be contrary to proper studies.
I've often wondered is there a weird link. Maybe those who are prone to smoking are prone to chest diseases or, going by the original study posted at the top, perhaps those who are prone to smoking are lifelong are resistant to diseases that smoking causes? Rather like those that naturally take to swimming when young are less likely to die by drowning?
Cancer went from being almost unheard of when I was young, born 1957, to being now common place. Maybe the causes of cancer are by some other reason but now amplified by modern life styles? Cancer of all types is definitely on the increase, smoker or non smoker. There must be a reason for that?
My mother worked digitalising old birth, death certificates - most dating from before 1970 and I remember her telling me she was appalled by the number recorded as dying from cancer.None of the above explains the reason that many more people now die of cancer than previously. Especially children. When I was a kid, no other kids died of anything, let alone cancer. Now it almost seems, sadly, common.
TB is now on the increase having been in decline up to the 90's.
Agree. I had a friend - not a close one, a boy living in my street - who had leukemia and died from it at 18. That would have been approximately 1972.My mother worked digitalising old birth, death certificates - most dating from before 1970 and I remember her telling me she was appalled by the number recorded as dying from cancer.
On old friend qualified to be a Royal Marine over 25 years ago. He told me that during basic training they were all told that they could ignore advice to quit smoking due to the intense level of training they were receiving but to avoid cigarettes that had fibre glass in the filters. They were particularly told to avoid smoking John Player Specials.I reckon so.
The thing is, it's probably dependant on many factors. For example, if you smoke in an enclosed area (room/vehicle) I would suggest that that is a lot worse for you than being outside. Also, if you are inactive, that will make a difference compared to someone who exercises regularly - and many 'physical types' do smoke, and some are also heavy drinkers - the armed forces for eg, (or they used to be- maybe it's changed now though).
I remember hearing that about JPS as well.On old friend qualified to be a Royal Marine over 25 years ago. He told me that during basic training they were all told that they could ignore advice to quit smoking due to the intense level of training they were receiving but to avoid cigarettes that had fibre glass in the filters. They were particularly told to avoid smoking John Player Specials.
I'm not exactly sure of what abnormal tree growths he was talking about, but many of those large contusions on trees are caused by humans.My Dad worked for a huge pharmaceutical firm for many years and spent ten of those years in cancer research.
I remember him showing us as kids the trees in a neighboring town, that had huge 'knots' on them, big lumps on the trunks. He told us that we should never move to an area where trees were showing these abnormal growths, because that meant something was wrong in that area - could have been the water, the air, the soil, but something was not right.
I always listened to that.
Aren't they Burl?I'm not exactly sure of what abnormal tree growths he was talking about, but many of those large contusions on trees are caused by humans.
Sometimes, a tree's bark may get damaged or branches get pollarded (chopped of very short). This can cause a bruise in the green wood of the tree, which then thickens up. It's nothing to do with cancer.
Unless... your Dad was talking about polluted water tables causing abnormal growth in trees?
Yes.Aren't they Burl?
Reminds me of the old boy who had been through two wars, and a prisoner of war camp and they told him in the old folks home that he wasn't allowed more than three eggs a week - this was back when eggs were the devil incarnate (devilled eggs?) - anyway he quite rightly told them to get f****d.
Ha! Yes, that rings a bell.I believe that it was Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC, OM, DSO & 2 Bars, DFC (!) who, when in a nursing home in later life, was told that his morning soft-boiled egg was "too dangerous for him".
Cheshire's reply is unrecorded, but he went on to found his own chain of retirement homes. Where, I trust, eggs of all types are freely available.
maximus otter
Eggs are great in just about every form possible, butter is fantastic too, much healthier and much more natural than those terrible low-fat heart-friendlt 'spreads', which really are the devil's food.I believe that it was Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC, OM, DSO & 2 Bars, DFC (!) who, when in a nursing home in later life, was told that his morning soft-boiled egg was "too dangerous for him".
Cheshire's reply is unrecorded, but he went on to found his own chain of retirement homes. Where, I trust, eggs of all types are freely available.
maximus otter
I’ve mentioned it before on this forum that I come from a family of long lifers . All my dad’s side of the family were heavy smokers and drinkers, and they all got into their 90’s before death came for them, and that was through old age rather than a cancer.We got the typical life long smokers at 102 year of age saying to media smoking and whiskey kept them going, but it was their genes which saved them.
I'd not heard of safflower, but I have started cooking more with vegetable 'spread' in things like omelettes etc. Especially since oil has gone up so much.Eggs are great in just about every form possible, butter is fantastic too, much healthier and much more natural than those terrible low-fat heart-friendlt 'spreads', which really are the devil's food.
Don't believe me? Try Dr John Briffa, nutritionist.
http://www.drbriffa.com/2013/11/01/...ter-versus-margarine-debate-once-and-for-all/
This includes the quote: "In one [piece of research], men ate their normal diet, while in the other the men were instructed to eat a diet rich in safflower oil, including safflower oil-based margarine. The men on this ‘heart-healthy’ diet actually ended up being 74 per cent more likely to die of heart disease."
I rest my case!
Yes, it’s interesting isn’t it. More and more people are regularly getting in to their late 90’s and early 100’s, and these were the generation who were all brought up with the frying pan. Most of the food eaten then would be described as processed food today, sausages and bacon etc including offal and fried in lard.Eggs are great in just about every form possible, butter is fantastic too, much healthier and much more natural than those terrible low-fat heart-friendlt 'spreads', which really are the devil's food.
Don't believe me? Try Dr John Briffa, nutritionist.
http://www.drbriffa.com/2013/11/01/...ter-versus-margarine-debate-once-and-for-all/
This includes the quote: "In one [piece of research], men ate their normal diet, while in the other the men were instructed to eat a diet rich in safflower oil, including safflower oil-based margarine. The men on this ‘heart-healthy’ diet actually ended up being 74 per cent more likely to die of heart disease."
I rest my case!
Nah not really.Strange isn’t it.
A man after my own heart lol.Nah not really.
Modern life has been made such that everything is as frustrating and misleading as possible in order to keep the populace in a general state of unease.
Constantly informing us all that this or that is either bad for you or good for you, depending on how 'they' want to try and influence our existence is all part of it.
You don't see remote tribes of people without access to rolling news, internet, newspapers etc having the same issues with their health atc that 'western, civilised' societies do.
Give me lard, fags, and booze, any day.
He had a great life and lived to the max, by the sound of it.My uncle Tom in particular, smoked 60 fags a day and drank at least a bottle of whiskey a day, not to mention at least 8 pints of beer a day and he was almost 98 before he passed.