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Thread: Smoking cigars and/or pipes

  1. #21
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    The occasional Hoyo de Monterrey added 5 pounds to my squat.

  2. #22
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    I was drawn to this thread interested in understanding what a very casual/social smoker might want to know about that rare cigar.
    Anecdotally, I notice no negative impact to strength or endurance after smoking a cigar. I'm a novice lifter and recreational endurance athlete which means my experience may be very different from someone higher up the ranks of a sport.
    As a grown man, I am capable of weighing the risk of smoking a cigar in regards to mortality. What remains unexplored is weighing the risk of smoking a cigar in regards to performance.

  3. #23
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    I work with a lot of peripheral vascular disease patients, people who have blockages in their leg arteries, more often than not from nicotine. They range the gamut: the nuisance of having severe leg cramps while walking more than a block, to 24/7 leg pain keeping awake up at night, to needing frequent revasc procedures, stents, grafts, massive graft re-dos, massive ugly wounds, and of course losing legs - often first below the knee and then a re-amp above the knee and sometimes up to the hip. Long painful hospital stays, infections, re-infections, ICU stays.

    That's all nicotine. That's not tar or smoke.

  4. #24
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    As a man, and not a child, I think about the consequences of my actions that may be years or even decades away. As opposed to only thinking about what is days or weeks away.

  5. #25
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    The studies I have read about cigar and pipe smoking only show a slight increase in cancer risk over a non-smoker (considering the inherent bias of these studies evidenced by the ones about second hand smoking). It seems the benefit of relaxing and lowering "stress" (from a relaxing smoke) would balance out that difference if not be better for you.

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adam_Marshall View Post
    The studies I have read about cigar and pipe smoking only show a slight increase in cancer risk over a non-smoker (considering the inherent bias of these studies evidenced by the ones about second hand smoking). It seems the benefit of relaxing and lowering "stress" (from a relaxing smoke) would balance out that difference if not be better for you.
    Post the studies.

  7. #27
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    I trust Jordan will correct me where I'm wrong here, but:
    Regarding nicotine; yes, it is addictive, but tobacco contains also harmala-alkaloids, which means it works as monoamine oxidase inhibitor, and as far as I know, a rather nonselective one, in that it inhibits the breakdown of pretty much all neurotransmitters. This has a huge synergistic effect on nicotine. Though nicotine is not a direct dopamine agonist like amphetamines, it does cause an upregulation of dopamine indirectly. So, as far as I can tell, the addictive potential of pure nicotine, though high, is quite a bit lower than that of the cocktail you inhale when smoking. And yes, cigars and pipes do that too, though it might be that you get proportionately more nicotine than other alkaloids through the mucous membranes of your mouth and nose than you do through your lungs.

    Nicotine in itself (probably better taken in as pills or chewing gum or something like that) has some mildly beneficial effects on cognition and even long term benefits in terms of Alzheimer's and such. In itself, I think it is comparable to caffeine. But I am unsure whether the beneficial effects are significant enough to warrant taking nicotine in any form. Definitely not for smoking and from what I can tell, not inhalation as in "vaping" either; those seem to have heavy negative effects that far outweigh the positives.

  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adam_Marshall View Post
    The studies I have read about cigar and pipe smoking only show a slight increase in cancer risk over a non-smoker (considering the inherent bias of these studies evidenced by the ones about second hand smoking). It seems the benefit of relaxing and lowering "stress" (from a relaxing smoke) would balance out that difference if not be better for you.
    This just doesn't make sense. When smoking a cigar, not only are you getting highly concentrated smoke in your mouth, you are chewing or sucking on the end of the cigar. This would seem to resemble what happens with chewing tobacco. I think we can agree that chewing tobacco has some pretty negative health results.

    As for the pipe, I would think that the compounds in the smoke build up in the stem, and would present a similar situation to a cigar.

  9. #29
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    The origin of rationalization for less dangerous smoking (pipes) is below. These contents have been circularly referenced for a long time. Included is the famous surgeons general report showing pipe smokers live longer than non smokers. This report is over fifty years old.

    Reducing Risks - Seattle Pipe Club

    https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/NNBBMQ.pdf

    In any case it would be hard to argue that casual pipe/cigar smoking, especially without inhalation, is as bad as chain smoking. Similarly, it would be very hard to argue that it is beneficial. Do you see similarities in the studies for alcohol consumption? It seems to me that people pick and chose "studies" or "urban lore" that helps them rationalize their preferences.

  10. #30
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by Jordan Feigenbaum View Post
    Post the studies.
    Sorry to burst your bubble

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