7 ms·
yeah like gangrene cures cancer
by furburger 18y ago
yeah like gangrene cures cancer
- chris11 18y agoOr like radiation cures cancer. Radiation treatment is basically just controlled radiation poisoning. A lot of the side effects are the same. Nothing is totally beneficial, or totally detrimental.
- furburger 18y agosmoking is partially beneficial? i'm interested to see the hacker response to forty years of medical research to the contrary
- chris11 18y agoI'm not saying that it's not horribly detrimental. I'm just saying that it has some small benefits. Nicotine can cause weight loss, act as a stimulant, and reduce stress. Though all of those benefits can be gotten a lot safer ways. Nature ran an article about how a patent was keeping an arsenic based cancer drug out of reach of patients. Nothing is all bad. http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v13/n9/full/nm0907-1005.html http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v13/n9/full/nm0907-1005.htm... (subscription required)..
- scott_s 18y agoAs you pointed out, nicotine is a stimulant; I doubt it's the nicotine that reduces stress. What's probably happening is that when a smoker lights up, their brain releases dopamine because they're finally getting what they're addicted to. In the same manner, a cup of coffee can relax someone if they're a caffeine addict.
- colins_pride 18y agoOne of the things I've struggled with is figuring out if I'm addicted to something .. One way to judge is to look for withdrawal symptoms, but this requires changing my behavior to test .. So the idea is that if something that stimulates most people, and used to stimulate me, now relaxes me, I've become dependent on it .. Very intuitive
- kingkongrevenge 18y agoI guess you could form a complicated theory like that. Or you could try smoking a cigarette and notice that it relaxes and focuses you.
- chris11 18y agoThat is a good point. When addicts use drugs their stress is reduced. But nicotine is unique in that its profile depends on the dose. When smokers want to have more concentration, they take short and quick puffs. This gets a low level of nicotine in the blood. At a low dose, nicotine increases norepinephrine and dopamine. So it acts like a stimulant. When smokers want to relax, they take long and deep puffs. This increases the dose of nicotine. And at high doses, it affects serotonin and opiate levels in the brain and acts like a sedative. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Psychoactive_effects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Psychoactive_effects
- kingkongrevenge 18y ago> smoking is partially beneficial? Yes, actually. Protective against Alzheimers and Parkinsons. Inhaled tobacco smoke actually has MAO inhibitors in it, which is beneficial for certain people.
- likpok 18y agoThe big issue with smoking is not the nicotine. It is the tar/additives that make their way to your lungs and give you cancer.
- pasbesoin 18y agoI was responding specifically to nikblack's comment about finding it more effective than caffeine when hacking. I didn't mean to imply it's all puppies and daisies. Amongst other things, nicotine's a vasoconstrictor. Long term exposure may not be the best thing for one's cardiovascular system, even leaving out the tar, volatiles, and plutonium that come with tobacco smoke. Then there's the whole dance it performs with neurotransmitters and multiple addictive centers in the brain. I recall some researchers speculating that it may be so addictive at least in part because it activates multiple centers associated with addiction, whereas most drugs only activate one or another of those centers.