Tobacco

[mansworld]

For millennia, people have known the medicinal benefits of the tobacco plant. Only in the last decades; tobacco has been aggressively proclaimed harmful. Up until the 1950s, they even had doctors promoting them. Why is it so? The WHO states that " Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the World has ever faced." This statement is FALSE, because the tobacco itself doesn't present such a health threat; it is the modern tobacco products and dangerous chemical additives that present a threat. Tobacco is a potent medicinal plant. The mass-market cigarettes are made from tobacco scraps, stems, wood pulp, nicotine, toxic fire retardants and dangerous chemical additives.


Don't confuse tobacco with the hundreds of chemicals in the standard pack of smokes. A pack of Marlborough is not a pack of tobacco. Big difference.That's like saying that chlorinated pool water is safe to drink because it is water. Many cigarettes are poison sticks that have nothing to do with tobacco. Tobacco is exempt from being required to label the ingredients. All attempts to make labelling the ingredients obligatory has been smothered by the tobacco industry. In the US, the industry uses over 600 intentional chemical additives to blended cigarettes.


The oldest man who completed a full marathon at age 101 year, smoked since his teens and had few cigarettes through the race as well!


- A 112-year-old Da Lanwan from Yunnan province, China, enjoyed smoking since he was 18-year-old.


- Jeanne Louise Calment quit smoking at the age of 120.


- A 112-year-old woman from Nepal "Batuli Lamichhane" smoked cigarettes for 95 years.


- Richard Overton, WWII vets, aged 109, enjoys 12 cigars a day.


- Narayan Chaudhari, a Nepalese heavy smoker who lived to be 141-year-old, said the secret to his longevity is "raw tobacco and no alcohol."

[hemmjo]

That is a interesting point of view. Those are 6 examples of people who have beaten the odds. However there have been millions who have not had that experience with tobacco. For whatever reason.

Lots of plants have medicinal uses.

When I was a kid, I remember putting moist tobacco on bee stings, then covering it with a bandaid to hold it in place. However even in it's raw form, with nothing added, tobacco is toxic and highly addictive. It should be used carefully. As will all medical products, risks need to be considered along side the benefits.

There is an extensive list of "approved additives". This list certainly does not make me want to run out have a smoke. I have to admit, the smell of a hand rolled cigarette, made from freshly dried tobacco in the Dominican Republic smells totally different than the putrid odor of commercially made cigarettes.

One should also acknowledge that smoke, of any kind is not good for out lungs. Burning changes the chemical composition everything. One could look at the walls and furnishings in the home of a smoker and realize they do not want the nasty yellow residue in their lungs. I actually charge more when doing work in the home of a smoker. I often turn down the job if it is really bad. You know the instant you step inside.

Our bodies are very complex "machines" if you will. Of course we are the same in many aspects. But we are also very different in other, unseen and very poorly understood ways. Our systems interact with all environmental factors on many levels. Your body reacts differently to various inputs such as foods, medications, herbs than mine does.

Check out the book "Eat Right 4 your Type". It contains information regarding how blood type affects things you should and should not eat. I know I was surprised at the result of trying some of the suggestions.

Unfortunately the medical "industry" has way too much control over our lives and our treatments. They huge advertising budgets allow them to flood us with missleading information. They make more money selling drugs, and dismiss or try to undermine less costly, more natural solutions.

[NeiljohnUK]

Having applied for a job with British American Tobacco whilst unemployed in the 80's, as a machinist/production line support tech, I discovered some of what went into commercial cigarettes as the tobacco is reduced from leaf sheets to ultimately be extruded into the filament form used in cigarettes. I didn't smoke before and I certainly wouldn't after that, the stench in some parts of the factory was nauseating, though it seemed every line worker was immune to it, probably because they all smoked having a daily allowance from the line. Thankfully I didn't get the job, probably because I didn't smoke...

[jimfols]

When I was a kid driving trucks through North Carolina, Camel cigarettes were $1 a carton, that's 10 cents a pack.
I couldn't afford not to smoke.

[jimfols]

Quote "Check out the book "Eat Right 4 your Type". It contains information regarding how blood type affects things you should and should not eat. I know I was surprised at the result of trying some of the suggestions. "

Thanks for the links. I ordered the book.

I have been using Dr Robert Hass' book: 'Eat To Win The Sports Nutrition Bible' since 1983.
It has worked very well for me.

[Nitrous]

Just to be clear, nicotine is a potent poison. An important point to consider in examining these “n of 1” cases is the importance of genetics.
Nicotine is a poison to everyone but one’s sensitivity to the other aspects of tobacco determines who will suffer the most extreme consequences of the behaviour.

When I studied chemistry, we did a nicotine extraction from leaf tobacco. Long story short, if a cigarette smoker were able to ingest all of the nicotine contained in one cigarette, the outcome would not be good. In fact, women are much more sensitive to nicotine than are men. To help level the playing field, big tobacco introduced ‘light cigarettes’. The trouble was the actual tobacco contained more tar and nicotine than regular cigarettes but because of a clever ‘bypass filter’, they would initially be subject to low levels of nicotine. As time went on, the nicotine load increased… now woman have similar levels of lung cancer as men!

[mansworld]

It has been called the "Japanese Smoking Paradox" that puzzled scientists: High smoking rate, low cancer rate, and long life spans!




Forbidden Cures ( Natural Healing )
----------------------------------
A patient cured is a customer lost. In the US alone, the Healthcare Industry registers an annual staggering $3 trillion! The Institutional Medicine, FDA, and Pharmaceutical Industry (the Big Three) block alternative medicine and healing therapies that work so well and cost so little. the reason is obvious: Alternative (non-toxic) medicine and therapies represent a loss of billions of dollars to allopathic/orthodox medicine and drug companies. What doctors learn at medical schools is heavily influenced by drug companies' priorities.


The Big Three have collectively engaged in a medical conspiracy for the better part of 70 years to influence legislative bodies on both the state and federal levels to create regulations that promote the use of drug medicine while simultaneously creating restrictive, controlling mechanisms (licensing, government approval, etc) designed to limit and stifle the availability of non-drug, alternative modalities.


Over the past decades, hundreds of caring, concerned, and conscientious alternative healers have been jailed and abused like common criminals for the "crime" of curing people of life-threatening diseases in an "unapproved" manner by heavy-handed government agents who swoop down on clinics with drawn guns, flax jackets, and Gestapo manners. All the while, these same agents and agencies posture themselves before TV cameras and the public under the ludicrous pretense of being servants of the people and protectors of the common good.


The medico-drug cartel was summed up by J.W Hodge, M.D., of Niagara Falls, N.Y., in these words: "The medical monopoly or medical trust, euphemistically called the American Medical Association, is not merely the meanest monopoly ever organized, but the most arrogant, dangerous and despotic organization which ever managed a free people in this or any other age. Any and all methods of healing the sick by means of safe, simple, and natural remedies are sure to be assailed and denounced by the arrogant leaders of the AMA doctors' trust as fakes, frauds, and humbugs Every practitioner of the healing art who does not ally himself with the medical trust is denounced as a 'dangerous quack' and impostor by the predatory trust doctors. Every sanitarian who attempts to restore the sick to a state of health by natural means without resorting to the knife or poisonous drugs, disease-imparting serums, deadly toxins, or vaccines, is at once pounced upon by these medical tyrants and fanatics, bitterly denounced, vilified and persecuted to the fullest extent."


The entire approach and foundation of Orthodox Medicine is based on Luis Pasteur's Germ Theory, a flawed concept. A disease condition is viewed by the orthodoxy as an isolated event, confined to the area in which it manifests itself (E.g. an ear infection, eye infection, gum infection, lung cancer, skin cancer, etc. ). Under this theory, for unknown reasons, microbes or tumors indiscriminately grow in the patient and must be cut (surgery), burned (radiation), or poisoned (drugs) out of the body. In the orthodox model, the solution is sought through mechanical and chemical means. Seeking to understand WHY the infection or disease condition appeared in the first place, is not seriously explored. The quick fix with a prescription for drugs to smother the symptoms is the typical orthodox 'answer'.


A contemporary of Pasteur, Antoine Bechamp, had a different opinion as to why disease conditions 'took hold'. Bechamp felt that the ENVIRONMENT, or the ECOLOGY of the blood played a critical role in deciding whether disease conditions would manifest or not.


Alternative medicine explores the stressors (environmental, biological, chemical, psychological, and emotional) in a patient's life that cause a weakening of a particular energy field; which in turn allows the manifestation of a disease condition in a weakened area. In order to maintain a state of health, all energy systems within the body need to exist in a state of balance or equilibrium. Imbalance leads to conditions of discomfort (dis-ease) which eventually spirals into ill health if not corrected. The Chinese and Indians (Ayurvedic medicine) had worked all of this out thousands of years ago.


Orthodox or Allopathic Medicine utilizes poisonous substances (drugs) in non-lethal dosages in order to suppress symptoms in an affected area. This approach neither addresses the cause of the disease condition nor is it responsible for healing the patient. Rather, the use of drugs often will temporarily mask the outer manifestations of the malady, while at the same time, driving the disease deeper into the body...only to reappear at a later date, as a more serious, and chronic health threat. One of the many flaws of the orthodox approach is that it focuses on the disease condition itself, rather than the patient. The term wholistic (or holistic) originally sprang up to distinguish those physicians whose diagnostic gestalt considers all of the physical, emotional, and spiritual energies interacting with the patient.


Do not assume that the only difference between allopathic and alternative medicine, however, is an honest difference of opinion in the philosophies and views on the origin of disease states. Hardly!. There is, in truth, a concerted, organized agenda -concocted, planned, and contrived by the international pharmaceutical companies and organized medicine to suppress any and every alternative, non-drug therapy that WORKS. Why? Because they want people to keep on coming back for more treatments and more drugs.


A cured patient is a lost source of income. A sick patient who is marginally "improved" is a manageable patient.


Managing patients means routine office visits and renewing drug prescriptions. Therefore, a manageable patient is a continuing source of income; a cash cow if you will. Multiply that by a few hundred million people and you get an idea why this deceit is being put upon you. The profits from the so-called "health-care" industry are staggering!


The thrust of the orthodox pharmaceutical agenda is to provide temporary relief, while never addressing the cause of the disease condition. This agenda ensures regular visits to the doctor's office and requires the patient to routinely return to the pharmacy to refill his prescriptions. This is what the game is all about folks, plain and simple. Deny it or Deal with it,...Stick with it or Get Out of it! ... your choice.




The patient's immune system and the immune system alone is responsible for healing and recovery from ill health. The use of drugs and vaccines represents an assault on the immune system. In some cases, the use of a particular drug might be a wise choice to speed healing and recovery for the patient, but the use of natural, orthomolecular therapies and substances (substances normally found in Nature) that can more effectively address the cause of the disease should be considered first because natural substances work in harmony with Nature. They aid and stimulate the body to truly cure itself, without the terrible millstone of drug side effects.


The human body is predisposed to heal itself and to exist as a healthy, thriving organism. We inhibit that process by ingesting unhealthy foods, fouling our inner environment with toxins, and relying upon poisonous substances to treat disease conditions.


Unlike 'miracle drugs' and other 'drug breakthroughs', you will never see or hear anything from mainstream media about most of the therapies described here. The Big Three see to that, but you can still glean this information from the alternative health press, books, websites, and at health expos. Some of these alternative therapies require high-tech equipment and specialized knowledge, but many, many others can be done at home without third-party intervention or supervision. It's amazing, but true, that many of the most effective healing therapies (even for grave, life-threatening disease conditions) are simple things that you can do for yourself at home. You simply have to educate yourself and take responsibility for your own health.


educate-yourself.org

[hemmjo]

SNIP... A patient cured is a customer lost.... SNIP

I do have to agree. This is the philosophy of the medical "Industry". The practice of medicine used to be a profession. While there are still many very competent, highly skilled professionals working in the industry. However, in the US anyway, those professionals are being slowly aged out of the system. Too many newly graduated medical people do not have REAL diagnostic skills.

Big pharmaceutical companies "donate" huge sums of money to medical schools to help with research. This big investment also gives them leverage into content delivered to students. Newly graduating doctors, do not have the same skill set as doctors trained prior to this major shift in philosophy. Too many only have the skills required to follow the guidelines layout out by the big pharmaceutical companies.

Insurance also companies have HUGE sums of money to invest in building and controlling hospitals. They also have undue influence on how medicine is practiced.

I am relatively healthy aside from a heart defect I was born with. I eat right, am active, etc. I have seen the same a doctor for over 40 years. He had always leaned toward alternative remedies rather than prescription medications. About 20 years ago he switched to practice totally holistic medicine. Wife and I have to pay out of pocket for those services as insurance will not cover any of it. While I am skeptical of some of the diagnostic practices and procedures, I cannot argue with the results.

I also have a regular doctor. This one was actually practicing with my holistic doctor before he made the transition to holistic and moved out of our small town. My "regular" doctor also leans toward natural remedies, BUT his hands are tied by the medical "group" he works with. I recently went for my yearly "wellness" check as requested and paid for my insurance company. All of the tests show I am healthy, no high blood pressure, no high cholesterol, I am in good shape.

Here is the final point I am making. Even though my blood tests show I do not have a need for medication, I was prescribed, according to "insurance company guidelines" Crestor (Rosuvastatin) to lower my risk of heart attack or stroke.

Here is the clincher... These are the possible side effects of the medication that was prescribed but that I do not NEED!!!!

Serious Side Effects
*Severe muscle damage (rhabdomyolysis): Dark brown urine, severe muscle weakness or pain, fever, tiredness (Funny the heart IS a muscle)
*Worsening liver problems or liver failure: swelling of your stomach, yellowing of your skin or the whites of your eyes, confusion, dark or brown urine

Common Side Effects
The following side effects may get better over time as your body gets used to the medication. Let your healthcare provider know immediately if you continue to experience these symptoms or if they worsen over time.

*Muscle pain (8-13%)
*Joint pain (2-10%)
*Headache (6-8%)
*Nausea (2-6%)
*Constipation (up to 5%). If you add all of these possibilities there is a 42% chance you get at least one of them!!!!

Other Side Effects
*Stomach pain
*Dizziness
*Rash, itchy skin, hives
*Higher blood sugar


Yes indeed, let me run out and get some of that stuff!!!!!

[Nitrous]

medicine in some countries, America in particular is a business with profit as the primary goal. That doesn't necessarily mean at the practitioner level, although I suspect that some areas of medicine are more 'profit driven' than others.

As far as "I don't need...." medication X, Y or Z, this begs a question that is often only answered at autopsy.
Risk can never be eliminated - it's a statistical construct to help understand disease in the context of larger populations.

The risk of getting pregnant is, all things being considered relatively low on a 'per event' basis, but it's binary on a personal level. You're either pregnant or not pregnant... 100%! Risk can not be eliminated - it only can be managed.

Some ways to manage risk are obviously better than others; sexual abstinance is 100% but the rhythm method leads to ~24 woman pregnant out of 100 in the first year. If you elect to manage risk holistically and include traditional medicine on an 'as needed basis' that's fine but if you decide to manage type 1 diabetes in a child 'holistically, rather than using insulin.... well I think the outcome would be obvious (both criminally at the childwelfare level and morally at the childs' adverse outcome level)

I suspect a great majority of members are less than interested in this line of thought... so if deletion is warranted, sobeit

Take care,
Doug