SMOKING WITH MS

hi everyone,

I know smoking is bad for you,does anyone still smoke

thanks

i am a very dedicated and devoted member of the black lung society. And as much as i know it dose massive damage to my body trust when i say at the moment me quiting would be a dam sight more damaging to all the poor inocent people i come accros on a day to day basis and if im honest i realy dont care what damage it dose to me any more. No body in my family on both sides has had cancer that i know of and my great grandma smoked 40 a day from age 12 and died at 98 in a nursing home. So il take my chances

i still smoke. started at 13 and now 53 so that’s 40 years.

i’ve tried to stop so many times but end up smoking more.

it’s like this, ms has taken away a lot of my normal life. smoking is a normal part of my life and i’m subconsciously refusing to let go.

well hey, if i could still do some of the crazy stuff i would.

Smoking is the best way for me to ingest the ‘Sativex substitute’ in the privacy of my everso flat. I practice every day outside cafes with cigarettes and coffee,whatever the weather. I’ve given enough up,so guess wot ain’t on the list? If it wasn’t for the 9,000,000 of us true patriots petrol would be about £3 a litre,and the NHS would be bankrupt. The ‘pastie tax’ isn’t going to fund it,despite the advocates of Diabetes and Obesity leading the NHS league tables.

'Praps the steel shutters should be around Gregs and Sayers.Since the smoking ban was introduced five years ago 10,000 pubs have closed,(not all because of the ban). Bingo has suffered terribly and now people stay in, with some being very isolated,and marginalised. Who cares?

Wb

There have been several studies that suggest smoking speeds up progression and worsen symptoms. Now I appreciate the likelihood of a slow and unpleasant death is a

separate issue, but I really don’t think MS needs any help.

http://ms.about.com/od/multiplesclerosis101/a/smoking_ms_progression.htm

I so wish I could go back in time and stop my younger self from ever starting to smoke because it increases the odds of developing MS too :frowning:

(I did stop eventually, after my 6th(?) attempt. Better late than never I guess.)

Karen x

I used the stress of pre-dx as an excuse to take it up again, but eventually stopped and haven’t had a cigarette for almost 10 years now. Still miss them occasionally, but not very often.

Alison

x

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I so wish I could go back in time and stop my younger self from ever starting to smoke because it increases the odds of developing MS too :frowning:

(I did stop eventually, after my 6th(?) attempt. Better late than never I guess.)

Karen x

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Six attempts! Wow, you are even more deserving of my admiration for determination alone.

If it’s any consolation, I have never smoked and still ended up with MS, so better late than never is definitely the way to look at it.

I smoke. Have done for over 40 years… with a few episodes of quitting. The last was a few months back. I quit for 5 months. I have had MS for about 8 years and have kept a positive attitude. By the end of those 5 months I was more depressed than I’ve ever been in my life. I was seriously thinking that it wasn’t worth going on. Then I thought well if I’m going to do myself in I may as well smoke. So I went out and bought tobacco and lit up and felt sooooooo much better. My MS symptoms felt much much worse during those 5 months. I realise it was due to depression but whatever the reason, I felt much better when I started smoking again.

MS is hardly known in China and Japan and yet they have more smokers and much heavier smokers than anywhere else in the world.

It’s bad for me. It will most probably kill me. I know it and I’m a consenting adult.

Pat x

Well said Pat,and if I may add to your heartfelt words,

“It’s better to burn out than fade away”

Wb

As an ex-smoker, i still love the smell of a fag but decided that for me personally it would be better to pack them in…they are far too expensive anyway and I’m a tight git…

I have smoked since I was 16 and am afraid if I am really honest I don’t want to give up. My first neuro who dx me said there was no link between smoking and ms and I believe him totally lol. He was lovely but unfortunately he has retired. I get stressed enough with work and ms and I don’t think I would be liked much if I gave up !!! X

Hi, I am not a direct smoker but have lived with smokers all my life. Hubby gave up last year for 17 weeks, then began again at about 4-10 a day. Previously he was on 40 a day. So the money he saved went on a car for our daughter.

Recently he has been diagnosed with asthma and is having some really scary cant breathe episodes. Hes off to the anti fag nurse again next week.

luv Polllx

Hello all,

I must admit that I have never smoked, but as a child I had to inhale no end of them because my dad was a serious smoker and said it was ‘his house anyway’. But I have often read that there “may be a link” between people with MS having had to be passive smokers when they were young and this certainly fits with me but I don’t know how clear cut this risk is.

Moira

Been smoking for over 30 years. Have not tried to give up nor am I inclined to do so. One of the tablets I take (Azathioprine) is a carcinogen anyway so I am tested for cancer every three months…

Hi

I have never smoked but enjoyed reading these replies.

‘Sativex substitue’???!!! *mega giggle!

E x

I have noticed that my friends with MS who still smoke have other conditions to deal with. Don’t mean to preach but personally have enough problems with MS.

Wendyxx

Snap Moira

Wendyx

i was brought up in a non smoking household but smoke lots as do my sisters. ive got no intention of quitting as it keeps my fingers active and the muscles in my face get a work out too. they keep telling me ‘use it or lose it’ so i am. that was said tongue in cheek.

but i enjoy smoking and will continue to do so til i drop.

x

I quit twice.

The first time lasted five weeks.

The second time lasted 16 years and 8 months (and still counting)

A GP (not my present one) was breaking the news to me that I had dangerously high blood pressure. His words were:
“You have a choice - you can go on smoking or you can go on living”
I went back to my office, had two ciggies while I finished the job I was doing (building one PC out of two dead ones to make a stand-alone virus checker) and quit. It took at least two years to get rid of the craving. It took a lot longer to get rid of the desire to have one with my breakfast coffee when in France. Now, I cannot even tolerate the smell of somebody else’s smoke.

Of course, with the zeal of the newly converted, I did take some delight in showing one of the scars (wrist to elbow) from the subsequent heart bypass to smokers at work with a comment “You get one of these free in every packet”.

Think before you light up … …

Geoff