Comments on: Smoking Gene

By: jeanne sutton

jeanne sutton — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:10:25 +0000

karina — i’m writing this from your house. just read your article on your mother’s machine, and i’m impressed. zyban worked for me, the first time i quit for a length of time — that was in ‘97. i went back, though — once an addict, always an addict — when it comes to nicotine. didn’t use anything this past july 30, when i quit again. and haven’t had one since. it’s like being addicted to alcohol — no ‘cure’ but there is a treatment — don’t take the first puff.
question: is anything being done relative to the genetic connection in the research or followups around chantrix? all best!

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:03:33 +0000

I smoked, then I used Skoal. Because of a medical treatment I was prescribed Bupropion, this was about a year ago. My Doctor told me this could be a medication to use to quit using tobacco. It took me about a year or so and 2 boxes of Nicorettes and I am tobacco free. I smoked,I quit, It was MY habit. The medication really helped in my opinion. But, it was my decision to quit. If you are trying to quit, don’t give up, because you can do it.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:50:45 +0000

I started smoking when I was 12. I had to be cool, I wanted to impress my friends, I thought I looked mature. We all know that wonderful saying.. if I only knew then what I know now… I am now 47. Smoking almost two packs of cigarettes a day (just lit one up)and I hate it, I hate it with a passion. Can I quit?… No…. I have tried gum, patches,pills,hypnosis, gonig to classes and going cold turkey, you name it I tried it. It is hard! Someone mentioned lowering the nicotine in cigarettes over a period of twenty years. Sounds good, but by then I would be close to death of old age anyway. For me, yes I am addicted to the nicotine of course, but also addicted to lighting the cigarette, holding the cigarette, puffing on the cigarette, exhaling the smoke, sitting at my computer and drinking my tea with a cigarette going. lighting up after having an argument with somebody or after getting bad news,,, yes it calms me down.(give me a break!)Being in my own little world that nobody can get into when I am smoking a cigarette. Just sitting here typing these words make me sick to my stomach yet I am here with my cigarette going. My family begs me to quit and I tell them I will one day, hopefully soon. I think I agree with lowering the nicotine in the tobbaco just as there are regular, lights, and ultra lights there could be reduced amounts of nicotine in different cigarettes, not like the awful tasting cigarettes they came out with a few years ago, the ones that tasted like smoking a metal pipe. For me I wonder if they came up with cigarettes like this along with the use of some type of medication, gum, patch, pill would that help? A hardcore smoker does not care about the high tax that you put on a pack of cigarettes or banning them from smoking in public places or anything like that. I had heard about the person that had a stroke and the stroke affected the specific part of the brain that deals with addiction. Supposedly that person was a smoker before the stroke yet did not remember being a smoker after the stroke. I wonder how much progress the scientists have made on that? Ok I am starting to mumble here. Best of luck to anyone who is trying to quit and for those that are thinking about trying the taste of a cigarette…. PLEASE DON’T!

By: Teri

Teri — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:35:32 +0000

After reading all of the listed comments, I find it interesting that not one person actually talks about addiction. Addiction and the possibility of it being genetically passed on has already been proven. Nicotine is an addictive drug. Period. If you are gentically predispositioned for addiction your chances of becoming addicted to anything, wheather it be the nicotine in cigerettes, drugs, and / or alcohol are much greater than someone who is not. When a drug is introduced into someones system and the addiction is started, the body natural starts to build a tolerance and the need becomes greater and greater, thus the drug addict always looking for more and more. Nicotine is no different, it is a drug. The only reason cigerette companies increased the amount of nicotine in cigerettes was to increase the probability of new users becoming addicted. Increasing it would only slow do the amount purchased by those addicted, for a time then it would stabilze again. And decreasing nicotine would only increase their profits and would make more sence, as the addicted smoker would smoke more thus purchase more. I truly think the reason they have taken this approach is because most addicted smokers are older and remember the time of nuc cheaper cigerettes, thus it is quit or keep it in reason due to budget restraint and the much higher increase in the cost of cigerettes. (This is the norm, there will always be the hardcore smokers that will smoke no matter the cost (finicially or phyiscially), but they would not be able to substain the Large Tabacco companys in there high profit levels. Since the increase in anti-smoking laws the average number of regular smokers has decreased. So the cigerette companies are searching for new ways to bring in new (which would be younger) smokers. The increase is the only answer for them. And yes I am a 30 year smoker. I have tried numerous times to quit. It was easier for me to quit all the other drugs, I was addicted to in the past. Yet, the nicotine in cigerettes is the hardest and the one I still am struggling to over come. Yes, I truly believe this addiction has a genetic basis. I am not quite sure the Scientific community is even asking this question or spending research dollars on this, when it is only common sense to see that addiction is addiction is addiction. Nicotine is a drug, a drug that a proven to be extremely addictive. So go back and reread the research already achieved with drug addiction period and the genetic possiblities. That has already be researched. So take the money your are wasting on this and any future studies and sent it in much better way. How about a way to quit with a lot better results. Has the gentic question has not really help the the treatment of addicts, other then if you know you have it, STAY AWAY FROM, if you don’t start you don’t have to worry. So parents they have dealt with addiction in their lives should know they have passed that possiblity to their children and should work everyday to educate their children and keep them from even tring the first one. The only was to cure any addiction is prevention. I also feel that Tabacco Companies need to be force to do more in preventing or not be allowed to continue in inventing ways to get that new smoker (they need) addicted. But we all know that money talks.

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:18:28 +0000

I’ve smoked for 54 years, no info on what it would do when I started. Stopped smoking a year ago with Chantix. It all boils down to taking responsibility for your own life, habits, addictions & all included. Will power, self-denial or what ever you want to call it–I’m not now blaming anyone or anything–either you want to quit or not & all help is appreciated. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for another === Good luck to you all!!

By: max

max — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:07:25 +0000

bucket of chicken two liter soda five biscuit eating people. make your own choose.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:13:31 +0000

I would just like to say that I have been a smoker for many years. I dont understand how there can be a smokers gene. Smoking is a learned behavior, Much like shooting up heroine. To tell people that they are genetically predisposed to smoke is irresponsible. Yes you can say that a person has an addictive personality . The truth is nicotine is a drug not unlike heroine and people all over the world are addicted to it. The truth is the worlds biggest drug epedemic is not illegal drugs but legal drugs such as nicotine, and the drugs that Drs. freely pour over their patients.

Good luck to all that are trying to quit. And please remember that the ones that cant are nicotine addicts and have really no control over their addiction.

Katherine from Canada

By: Barb

Barb — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:45:38 +0000

I have smoked for 50 years, my father died of lung cancer, my mother of pancreas cancer both attributed to cigarette smoking, yet I still smoked. Up to 3 packs a day, I would light one smoke a little put it out and light another. I tried all the patches, they don’t work because you are putting nicotine in your body yet, I tried chantix and it worked , I have been smoke free sing 5/3/2007, but I constantly want to smoke its not the nicotine but the psychological addiction that is so strong for me, that sometimes I cry and dream of smoking, I have no nicotine in my bloodstream for almost 1 year, buet its still hard.

By: Matt O

Matt O — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:33:05 +0000

oh, and one more thing, stop blaming others for your problems. If you’re a fatty, don’t blame McDonald’s blame yourself, there’s no one making you eat there, and if you have cancer or problems from smoking, that was your choice too, I’m sorry you’re sick, and I wish there were a cure, but there’s no one to blame but yourself, people need to start taking responsibility for their actions instead of blaming a major company and trying to make a quick buck. Thanks

By: Matt O

Matt O — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:26:32 +0000

All right, I’ve been smoking for about a year, I love smoking honestly, I know it’s terrible for me, sure, but that was my decision to start, all the tobacco companies are doing is making money, it’s called a free economy, let people make money how they know how to, it’s not their fault people started smoking, it’s the persons, they shouldn’t be required by an law saying it’s bad to put X amount of nicotine in their cigarettes, and I agree, if there was less nicotine I’d buy more, definitely, what we should be worried about are the prices of oil, in today’s world we have to drive cars, there’s barely a choice in that unless you live in a major city where your destination is in walking distance, we shouldn’t be worrying about other people’s business and personal bad habits, we need to concentrate on the big picture, and leave the smokers alone.