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Nicotine vs. COVID-19

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/22/french-study-suggests-smokers-at-lower-risk-of-getting-coronavirus

Several studies are suggesting that nicotine may prevent people from getting COVID-19. So load up your bowl with Nightcap or a heavy burley blend and enjoy!!

Comments

  • Londy3Londy3 Master
    edited May 2020
    I'm so over covid. 
    Everyday there is more and more about this that makes zero sense. 

    Can't smoke a pipe with a mask either. 
  • @Londy3 I wholeheartedly agree. Every time I turn around someone is disputing the recommendations of the experts. In my humble opinion there are just too many fuc*ing experts. I'd rather get my information from some old mountain woman the locals call a witch, and she can brew up some wicked concoction of herbs, spices, spider legs, cadaver bones, and bird feathers and I'd probably fare better than what these experts are suggesting.
  • motie2motie2 Master
    Glad to see the anti-science sentiment is spreading.
  • It’s not science, it’s the media.  The only case of Covid-19 I have “witnessed” “first hand” is @Michael308.  I have heard of one co-workers father that initially tested positive here in Billings after returning from a NY trip, but was later cleared.  I have seen that Montana has the lowest number of cases in the union.  Has anyone else known anyone with a confirmed case?  Just curious?
  • motie2motie2 Master
    Two of the three male attendants at our late ‘60’s wedding have died of the Plague; one in England, and one in Texas. I know of seminary classmates who have passedfrom the Plague. I havea couple of Covid-19 lisnilities and have not left the house in six weeks. I put Riff-Trax commentary over everything on TV. Wheeeeeeeee!
  • @RockyMountainBriar Actually my 21 year old granddaughter had it and was hospitalized for several days. Even though she has been released, she must remain in quarantine an additional 14 days. She was in critical condition with pneumonia in four lobes of her lungs ... and it was touch and go there for a while. Thankfully she wasn't put on a ventilator, because as I understand 80% of the people that require a ventilator don't make it.  But she did have oxygen because her O2 levels were way down.
    Her live-in boyfriend works at a prison and had to transport a prisoner who had Covid-19. So it's assumed that was how she got it. Strangely he tested negative and never showed symptoms, yet she ended up with it and he was the only person she came in contact with because she was staying at home as directed.
    My sister in Florida also had it very early on in mid-March and said it really kicked her ass - but she was never hospitalized. She just rode it out at home, and it never really affected her breathing as it did my granddaughter. This strange plague affects people in different ways. Now I hear about cases of kids getting it - but with a completely different set of symptoms like inflammations and skin rashes.
    My wife told me that today I have officially been in the house for 50 days.    
  • The state of Louisiana will begin Phase I of the re-opening on Friday. That means instead of my favorite B&M being restricted to no more than 8 people in the building, it will be limited to roughly 25 people in the building at one time. 
  • motie2motie2 Master
    Texas yesterday celebrated a partial opening by having a mass shooting at a park. 
  • Londy3Londy3 Master
    Bourbon kind of cures me of these things. 
  • motie2motie2 Master
    Still waiting for SPC Plum Pudding Bourbon Barrel to arrive.....
  • mfresamfresa Master
    I read the article and passed it on to my neighbor, Atlanta's #1 Allergist, and he found the theory fascinating.  He is going to pass it on to his other MD buddies and see what they think.
  • What did the news cover before COVID? 
  • As a follow up to my earlier posting, my MD buddy says his colleagues find the article on the "protective" effect of nicotine to be very interesting, but needs further research.  In the meantime, he and some others are chewing Nicorette gum.  That says something, don't you think?
  • @ghostsofpompeii
    Hope all goes well for your granddaughter! I had my first guitar lesson since mid march last week. The amazing thing is that I actually remembered some of the chords. (Did I mention I hadn't practiced all that time. I preferred to smoke my pipe)
  • edited August 2020
    Yesterday the the first day I got in the car and actually went somewhere in well over 100 days. Unfortunately it was to a Manards because I needed to do some work around the yard that I'd been putting off since this thing started. Finally decided ... "screw it - I'm going". Man it's a whole new world out there with everyone wearing masks. Kinda' freaky. I'm a friendly guy by nature and tried striking up a conversation with a few strangers as I normally do ... but they looked at me like I had leprosy and wanted to cut the conversation as short as possible. I probably looked strange anyway as I let my beard go wild while in quarantine. Told my wife if the world was going to treat me like a hermit by keeping me locked away ... I'd let myself look the part. So my beard was hanging out of the mask and I'm sure I must have looked like a werewolf in a low budget horror film going through the transition.
    While I was there for the sole purpose of picking up some brick pavers I ended up going a bit nuts and bought a bunch of unhealthy snack food and candy that no self respecting diabetic would purchase. If this trip was going to be the catalyst for me catching Covid-19 I wanted me make sure when the doctors did their autopsy on me I died with a smile on my face and my belly filled with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, York Patties, and shoe string potatoes,  
  • @mfresa
    While it's the nicotine that gets demonized for being addictive, I've always felt that it was all the additive chemicals used in cigarette production that increased the risk of cancer. That's why the first Surgeon General's report on smoking showed cigar and pipe smoking risks to be almost as low as non-smokers. 
  • @ghostsofpompeii

    I've been more worried about what the affect of the pandemic and self-quarantine had on my health rather than getting the actual virus. Since early April, I have been stuck at home and that means less active. I get bored and when I get bored I snack and eat more. (I do have a very good treadmill, but I have to force myself to use it once a week to walk a mile.) 

    Since the pandemic started my fasting blood sugar has been between 10-15 points higher than the previous six months and I have gained 13 lbs. For awhile, I was eating more than I should and snacking on cake, pie and other things a healthy diabetic shouldn't. That and going from one or two alcoholic drinks a week to one or two a day. 

    For the past month, I've been fighting the over snacking by loading a pipe. Where I used to be a one pipe a day smoker, I'm now smoking up to 4 pipes a day. I also cut back on the alcoholic intake. My weight has slowly started coming back off. 
  • @PappyJoe

    I represent your remarks, Sir!  ;)
  • @PappyJoe I may be among the few who actually lost weight during the pandemic. Against everything I've read about being a diabetic (meaning you need to eat three healthy meals a day) I have been fasting every other day. Don't even add honey to my tea on that day. And I went from 220 to my current weight, which seems to be hoovering between 202.8 between 204.4. I seem to be at a plateau because I can't get below that number. I want to finally get under 200 pounds by the next time I see my doctor. I'm sure he'll have a shi*t fit about me fasting every other day, and now following the prescribed diabetic program and diet they developed for me. But it seems to be the only way I can lose weight and keep it off.  Now if my joints didn't hurt so much from the autoimmune disease they have yet to pin point and diagnose ... I'd probably lose more weight by being able to exercise and walk around. You are right about the pipe being the perfect alternative for snacking. Those days when I fast I seem to smoke more bowls and guzzle coffee, tea, and Seltzer water. 
  • @ghostsofpompeii
    The problem with Type II Diabetes is that some of the medicine makes you retain water and/or gain weight. Then you find a combination of medicines that work and the insurance and/or Medi(don't)care decides they don't want you using that particular medication and the one they want you to use doesn't work as well.

    I was down to about 196 in January and got back up to 213 at the beginning of July. I'm back down to 209 as of this morning. 
  • Ah, next time I see my doc I will tell her about this Covid preventative. Maybe I won't get the old stink eye when she asks if I am still smoking my pipe. Oh, my cardiologist told me he's not going to tell me to stop because the old ticker checked out pretty darned good. He told me to come back in ten years for a recheck.
  • @michaelc1945
    Glad to hear your cardiologist is sensible and that your ticker is running good.
    My GP knows I smoke a pipe and occasional cigar. At first his nurse would put light smoker on my bi-annual checkup. Now she doesn't even bother. 
  • I have lost weight during this Covid period. Actually, I blame this change on my part time job at Home Depot. I have gone from desk work to on my feet all day long, moving heavy things. My clothes are getting baggy.

    Initially, I didn't care about Covid. Then I remembered that over the years, I have taken my wife to ER for oxygen, when she was really sick, three times. My daughter has only have this treatment once.  
  • @ghostsofpompeii, @PappyJoe , @michaelc1945
    I have had Type II Diabetes for several years and used a low carb diet to go from 205 down to 156. A few more pounds and I'll weigh what I did in high school 145. Back then I could run the hundred in 10.4 seconds. I'm guessing I won't be able to do that anymore. Unfortunately, a lot of my weight loss has been muscle mass. I used to be pretty, now I'm a bald, skinny, crippled up, grumpy old man. I now have type I Diabetes and start insulin shots this week. I'm listed as a non-smoker, most health professionals I've dealt with can reason through pipe smoking. Getting old just makes me want to kick somebody's ass, but I can't, I'm no longer stout enough.
  • My suit size these days is Portly Dwarf :s
  • @motie2
    My suit size would be more portly gnome, although I have never owned a suit.  The closest I got was a corduroy casual coat.  I think I wore it once, or twice maybe?  I have wore a tie a few times too.
  • @RockyMountainBriar

    I was waxing nostalgic. I have not worn a suit since I retired, seven years ago.
  • None of my suits fit any more, so I retired sort of.
    Though I feel like I should have one suit that fits just in case; I case of what I don't know as I won't be waked of buried.
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