Your habits will kill you – eventually. HOW many smokers died over 100??
I just found out the glamorous Joanna Lumley smokes up to 40 cigs a day, at 77. THEN I found out research is very quietly being done to see if smoking, when of course it doesn’t kill you, makes you live longer. I did some research of my own. I have no idea how kosher this list is. The link is at the end of the main post, and I think the list will have to run into comments, it's LONG. I did some spot-checks and discarded a few obviously dodgy ones. Cheer up. It could be diet, or booze, or coffee. Nobody seems to know. But golly.
Jeanne Calment, who died in France at the age of 122, was known for three things: her quick wit, her fondness for bicycling around the small city where she grew up - and the fact that she was a daily smoker. At 117 she quit smoking (because she was blind and was too proud to ask often for someone to light her cigarettes for her) but resumed smoking when she was 118 because, as she said, not smoking made her miserable and she was too old to be made miserable.Marie-Louise Meilleur, of Canada, became the oldest living human being when Calment died. She had chain-smoked all her adult life but quit at 99. She died at 117. So the jury’s still out there.
John McMorran of Lakeland, Florida smoked cigars, drank beer and ate greasy food. His eyesight failed in his final years, and people needed to shout for him to hear them, by the time he died at 113. The Queen Mother, mother of the late QE2, was a bon vivant who loved horse racing, gin cocktails, champagne and cigarettes. She died at 101. (For balance it should be noted the King died quite young of lung cancer and his daughter was violently anti-smoking as a result, as is the present King.) Hollywood director Billy Wilder, a heavy smoker, died at the age of 95. No wonder smoking is banned from the silver screen. Not even 100! The above facts were cherrypicked from this link and more (and some non-clebs, but older) follow in the comments. This blog is obviously only for those downtrodden skulking puffing behind the bins as the non-smokers will instantly dismiss it as propaganda. Yup! Somewhere to point when people sneer that smokers are too stupid to realize they are killing themselves.
Comments (21)
Brazilian man José Aguinelo dos Santos smoked a pack of 20 a day and died at 129. However he doesn’t appear on the list of oldest verified men so take that with a pinch of salt. There are a couple of heavy smokers who claimed to be over 140 in Nepal but their birth dates couldn’t be verified.
Formerly Britain’s oldest man, George Cook, died at 108 in his sleep, having quit smoking at the age of 97 after smoking heavily for 85 years. I didn't check out the current oldest dude's habits, getting a bit bored now and suspect I'm losing my readers anyway.
The World’s oldest marathon runner, Buster Martin, smoked 20 a day and ran the London Marathon at the age of 101. He died at 104.
Dorothy Peel, from Hull, East Yorks turned 110 in 2012. She attributed her longevity to giving up the evil cigarettes. She quit when she was 106.
Batuli Lamichhane from Nepal was smoking thirty a day at the tender age of 112. She really ought to quit if she doesn’t want to die young.
In 2003 a satirical report was done on Italians in Milan – “two already 110, five are 109 and 12 are 106. Another 217 are only 100. 167 just turned 101, and 115 are 102. Over 35,000 Milanese are in the age range between 85 and 94, yet there, the report says, they are, indulging in despicable habits such as coffee, grease-filled brioches, alcohol and – worst of all – smoking Tuscan cigars that stink more than any diesel tailpipe, poisoning their peers. Some of them even “do” cigarettes, having indulged in the deadly habit for over 94 years.” Well, that was 20 years ago, after all. All new old people by now.
(There’s no similar report on Spain, but cigarettes remain affordable, longevity is up there with the highest rated countries, and yes it could be the olive oil, the Med diet, the ingrained habit of preparing meals from raw ingredients, but a lot, a LOT, of Spanish smoke and that’s as at 2023)
Smokers who caught covid badly undeniably had a double whammy. Same is undeniably true with flu. Smokers who get it, get it bad. Fact.
But also fact - smokers are generally less likely to catch colds, flu, etc. Google crashed when I asked why.
Smokers who caught covid badly undeniably had a double whammy. Same is undeniably true with flu. Smokers who get it, get it bad. Fact.
But also fact - smokers are generally less likely to catch colds, flu, etc. Google crashed when I asked why.
I "walked" around with an undiagnosed 40% collapsed lunge for about a week.
I learned to sleep on my back because when I laid on my side the weight of my detached lung interfered with my heartbeat.
When people's lives are a series of coughing fits, maybe a few colds go unnoticed.
The point of the blog was that there's some BS out there about smoking. We all know smokers who died young (where "young" is under 30 score + 10), but millions have quit because of health warnings, because the tax is so heavy on cigs, because they are social pariahs and tired of lurking outside for their nicotine top-up, and yet cancer is on the increase and stress kills more people every day, and it is getting harder to blame smoking when the only exposure in their lives was from the neighbour 3 houses away who must have killed them by smoking in the garden ...
I walk my dog 3 times a day, puff up hills and long flights of stairs, but do walk around my small town (which is largely built up a small mountain) to shops and cafes and friends because using the car would be ridiculous. Non-smokers for sure cope better with the steeper roads. I'd never call it a healthy habit but my life is not a series of coughing fits.
Anyway. I did find the research interesting.
I lost 2 high-school friends and a sister-in-law all who died from lung cancer before the age of 65.
I lost 2 high-school friends and a sister-in-law all who died from lung cancer before the age of 65.
There's literally nothing, taken to excess, which won't kill us - I read not that long ago of a woman who died from drinking too much water. Cancer stalks us all, it is a mutation which can be triggered at any age, anywhere, and perhaps by anything - stress is increasingly being blamed and smokers can point out that they are less stressed.
The dialogue should be more "smoking makes you stink, makes you breathless, will affect your physical quality of life" rather than "smoking will automatically kill you"
Apart from anything else that opens the door to anti-smoking campaigns aimed at kids, the whole emphasis can be changed to 'smoking is for old people, want to look old and uncool, wheeze shuffle?' which I reckon would stop kids in their tracks
But since there are far more smokers than there are doctors, other statistics indicate that the former don't prove anything.
There's literally nothing, taken to excess, which won't kill us - I read not that long ago of a woman who died from drinking too much water. Cancer stalks us all, it is a mutation which can be triggered at any age, anywhere, and perhaps by anything - stress is increasingly being blamed and smokers can point out that they are less stressed.
The dialogue should be more "smoking makes you stink, makes you breathless, will affect your physical quality of life" rather than "smoking will automatically kill you"
Apart from anything else that opens the door to anti-smoking campaigns aimed at kids, the whole emphasis can be changed to 'smoking is for old people, want to look old and uncool, wheeze shuffle?' which I reckon would stop kids in their tracks
But I'm not hotly protesting that smoking is a good thing, you know. Not at all. Just waving a gentle flag at a kneejerk prejudice
But since there are far more smokers than there are doctors, other statistics indicate that the former don't prove anything.
But I'm not hotly protesting that smoking is a good thing, you know. Not at all. Just waving a gentle flag at a kneejerk prejudice
I gave up 23 years ago with the help of hypnotherapy and with no regrets. The average price of a packet of 20 cigarettes is about £12 in the U.K.so glad I'm not letting my money go up in smoke.
I gave up 23 years ago with the help of hypnotherapy and with no regrets. The average price of a packet of 20 cigarettes is about £12 in the U.K.so glad I'm not letting my money go up in smoke.
Cigs here are around the 5€ mark for a pack of 20, some brands cheaper. Most of that is of course tax so UK prices are a source of huge revenue to the country
I have an intense gym regime six days a week & I have more stamina compared to many non smokers
My pop never smoked & he died of lung cancer
A packet of 20 cigarettes that I puff on are $35 a pack
I don't inhale I puff
I have an intense gym regime six days a week & I have more stamina compared to many non smokers
My pop never smoked & he died of lung cancer
A packet of 20 cigarettes that I puff on are $35 a pack
I don't inhale I puff
And holy crap re the price, I remember going to Oz back when it was $12 a pack and being shocked THEN. $35 is INSANE.
And holy crap re the price, I remember going to Oz back when it was $12 a pack and being shocked THEN. $35 is INSANE.
The government just put the price up by $3 Very expensive to live in my state
I eat very healthy I spend money on expensive Protein shakes as well as my food I'm not going to stop my naughty habit I want to enjoy the rest of my days as I please
I have an intense gym regime six days a week & I have more stamina compared to many non smokers
My pop never smoked & he died of lung cancer
A packet of 20 cigarettes that I puff on are $35 a pack
I don't inhale I puff