Does smoking lower your SCR?

[lamont]

FWIW Researchers studying people who smoked 3-4 joints a day found a similar level of lung damage to those who smoked 20 cigarettes today.

Dr Donald Tashkin at UCLA has been doing research in this area for at least a decade and has not found any such evidence. Only studies that show that are much older and methodologically very flawed.

 

[theskull]

what are the dangers of smoking and diving. i smoke, and it is really hard to quit, is there any real danger outside of deco diving? is there any danger in deco diving?

The first danger is the loss of the ability to utilize correct capitalization and punctuation.

And no, there are no dangers to deco diving--when you deco dive you are receiving free hyperbaric treatments.

theskull

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, but I have dived with doctors. Well, they weren't medical doctors, but had a doctorate in some obscure subject.

 

[pengwe]

That is contrary to any research I've ever come across. Of course, I'm always curious and would love a citation or some idea of where to find one.

However, I mean to a study like you describe, not something sort of similar involving "FTC method" smoking machines and politically motivated extrapolations. Those studies I am familiar with and they are virtually meaningless.

Oh, and welcome to Scubaboard! This is a great place and I'm glad you found it.

Woo hoo! My first, first greet.

Thanks for the welcome.

[1] Tashkin, DP, Coulson, AH, Clark, VA, et al, 1987, Respiratory symptoms and lung function in habitual, heavy smokers of marijuana alone, smokers of marijuana and tobacco, smokers of tobacco alone and nonsmokers, Am Rev Respir Dis 135, 209-216

Abstract:
To evaluate the possible pulmonary effects of habitual marijuana smoking with and without tobacco, we administered a detailed respiratory and drug use questionnaire and/or lung function tests to young, habitual, heavy smokers of marijuana alone (n = 144) or with tobacco (n = 135) and control subjects of similar age who smoked tobacco alone (n = 70) or were nonsmokers (n = 97). Mean amounts of marijuana and/or tobacco smoked were 49 to 57 joint-years marijuana (average daily number of joints times number of years smoked) and 16 to 22 pack-years of tobacco. Among the smokers of marijuana and/or tobacco, prevalence of chronic cough (18 to 24%), sputum production (20 to 26%), wheeze (25 to 37%) and greater than 1 prolonged acute bronchitic episode during the previous 3 yr (10 to 14%) was significantly higher than in the nonsmokers (p less than 0.05, chi square). No difference in prevalence of chronic cough, sputum production, or wheeze was noted between the marijuana and tobacco smokers, nor were there additive effects of marijuana and tobacco on symptom prevalence. We noted significant worsening effects of marijuana but not to tobacco on specific airway conductance and airway resistance (tests of mainly large airways function) in men and of tobacco but not of marijuana on carbon monoxide diffusing capacity and on closing volume, closing capacity, and the slope of Phase III of the single- breath nitrogen washout curve (tests reflecting mainly small airways function) (p less than 0.03, two-way ANCOVA). No adverse interactive effects of marijuana and tobacco on lung function were found

[2] Gong, H, Fligiel, S, Tashkin, DP, Barbers, RG, 1987, Tracheobronchial changes in habitual heavy smokers of marijuana with and without tobacco, Am Rev Respir Dis 136, 209-216


Abstract for Gong:
We performed flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in 29 habitual, heavy marijuana smokers 25 to 45 yr of age, with and without concomitant tobacco smoking, to inspect and biopsy their proximal tracheobronchial tree for the evaluation of histopathologic changes. Control tobacco smokers (TS) and nonsmokers (NS) residing in the same metropolitan area were similarly studied and compared with the marijuana smokers (MS) and marijuana-tobacco smokers (MTS). Respiratory and drug histories, physical examination, and pulmonary function tests were obtained prior to bronchoscopy. The prevalence of respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function abnormalities was generally higher in the 3 smoking groups than in the NS group but was not statistically different across all groups. However, bronchoscopic inspection revealed airway hyperemia and other visible abnormalities in 32 (91%) subjects in the 3 smoking groups, unlike the unremarkable findings in the NS group. Light microscopy showed 2 or more histopathologic changes in the bronchial epithelium of all MS, MTS, and TS. Squamous metaplasia was observed in all MTS, a prevalence that was significantly different from that in MS, TS, and NS. Hyperplasia of basal and goblet cells was more prevalent in the MS than in the NS, whereas cellular disorganization was more prevalent in the MS than in the TS. A direct relationship between cumulative marijuana use (joint-years) and bronchoscopic and histopathologic changes was not apparent in this study sample. These results indicate that relatively young, habitual, heavy marijuana smokers have a high prevalence of abnormal airway appearance and histologic findings, irrespective of concomitant tobacco smoking. the results suggest a causal relationship between marijuana smoking and histologic lesions in the airways. The long term clinical importance of these histopathologic findings is unclear. In view of the widespread use of marijuana in this country, however, the finding of histopathologic airway change in young adult marijuana smokers justifies a serious concern about the development of chronic airy disease in these smokers.



I only know what I found in Google, and wouldn't have posted if anyone else had replied to the question. If anyone has more/better information, that'd be great.