smoking & diving

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Thanks for the info, I'll be sure to let my smoking friends aware of it so that they can research it...

Happy Holidays,
Mario :D
 
Congratulations on quitting!! Damage done depends to a great degree on the individual - but there are tests and studies that can be done to monitor the progress of recovery. It might be a good idea to go get a chest x-ray and some baseline pulmonary functions so as to monitor your progress.

Exercises would depend on you and your ability to spend a set amount of time each day with something that would get your pulse rate up. Jogging, swimming, biking or whatever you care to do - would be helpful.

Biopsies of lymph nodes of lungs (and the lungs themselves) will often show residual tar years after a person has stopped smoking. Blockage of airways, air-trapping and emphysema that occur as a result of the tar are the culprits in causing decrease in pulmonary function.

Good luck with your 'stop smoking' project. Tell everyone what you are doing, brag about it so that you will have more of an incentive to continue. Avoid situations that are associated with smoking (pubs, etc). Been there - done that myself!

Good things!
 
Well im back and glad to say im still not smoking :loopy:
but its driving me bonkers. I have a goal to become an instructor so im finding it much easier than i would ordanarily. Just need to find a job now ;( hehhe



Do not fear, for when tomorrow comes today will have gone.
 
Congradulations LoCz on quitting such a bad habit. As a future professional it's extremely important to set the right example for your students.

As for the job thing... good luck. Jobs are relatively easy to find in the industry, 'good' jobs arent!

Good Luck,
Mario :D
 
Hi Rick:

First, congrats to all of you who have stopped smoking or plan to.

I looked into the Smokease. Its ingredients are:

Plantago major...2X
Daphne Indica...3X
Caladium Seguinum...6X
Nux Vomica...12X
Tabacum...12X

As with most homeopathic products, Latin names are used. The numbers refer to the dilution of the plant extract. In traditional homeopathy, "medicines" are prepared by taking a material or extract and then diluting it. A typical dilution for many traditional homeopathic materials might be 10X. This means the extract will be diluted ten fold (10 parts water to 1 part original extract). Then an aliquot of that dilution will be taken and diluted ten fold again. Then an aliquot of that dilution is taken and diluted ten fold again. This process is repeated 10 times. There is a problem with these 10X dilutions. Once you've diluted an extract 10X the solution is so dilute that it only contains 1/10,000,000,000th (one ten-billionth) of the original extract! Once you dilute a product to 24X you've gone beyond Avogadro's number and there is absolutely none of the original material left in the final product.

Plantago major is plant that is also known as "common plantain", or "Englishmans foot". It grows wild throughout the US and Europe. It is edible and sometimes used in "folk" salads. The leaves can be dried and brewed into a tea. It contains several chemicals that seem to have pharmacological action. It is marketed as an anti-smoking aid by causing an aversion to tobacco (when chewed that is -hmmm, I believe Smokease is to be swallowed as a pill), but I have seen no data to indicate it works for that purpose.

Daphne indica is often used in various homeopathic products and is sometimes called "spurge laurel" by the homeopathists. (True spurge laurel is actually Daphne laureola and is poisonous.) I don't know how it's supposed to help you stop smoking.

Caladium seguinum is the common houseplant more often known as dieffenbachia or "Dumb Cane". It is also poisonous, so I'm glad that it's diluted 6X.

Nux vomica is basically strychnine. Good thing it's diluted 12X so hardly any is present in the final product!

The last ingredient is the most interesting in my opinion. "Tabacum" is tobacco. We all know that tobacco contains nicotine. Smokease advertises that it contains no nicotine. Well I guess that's pretty close to the truth since it's diluted 12X and doesn't contain any tabacum to speak of either! This ingredient is actually the closest to classic homeopathic teaching. Traditional homeopathy holds that you take the substance that is causing the problem (or a substance that will mimic the symptoms of the problem) and give the patient very minute doses so they can somehow build up resistance to either the cause or the symptoms. (You can read more about homeopathy at http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html if you're interested.) It seems that lately homeopathy has taken a turn more toward naturopathy or herbal medicine rather that classic homeopathy. Those disciplines have problems of their own (as does allopathic medicine I must admit!) but at least some of their basic tenets have a connection to reality.

Bottom line is, if Smokease works for you that's fine with me. But IMHO you'd be better off picking your own Plantago major and chewing the leaves so you can save your $13-$30.

HTH,

Bill
 
Right on BillP!!

One might just as well buy a set of tom-toms and burn incense in the corner. I also have a set of incantations that you can mutter 'sotto voce' while gently beating the drums and wafting the incense about the room.
 

Back
Top Bottom