Smokin'!

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Will You Quit Smoking Before or Shortly After Beginning Medical School?

  • YES

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • NO

    Votes: 2 3.0%
  • YES-I made a deal with God to quit if I got accepted.

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • NO-God wants me to smoke.

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • YES-As a physician, I ought to lead by example of a healthy lifestyle.

    Votes: 6 9.1%
  • NO-Do as I say, not as I do.

    Votes: 3 4.5%
  • YES-I am ashamed to be known as a..."smoker"...

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • NO-Get over it.

    Votes: 3 4.5%
  • I never have and never will smoke! Tobacco should be outlawed!

    Votes: 34 51.5%
  • I barely care enough to respond to this poll.

    Votes: 14 21.2%

  • Total voters
    66
  • Poll closed .

TrollKCN

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for those of you that smoke (don't deny it, we all know you're out there!), do you plan to quit smoking once you start med school? why or why not?

edit: this is an anonymous poll, so the "Tobacco should be outlawed!" folks can't track you down 😉
 
This is such a pet peeve of mine, don't get me started. 🙂 How about the recreational, maybe once every three months of smoking hookah with a few friends (that don't have communicable diseases 😛).
 
I'm almost as happy as your lungs that you're an ex-smoker.

Yup, I threw away my last pack about 6 years ago. Now you can't make me get near that stuff.

Without appearing to get all righteous about it, let me just say that it's not a healthy habit for sure. If you value yourself, you'll quit sooner rather than later. Keep in mind that this is coming from an ex three-pack-a-day smoker. It's definitely a challenge quitting, but I think it's worth it. Besides the obvious health benefits, I can now save myself at least $8-12 per day, and I don't have to step out of the office every half hour for a "break" and stink up the air around me any more. Also, it's nice to be able to savor the taste of my food and run the 5K. 😉
 
yes...second hand 😡
 
I used to not care about if people smoked or not, now it really bothers me. I don't know why my opinion changed so drastically, but for some reason now I think it is the dumbest thing for people to smoke. Whenever I start talking to a girl, if she takes out a cigarette and starts smoking, it is the BIGGEST turnoff, no matter how hot she is. Health wise, attractiveness, economically, it is just bad for you. I understand it is hard to quit though, but a lot of people do, so suck it up and quit!
 
I just think that people that smoke smell horrible, and yes we can smell it even if you think that you don't smell! You don't have to quit if you don't want to, but don't smoke then go see patients smelling bad (or sit next to me in class)!
 
Yea. I dated a girl a while back that I really really liked, but she was a smoker. I actually had to like rinse my mouth after I kissed her. It is cliche, but she tasted like an ashtray.

Any kind of smoke is pretty much bad for you....If I go to a hookah bar I usually just get tea and chill out.

I know a cardiologist that went through divorce and is smoking again. I don't see how any patient can take you seriously if you don't practice what you preach.
 
My biggest pet peave wouldn't be doctors or med school students that smoke. How about the one's that have fried food or foods high in fat as there dietary staple. Why is it that we condemn some bad habits, but shrug off others? It might just be better to, as suggested in a previous reply, moderate things, instead of putting everything into black and white boxes of "bad" and "good".
 
My biggest pet peave wouldn't be doctors or med school students that smoke. How about the one's that have fried food or foods high in fat as there dietary staple. Why is it that we condemn some bad habits, but shrug off others? It might just be better to, as suggested in a previous reply, moderate things, instead of putting everything into black and white boxes of "bad" and "good".

Sadly, the lifestyle kind of forced upon many students and doctors leads to the unhealthy foods as well. Many hospitals, for whatever reason, serve really unhealthy crap all the time. It was like a revolutionary idea to have healthier stuff at the hospital cafeteria I was at. One of the guys I was shadowing talked about how he was just so beat that he'd just pick up McDs almost every morning because it was easier than anything else...developed a backseat full of wrappers. When you are trapped in the hospital in a relatively high stress and exhausting field then your first instinct is to go for the comfort food. Even I have a hard time now. I wake upat 5 a.m., shower, dress, eat a bowl of cereal and drive into school. I study or am in class all day, and when I have free time for food the easiest thing is to run over to quiznos, or one of those places. I've started substituting a smoothie for a meal but then I am so damn hungry by the time I get home it is ridiculous. (I get home around 9 or so usually)
 
My biggest pet peave wouldn't be doctors or med school students that smoke. How about the one's that have fried food or foods high in fat as there dietary staple. Why is it that we condemn some bad habits, but shrug off others? It might just be better to, as suggested in a previous reply, moderate things, instead of putting everything into black and white boxes of "bad" and "good".

Smoking is black and white. Smoking is bad, not smoking is good. Smoking affects the people around you, unlike most bad habits that only affect the person doing them. If the grease off of someone's fries got on my food, I would condemn that as well. Smokers are rude and oblivious. This week I was with my kids at the pool, at the park, and at the 4th of July fireworks show enjoying the nice weather and fresh air when some one comes and lights up a cigarette and pollutes the whole area. So if you are a smoker and don't have the common sense or willpower to quit, then pay better attention to whose around you because the rest of us don't want to breath it. One more thing, the world is not your ashtray so quit throwing butts out your car window or leaving them all over the ground.
 
Smoking is black and white. Smoking is bad, not smoking is good. Smoking affects the people around you, unlike most bad habits that only affect the person doing them. If the grease off of someone's fries got on my food, I would condemn that as well. Smokers are rude and oblivious. This week I was with my kids at the pool, at the park, and at the 4th of July fireworks show enjoying the nice weather and fresh air when some one comes and lights up a cigarette and pollutes the whole area. So if you are a smoker and don't have the common sense or willpower to quit, then pay better attention to whose around you because the rest of us don't want to breath it. One more thing, the world is not your ashtray so quit throwing butts out your car window or leaving them all over the ground.

#1 I am not a smoker.
#2 I am an environmental activist.

Thank You for your assumptions.
 
Sadly, the lifestyle kind of forced upon many students and doctors leads to the unhealthy foods as well. Many hospitals, for whatever reason, serve really unhealthy crap all the time. It was like a revolutionary idea to have healthier stuff at the hospital cafeteria I was at. One of the guys I was shadowing talked about how he was just so beat that he'd just pick up McDs almost every morning because it was easier than anything else...developed a backseat full of wrappers. When you are trapped in the hospital in a relatively high stress and exhausting field then your first instinct is to go for the comfort food. Even I have a hard time now. I wake upat 5 a.m., shower, dress, eat a bowl of cereal and drive into school. I study or am in class all day, and when I have free time for food the easiest thing is to run over to quiznos, or one of those places. I've started substituting a smoothie for a meal but then I am so damn hungry by the time I get home it is ridiculous. (I get home around 9 or so usually)

Couldn't one also say then, that these unhealthy comfort foods are an addiction as well? And I would suggest just as dangerous. Now as far as smokers who inconsiderately smoke around others, thats another issue altogether.
 
Combatted with exercise, fatty foods (when eaten in moderation) can be "worked off" and will relatively leave no effects on the body as long as coupled with foods to make a complete diet. Smoking, coupled with anything, will not make it any better. I guess the lesson is that moderate/low consumption of a cheeseburger or fries from a food chain coupled with exercise and otherwise balanced diet will not be as detrimental to health as smoking. Anyway you slice it, smoking is not a good choice.
 
This thread became about the nonsmokers and now the smokers are too shy to say anything.
 
It's because they know they are right. Sucks for the smokers. I thought this thread was going to be a light read but instead it was all "I hate smokers"yish. Ewwww
 
Smoking prevents Parkinsons. I have Parkinsons in my family, not cancer. Maybe I should smoke. Discuss....
 
Smoking prevents Parkinsons. I have Parkinsons in my family, not cancer. Maybe I should smoke. Discuss....

Is this based on a skit from SNL or something like that? One of my friend's always ends discussions at school with discuss in a very nasal voice and I can't remember where it is from.
 
Yea, I think it's the skit where Mike Meyers does "coffee talk" or something. I suppose it has been sitting in my subconscious for years. discusss.... 🙂
 
I know a guy whose parents were in a horryific car accident a while back. Neither one of them were wearing seatbelts, but the grandfather was. The parents were ejected from the car and survived, but the grandfather died.

Now they never wear their seatbelts anywhere, and are adamant about how seatbelts are bad for you! 😱

Insert: Hijacked thread animation here
 
Are they against airbags too? I can understand the seatbelt thing. My cousin was in a similar accident. She was adjusting her rear view mirror, but she is short so she took off her seatbelt to reach for it, the car slipped on a patch of ice at that moment and she was ejected from the car and broke her back, but the car tumbled down a steep drop and was totaled. It probably would have killed her if she had her belt on.
 
I have an uncle that won't use seatbelts because someone got trapped in an auto accident. Carry a knife in your car, or scissors if you're afraid you'll get trapped. Just like you should carry a center punch if you drive over water frequently. (I watch too much TV)
 
Or burn the nylon seat belt with that cigarette dangling from your lips.
 
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