|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More Doctors Smoke Camels than Any Other Brand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
Greetings!
Sixty years aog, at a medical meeting, representatives of Phillip Morris went to a meeting of physicians and placed free packages of Camel Cigarettes in the rooms of the physicians.
Then, in the lobby, at the meeting, an independent researcher was hired to interview the physicians that were smoking and ask, "What brand of cigarette are you smoking."
Can you guess which brand was being smoked the most?
Using this data, the true statement was then put in an ad that research demonstrates that more physicians smoke Camels than any other brand.
Read on to see how to use (and how not to use) this information to help you or someone you know to stop smoking.
|
|
More Doctors Smoke Camels than Any Other Brand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few years ago, I paid people to smoke. Actually, they were already smoking. But, one of the cigarette manufacturers developed a study to try and determine what exactly it is in cigarettes is most harmful.
So, as one of their investigators, I recruited smokers from the community and paid them money to simply connect their cigarettes to a small computer. The cigarette went into one end of the computer. The person put their mouth on the other end. Then the computer, kept track of how many cigarettes they smoked, how long the person pulled on the cigarette and how many puffs they took from each cigarette. We recorded the brand of cigarette and the person collected urine to look at the toxins excreted (there are hundreds).
Now the company will keep track of who lives the longest and who gets which disease. If they could take out a toxin or two and make the cigarettes even a little safer, then they could sell a "safer cigarette."
Let's face it. It sort of does look cool to smoke. Sort of. The only reason I don't is that I love feeling well and I do not want sexual impotence, lung cancer, throat cancer, or a heart attack (all known to be more likely for me if I smoke).
But, for now cigarettes are extremely dangerous (as if you didn't know) and so I am going to tell you what I tell my patients--quit but don't try to quit. Let me explain.
Sigmond Freud had it right. No one ever quits a habit. We just swap one for another. I never ask my patients to quit smoking. I just tell them focus on doing every healthy thing that I ask you to do and eventually you will quit smoking. With this strategy, most of my patients eventually quit. The secret to stopping is not how hard to try to quit, it's how hard you try to do the things that will eventually replace the bad habit. I've come up with a list of good things to do that when my patients do them, they quit smoking and they do not gain weight.
Another example: I've had two serious relationships since I have been divorced. Unfortunately, neither progressed to marriage. But, without asking, without preaching or even talking about it, both women quit smoking simply because while spending time with me they started doing some things (with diet and exercise in a particular way) that led to weight loss and no smoking simultaneously.
One thing that does not help people quit (most of the time) is preaching or nagging or even attempting to scare. Most people don't really think much about death and scare tactics don't really work well long term.
Having said that scaring people does not work to help them quit, knowing the risks of smoking does help people to decide to quit. Then, it's the other things that I ask them to do that actually help them quit (the scare goes away). People will frequently quit smoking for a few weeks after a heart attack, but after the initial scare goes away, the frequently start back. A few scary photos or a lecture can't be scarier than a heart attack and even that doesn't work long term.
So, I'm suggesting that you send this email to people that you love--not to help them quit--but to motivate them to decide to quit. After they decide, if they live locally, send them to me. If they don't live locally, have them sign up for my email newsletters because this recent article in the New England Journal has motivated me to write down the whole process that I use to help my patients quit. If they are on my list, they will get the information when it comes out (hopefully within the next month).
Here's a link to the article and a video of a Harvard Professor talking about how cigarettes are not regulated by the FDA. Cigarette manufacturers are not even required to report what they put in a cigarette! They could literally put the dirt off the floor or manure from the pasture and there would be not legal problem.
Cigarettes are the most dangerous legal substance sold in the USA. Yet
there is very little regulation (in contrast to growth hormone which
has been shown to decrease cancer risk for which I can go to prison for
writing a prescription if certain blood tests are not done).
Here's another link to a slide show with example ads that show how the cigarette companies trick their customers.
|
|
Part 5 of How to Travel with Your Sons, Lose Weight, and Have Fun--All at the Same Time
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Yesterday, while visiting the Morocco part of Epcot, my oldest son, Trey, snapped this photo of me sitting with my youngest son, Trey.
As you may know, here at Epcot, you can walk around a lake lined with displays from many countries. There are people from each country there with buildings and music and dance and markets that attempt to duplicate each country. So how do you lose weight and enjoy the sights?
There are several plans that I offer my patients who travel with business on a daily basis. Some that i have designed for the occasional pleasure trip. And a few plans that work well for the "I want to come home healthier than when I left trip." The later is what I've been attempting on this journey with my sons.
For an all out feast, before a cruise with my lover, I will have a day or a week of a combination of fasting or very low calorie meals and extra physical activity. The results are in the details and I'll save that one for the next time I have a lover who wants to travel with me (not sure if i'm picky or hard to live with but it's been a while since i've had one of those).
But for this trip, i've been blogging (elsewhere), the daily routines that I hope will make this a trip that allows me to have a wonderful time and simulataneously bring my six-pack back out in the lower regions. Some may think this to be a vain exercise for a male soon to be 49 years old but listen very closely to this--fat is not simply a storage device. Now we know by mutilple studies that abdominal fat actually excretes hormones that lead to inflammation, increase cholesterol, increased heart attack, and to diabetes. Trying to have a six-pack is not just so you can look good on the beach. More importantly, my trying to have a six-pack is so that I can be healthy and active when the boy in this photo eventually visits my home with his son.
so with that in mind, here's a summary of how yesterday went:
I woke up the morning after a normal meal with a high carb (ice cream desert) at a gormet italiano resturante'. This normal meal was preceeded by very low carb and low calorie days.
When I woke, the boys and I went to Epcot and I bought a cup of celery and carrots with a ranch dressing (low carb). I drank water and had a dill pickle. That was breakfast.
We rode some crazy ride that spins you like mad while sitting inside a tube to push your head back against the wall. While this is happening, you watch a video that makes it appear that you are blasting off in a rocket.
I felt like I lost part of my brain but we laughed about the deal and then went to see a crazy 3-D movie (I'm a sucker for these and watch every 3-D movie that comes to my town).
Lunch was a piece of hamburger (ate the lettuce and tomatoe and threw away part of bun).
Then the sons went off and did a ride while I spent an hour calling patients who needed to speak with me (my nurse and I stay in contact though the day with email that my iPhone picks up every hour. I stop once or twice to handle the necessary calls).
Then we went to Epcot. While there, I had good cheeses and one bite (literally of chocolate mousse) from France, fish from the UK, and one gummy bear from some country where my son claims they invented gummy bears.
I had lots of water and one capaccino.
Here's the point: I literally sampled---one bite of mousse. One gummy bear. Some cheese.
If this were a feast trip, I would have eaten more. But I'm in clean-up-my-six-pack mode.
Did my son's and I have fun? Unbelievable. Traveling makes us so very close. OK, so you stand in line some. You go crazy some. But though all of it, so much conversaion and laughing and learning about each other and none of it hampered because I had one bite rather than the whole bowl of chocolate mousse.
 At this fireworks display, out over the lake, at the end of the day, I stood with all three sons. My youngest, Luke, walked over and snuggled up to me and I realized he had slipped back to the little boy side of the line between little boy and teenager that he straddles most of the time. I thought of how short it all is, even with good health. I thought of a woman that I love. I thought of how my parents brought me here the year it opened and how young they were then and how we camped in the campgrounds and rode bicycles and how I woke once to the camper rocking and how my sisters and I swam in the lake and how cold the water felt and how hot the sun. Then I held my son close and watched all three sons watch the sky.
Sometimes I'm so grateful that it hurts. Sometimes I'm so happy that I am sad. |
|
|
|
|
Quick Links...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
phone: 251-625-2612
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
|
|
