Common ailments associated with smoking

Most can relatively easily put into words the list of things we like about smoking; but there are a lurking host of nagging annoyances and suspicions about the cigarette habit that we find difficult to discuss - and most of them add up to the fact that we who smoke too much rarely feel completely up to par.

Dr. E. C. Hammond made an important study in 1961, questioning 18,697 men and 24,371 women, all over the age of 30, about physical complaints in relation to smoking habits. These were some of the many complaints found to be associated with smoking:
Coughing . . .
Hoarseness . . .
Shortness of breath . . .
Chest pain or discomfort. . .
Appetite loss . . .
Nausea and vomiting . . .
Stomach pain . . .
Discomfort or pain in the lower abdomen . . .
Diarrhea . . .

Easy fatigue . . .
Insomnia . . .

Now if we couple this list of physical complaints with statistics on the far more serious health hazards linked to cigarette smoking, we must then assume that the pleasures of the habit must be enormous indeed to outweigh them.

And here am I, saying that they're not-that you don't really enjoy cigarettes nearly as much as you think you do and are told you do. Before we go further, shall we just briefly survey the latest medical facts? Some may be "controversial," and so why don't you discount each by a considerable percentage?

The American Medical Association has released statistics based on a study of thousands of coronary deaths. They show that the death rate among men who smoked more than a pack a day was twice that of non-smokers. The Mayo Clinic team of heart specialists, Doctors English, Willius and Berkson, placed the odds even more dramatically. They reported that in coronary deaths, the rate is six times higher for smokers than it is for non-smokers.

Two English physicians, W. R. Doll and A. B. Hill, have made a number of significant studies. One shows that with men under 55, coronary deaths increase in tidy ratio to cigarette consumption. The rate is lowest for non-smokers, highest for heavy smokers. Two Brooklyn physicians, Doctor Daniel J. Nathan and Doctor David M. Spain, studied 3,000 men-and found that among those under the age of 51 who smoked more than two packs a day, the frequency of heart ailments was twice that of non-smokers.

Declares the Royal College of Physicians of London: The chances of a 35-year-old man who is a heavy smoker dying within ten years is one in twenty-three. For a non-smoker of the same age, the chance is one out of ninety.