Tobacco by Dr. Cindy Gale (Marietta,Ga Aspartame Detox Center)

[Guest guest]

Origin1 @al sender's name: Dr. Betty Martini,D.Hum.

Original sender's address: bettym19

 

If you haven't seen the film, " The Insider " with Russell Crowe and Al

Pacino, which is about a Tobacco Industry Whistleblower, I suggest

that you do. It is a true story about Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, a Corporate

Executive in the Tobacco Industry, who was fired for being outspoken

about the toxic effects of cigarettes. What's amazing about this film

is not only the deceit perpetrated upon the citizens of this country,

and of the world, but the fact that since this information has been

divulged, people are still smoking and new smokers are created every day!

 

After watching the film I decided to go on the Internet and google

" Tobacco Ingredients. " I didn't have to look very far to find some

very interesting and eye-opening facts. The first weblink that came

up offered the following information. Read on and decide if you wish

to continue smoking or not.

 

The Tobacco Reference Guide

by David Moyer, MD

 

Chapter 19 Tobacco ingredients, additives, and radioactivity

 

There are 4000 different chemicals in cigarette smoke, including 43

that meet the stringent criteria for listing as known carcinogens.

- Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation, 1990 Surgeon General Report

 

Among chemicals on the top-secret list of about 700 additives to

cigarettes reported to the US government are 13 not allowed in food

(US FDA) and 5 designated as hazardous (US EPA). Most of the

additives have not been scientifically investigated.

- National Public Radio report, April 1994

 

Two of the 700 additives in cigarettes are sclareol, which causes

seizures in laboratory rats, and ethylfuroate, which was investigated

in the 1930's as a possible chemical warfare agent.

- American Medical News, May 2, 1994

 

A two pack a day smoker takes 400 puffs a day and inhales 1000

milligrams (one gram) of tar. This is 150,000 puffs and a quart of

thick brown gooey carcinogenic tar inhaled into the lungs each year.

- American Cancer Society, 1988

 

Saccharin has received much attention as [a] carcinogen, but the

carcinogenic potency of benzopyrene in tobacco smoke is 50,000 times

greater than that of saccharin.

- North Carolina Medical Journal, January 1995, p. 5

 

Each tin of snuff delivers as much nicotine as 30 to 40 cigarettes.

There is a lethal dose of nicotine in each can of spit tobacco, as

well as lead (nerve poison), embalming fluid (formaldehyde), and

radioactive particles.

- Quitting Spit, National Cancer Institute, 1991, p. 5

 

Kretek, or clove cigarettes from Indonesia, are composed of cloves

(up to 40%) and dark tobaccos. The local anesthetic in cloves,

eugenol, permits the inhalation of the harsh smoke from the sun-cured

dark tobaccos.

- Nicotine Addiction, p. 15

 

Ammonia, an " impact booster " additive to cigarettes, changes the

acidity of tobacco and produces free nicotine so that nearly twice

the usual amount gets into a smoker's bloodstream.

- New York Times, June 22, 1994, pp. A1 and C20

 

Tar is the sticky brown substance condensing out of tobacco smoke,

and is composed of many chemicals.

- Tobacco Control Fact Sheet 3, International Union Against Cancer, 1996

 

" Tar " in cigarettes consists primarily of polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbons such as benzopyrene, an exceedingly potent carcinogen.

- Pharmacological Basics of Therapeutics, Goodman and Gilman, 1990

edition, p. 545

 

Dr. John Slade, associate professor of medicine at the University of

Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey, advocates regulation of

cigarettes to reduce the amount of soot, a term he prefers to " tar. "

One alternative would be to impose higher taxes on more toxic

high-soot cigarettes, or to set limits on soot levels.

- US News and World Report, December 30, 1996, pp. 66-67

 

Toxic components of cigarette smoke include carbon monoxide (used for

suicides in garages with the car engine running), nicotine (active

ingredient in bug sprays and pesticides), acetone (nail polish

remover), naphthalene (active ingredient in mothballs), ammonia

(toilet bowl cleaner), hydrazine (rocket fuel), methane (swamp gas),

acetylene (blow torches), polonium-210 (radioactive particles), and

hydrogen cyanide (active ingredient in San Quentin gas chamber). The

leading source of lead exposure in buildings with smokers is

environmental tobacco smoke.

- Stanton Glantz lecture, San Francisco, February 24, 1994

 

The above information is just the tip of the iceberg of this 14-page

report. To read the rest of this document, go to the following website:

http://globalink.org/tobacco/trg/Chapter19/Chap19_Ingredients_Additives.html

 

If you still feel like lighting up after reading this, then you are

signing your own death warrant! However, smoking cigarettes will not

kill you in an instant; not like a bullet to the head will, but after

many years, the smoker will begin to suffer a long, agonizing

death...which will be witnessed by loved ones, and probably cost tens

of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to " treat " even

though there is no cure! The only cure is to never smoke in the first

place...or to stop it immediately, and hope that the cumulative

effects of this nasty habit don't catch up with you.

 

My mother, God bless her, smoked cigarettes for 60 years before she

finally developed Emphysema. We all thought that she'd eventually

wind up with lung cancer, especially since two of her sisters died of

cancer; one at the age of 52, and another at the age of 64, which was

way before their time; and the fact that both of her parents died of

cancer; her mother at 52, and her father, who managed to live until

he was 84. Of course, they all smoked cigarettes, as well as the rest

of her surviving siblings; but they decided to quit many years ago.

 

You would think with cancer being so prevalent in our family, my

mother would have had the sense to quit smoking. After all, she's an

intelligent and well-informed woman. Since the 1960s, the whole world

has known that cigarettes cause lung and heart disease, and there is

even a warning on each pack by the Surgeon General of the health

risks of smoking! However, my mother is no different from millions of

people today because just like with any other addictive substance, it

is not easy to quit.

 

Unfortunately, my mother's addiction to cigarettes far outweighed the

dire consequences of continuing to smoke. Because of this chemical

dependence, we nearly lost her a little over a year ago. Having

Emphysema, her lung capacity is now at 40%, and her immune system is

compromised. She developed Chronic Bronchitis, which eventually

turned into Pneumonia, and that is what almost took her from us.

Fortunately, she no longer smokes, and we somehow managed to get her

health stabilized, against all odds.

 

I've often asked my mother how much money it cost her to smoke over

those 60 years. To put it another way, how much did it cost her to

pay someone to make her sick? It must run into the tens of thousands

at least. And her failing health has cost her much more than

money...it's cost her way of life, and it has adversely effected all

of her family as well.

 

Being hooked up to an oxygen machine 24/7 is one of the ways in which

her life has drastically changed. She is tethered, like a dog, to

this loud and ugly contraption, that enables her to breath; otherwise

she would suffocate to death. She is a little more mobile, now that

she has a 4-hour canister of oxygen that she can take with her.

However, this severely limits the time she has to leave the house, as

she must return before the oxygen runs out. Plus, she needs to do a

breathing treatment every four hours, so that also limits her

outings. I share this information with you because this is what many

of you smokers out there may have to look forward to in years to come.

 

What's interesting to me about all of this, besides the fact that an

intelligent person would continue to do something that is obviously

hazardous to their health, but the fact that she is so committed to

taking her medication every four hours, every single day, for the

rest of her life. However, to get her to take a vitamin, even just

once-a-day, is like pulling teeth! Why is it that most people wait

until their health is so poor, or their death is so imminent, before

they start taking care of themselves? Who, by now, hasn't heard the

saying that, " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? "

 

Back in April 1994, the heads of the 7 leading tobacco industry

CEO's, swore that cigarettes weren't addictive. They were all under

oath when they made these ridiculous claims, yet none of them has

been brought to justice for having perjured themselves. Not only did

they know that cigarettes are addictive, but they actually manipulate

the effects of nicotine to make them even more addictive, by using a

process called " impact boosting. " The process " allows for the

nicotine to be more rapidly absorbed in the lung and therefore affect

the brain and Central Nervous System. " These industry moguls should

be tried for Crimes Against Humanity, but instead, they are raking in

billions of dollars, at the expense of our health.

 

Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, the protagonist in the film " The Insider " made

the following statement while being interviewed by Mike Wallace on

the TV show " 60 Minutes " :

 

" We [the tobacco industry] are in the nicotine delivery business. "

 

That's how the cigarette manufacturers get its smokers hooked! That's

why even the most intelligent people in the world find it so

difficult to quit smoking...because their bodies are chemically

addicted to this unhealthy, cancer-causing product.

 

Having a PhD in Biochemistry, Dr. Wigand had been employed in

Research & Development at Brown & Williamson, a tobacco manufacturing

company. He testified to the fact that nicotine, and other chemicals

in cigarettes, cause physiological changes in body chemistry, which

is the " definition of a drug " ...and, according to the FDA, all drugs

must be prescribed by a Physician in order to be dispensed. But

cigarettes are available to anyone...of any age...and as long as

cigarettes are generating billions of dollars, here in the US and

globally, they will continue to be made handy to every person on this planet.

 

The so-called " War on Drugs " in this country is a joke! Cigarettes

are legal drugs, without needing a prescription, and illegal drugs

cause far less damage than cigarettes or prescribed medication...and

that's a FACT!

 

We humans have been given free will, so no matter what our

legislation dictates, we will do exactly as we wish to do...and that

includes smoking cigarettes. However, unless we are completely made

aware of the effects of our choices, how can we make rational

decisions about those choices? I'm sure that most people who suffer

from lung disease, brought on solely from smoking cigarettes, wish

that they never started. How many times have we all asked ourselves

the question, " If I only knew then what I know now? "

 

Well...there is no disputing the fact that cigarettes cause Cancer;

COPD, which is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and that

includes Emphysema and Asthma; heart disease; and other debilitating

conditions...all from a nasty habit...yet millions upon millions of

people smoke. Why is that?

 

I am under the suspicion that if we were legally allowed to grow our

own tobacco, dry it naturally, and put it in a pipe and smoke it,

that no one would get lung diseases. The Native Americans smoked

tobacco for thousands of years, and it is my belief that if it caused

serious illness, they would have discovered that and not smoked.

However, once the White Europeans got here and introduced tobacco to

Western Civilization, things changed quite a bit. With the onset of

the " modern miracle " of Chemistry, the tobacco scientists started

experimenting with additives, and decided to play with the chemical

composition of cigarettes, and created a more accessible and

addictive product. The tobacco industry lobbyists are very powerful

in Washington, DC, and at some point, tobacco became illegal for

individual people to grow...creating a monopoly on the cigarette

industry, as well as controlling what goes into this mass-produced product.

 

When we Americans gave away, or lost through legislation, our ability

to produce our own food, tobacco, and hard liquor, we lost our

ability to control what we put into our bodies. The outcome of our

complacency has led to an epidemic of ill health...from the newborn

to the elderly. When I was growing up, which wasn't that long ago, it

was rare that a child got cancer. Within the span of one or two

generations, millions of children, as well as adults, are now

suffering from a myriad of cancers.

 

There is not just ONE cause of cancer though, so I don't put the

entire blame for this rise in cancer on cigarettes alone...but

because of the thousands of harmful chemicals to which we are exposed

every day -- year after year -- decade after decade -- it's a miracle

that every human being in this country isn't sick!

 

Illness is BIG BUSINESS...so they don't want to kill us right

away...we are worth much more to the Pharmaceutical, Medical, Food &

Beverage, Tobacco, Scientific Research, and Insurance Industries when

we are sick! Do you really think that a cure for cancer will ever be

discovered? How many millions of people will lose employment if a

" cure " was found...or better yet...if no one got sick?

 

As a Health Practitioner, I make it my responsibility to educate and

inform as many folks as possible about how to prevent disease from

occurring...as well as how to treat disease with healthier, less

invasive, and less expensive alternatives to allopathic or medical

intervention. Many in our government today wish to create a

socialized healthcare system, which will cost every one of us a lot

more money in taxes. I definitely understand the need to have

affordable healthcare and access to medication; however, if we all

took responsibility for our own health...did our own research...read

all ingredient labels...and made wise, sound, and informed choices,

instead of taking the advertising media, and the FDA, at its word,

then we wouldn't have as much need for expensive medical and surgical

treatment.

 

If you have ever watched a loved one suffer from any disease, it is a

very scary thing. We all feel so helpless and grief-stricken when

those we love become ill...and subsequently die. But when it's

preventable and self-inflicted, it's even more heartwrenching! The

best cure for disease is a healthy lifestyle...that's it in a

nutshell. And the only way to be healthy in today's world is to

educate yourself. Don't be fooled by advertising...take

responsibility for what you eat, drink, and ingest...use the internet

to read up on prescribed medication for their harmful effects (for

they all have them)...and research alternative ways in which to treat

disease, instead of having to take synthetic drugs.

 

The original medicines were plants and flowers. Nature provided us

with everything we need to sustain a healthy and happy life...from

the food we can gather and grow...to the plants and herbs available

to treat disease. All drugs have their origins in nature...only

plants couldn't be patented...(at least until recently, when Monsanto

patented corn)...so these pharmaceutical companies couldn't make the

billions upon billions of dollars they make each year, as they can by

creating synthetic versions of what is found naturally on this planet.

 

If we just use our common sense...and eat REAL FOOD instead of

processed " food " ...filled with additives, dyes, preservatives, and

chemicals that are toxic and harmful...then we would be much

healthier than we are.

 

We only have one body to take with us from the cradle to the grave.

We are not machines...we weren't meant to have interchangeable parts

that can be replaced when they become broken or defective. Believe it

or not, we were meant to live 120 years...which is about 40 or 50

years longer than the average person lives today!

 

As Louise Lewis, a Holistic Nutritionist, always says: " If we don't

take care of our bodies, where are we going to live? " If we leave the

responsibility of our health to government agencies, like the FDA, or

the food manufacturers, who put toxic chemicals like MSG and

Aspartame into their products, then we will continue to become sick

and die prematurely. We have to wizen up and take responsibility for

our own health. It's just that simple.

 

As far as cigarettes go...they are legal, and as long as you are

18-years-old, they can be purchased in just about every store out

there. We have the right to put harmful substances in our

bodies...after all, we were given free will...but if you want to be

healthy, then you need to take care of yourself and stop putting

poison in your body!

 

If you don't want to be healthy, then that's your choice. But think

about the pain and heartache you will cause your friends and family

when you become sick. Think about how hard you've worked for your

money, only to have to spend that hard-earned cash on your drugs

and/or surgery. Think about the inconvenience and burden you will

become to your family...as well as to society...and perhaps you'll

see just how selfish it is to make unhealthy choices.

 

For more information on health related topics, please contact Dr.

Cindy Gale at 404-245-5342 or by email at Drcindyg.

 

Knowledge is Power...but it depends on what you DO with this

Knowledge that will make all the difference.