Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggythecat
I'd wonder a bit about that one.
Back then, 9 out of 10 doctors preferred what ? Camels ?
Not a cough in the whole carton, was the claim.
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Well, back then more people smoked, and thereby assumedly lowering the average mortality rate.
Second catch could be advancements in medicine extending lifespans.
I mean back then nearly everyone just died early, so the difference between cigar smokers and everyone else was perhaps minimalized or marginalized.
From what I know of longevity, wealth and using your mind to a ripe old age kept you alive 200-300 years ago, and still does to this day.
The highly stressed underpaid working yourself to an early grave types never stood much of a chance.
Intellectuals always seemed to live longer throughout history, that is unless they pissed off the wrong government.
Where this all goes back to tobacco, American's first cash crop, the crop that built America is that the pipe and cigar have been around us for a long time. And way back then it was the luxury item of the well to do, not the vice of the poor.
What ever differences in mortality tobacco made 200-300 years ago, was wiped out by the strains of poverty. In the late 1960's- early 1970's it was probably leveled out and equalized. And now a days, I imagine other factors such as inactivity and obesity are literally going to outweigh the negative affects of pipes and cigars.
I'm leaving out cigarettes because they have poisons added to them, and I do not care to defend that in any way.