[Acrylic-bob]

Picking up on what Bazf has to say about the negative effects of smoking on health, I thought I should contibute this. I have been smoking since I was Seventeen. I have tried everything available to try and stop - honest. and none of it works. Two years ago I had a heart attack. There were grave faced doctors gathered around the bed when they gave me the prognosis. "Your heart attack has caused 30-40% of damage to your heart. You may also have atherosclerosis, though we can't be sure. You had better give up smoking now or you will have another one, which will kill you. And you must take the cocktail of drugs that we will now prescribe for you, for the rest of your life".

Fair enough, I thought I will make another effort. I lasted six weeks. I also took the drugs prescribed. They cost me £30.00 per month and caused such horrific and painful side effects that I stopped taking them after two months. Because I stopped taking the drugs the NHS has effectively washed it's hands of me. They will treat me in an emergency, of course, but any long term management is out of the question. As is any thought of assesment and referral to Blackpool for further treatment.

So, after a week off to recuperate, I went back to work and I do as much now as I did before the heart attack, remember my heart is now only working at 60% efficiency and my arteries are hardening daily.
I smoke as many fags as I did before. I am not on any medication. and yet when I had my blood pressure and pulse taken yesterday my pulse was 73bpm. and blood pressure was 127/78. I FEEL FINE. But if the doctors had their way, I would be £1000 poorer, I would be tied to taking medication to counteract the side effects of the medication they prescribed, which would lay me open to an even greater risk of further heart attack and possible cancer(I've read the reports on "Statins", lots of them). I would also be tied into the NHS dependancy cycle.

According to my GP I should now be DEAD! Instead, I am starting a new business venture in Blackpool, which opens next month.

The health effects of Smoking are, generally, bad. But they are not as bad as the Health Fascists would have you believe. Remember, they have a vested interest in keeping you dependant on them. Remember also, it was a respected Doctor who proclaimed a link with MMR and Autism for no other reason than to promote his own ineffective cure, thus putting all our children at risk. Remember also that another noted GP's solution the increasing cost of caring for the elderly was an injection of Dia-morphine.