[Acrylic-bob]

I take your points Willow. I think that what I am arguing for here is a good dose of common sense. We all make choices about the way we live our lives and what we choose to put into our bodies. The important thing is that these should be informed choices.

I think I have a fair idea of what my choice to continue smoking is doing to my body. I also have direct, first hand experience of what the drugs prescribed by doctors did to me following the heart attack. Yes, perhaps continuing to smoke does not alleviate the threat of further heart attacks or the onsett of cancer. But it doesn't increase the likihood either, which, according to my reading on the subject, Statins would. The cost of the medication was a mere corollary and nothing to do with my decision to stop taking them. The side effects and the increased risk were the real reason.

We all have stories of family or friends who died in unpleasant circumstances. That is part of the tragedy of life; a quiet death at home, is a rarity.

The living of life and squeezing every drop of pleasure and benefit out of it has to be the most important thing. I do not think that a life lived principally in fear of what might happen is a life "lived" at all.