cigaretts

timevans107

what is the fundimenal differances between cigaretts and cigars. are the health risks the same as cigaretts? i find myself more involved with gigars but want to know more about thr highs and lows about them for my own. im a 20 year cigarett smoke and jumping into cigars. info will be greatly appreciated.

 

kuzi16

I would not recommend switching over.
why?

a few reasons actually.
the way that cigarettes deliver nicotine vs. the way cigars deliver nicotine is completely different. if you are trying to "switch to something "safer"" then you are not going to find it here. People who smoke cigarettes tend to have the habit of inhaling cigars as well. this is a bad idea (even worse than cigarettes). cigars are not filtered and use a stronger tobacco.
as far as health is concerned...
if you started to smoke cigars without taking it into your lungs and only had about one or two a day (average cigar smoker) then there are almost no greater health risks than that of non-tobacco users. if you are a nicotine addict and smoke 6,7,9... cigars a day then the health risk jumps.

other differences? cigarettes have additives where as cigars are a 100% all natural product.
cigarettes are a mechanical product. Premium hand made cigars are a work of art.
cigarettes are a habit. cigars are a hobby.


i would also recommend quitting cigarettes before smoking cigars because cigarettes have a way of killing your palate. you simply cannot taste as well if you are a cigarette smoker.


how fundamental are we speaking here?
cigarettes produce an acidic smoke; cigars--alkaline
cigarettes: tiny bits of tobacco. cigars: long whole leaf filler.

i hope it helped.

good luck?

madurofan

I'm with kuzi here. If you're a cigarette smoker thats looking to smoke cigars in addition to cigarettes thats one thing. I know quite a few guys that smoke cigarettes and cigars. As a cigarette smoker you're going to have a harder time tasting things in a cigar but the experience can still be enjoyable. The thing to remember is, like kuzi said, they aren't the same thing. Never inhale a cigar and do not try to replace a cigarette with a cigar.

I was a cigarette and occasional cigar smoker for years and when I decided to quit cigarettes I quit all tobacco products for a good six months before I picked up a cigar.

phobicsquirrel

Good for you Maddy! I've never smoked cigarettes and I have a hard enough time picking up bits of flavor in a cigar. Getting better but it's taking some time. I do remember seeing a guy smoke a cigar like a cigarette and I was amazed. That was way before I started smoking cigars so I didn't know.

madurofan

Thanks phobs. I've lapsed a time or two and picked up a cigarette but I then I just remember how much it took to quit that first time and I stop again.

bbc020

I have given up cigarettes on more than one occasion and the easiest time I had doing it was when I started smoking cigars. For me the addiction to cigarettes goes beyond the physical addictions, which really only stays in the system for a few days, but the ritual of smoking was huge (obviously still is). I picked up a cigarette about a month ago, after about 8 months without one, took a drag, coughed, and recognized that it tasted like $h!t to me. I put it out after like 2 drags.

Beyond the health risks of nicotine in general, I'm glad not to be inhaling smoke today, physically my respiratory health seems better.

madurofan

Interesting Brandon. It didn't seem to work that way for kuzi or myself. Whatever works for you, is the best way I guess.

bbc020

Just saying the addiction was a whole lot more mental for me than physical....not so much the habit was replaced physically(I didn't go looking for a buzz in cigars), but I also smoked another substance in my day, and the act of smoking (maybe the 'cool' factor) plays a bigger role to me than the physical addiction.

It's all in my head man....sick puppy up there.

madurofan

I get that 'cool' factor. I still want to light up a cigarette in some situations for that reason, its odd. Not a cool factor like 'man, I'm cool smoking a cancer stick' more like if I'm just standing somewhere doing nothign people will be like 'whats that guy doing', if I'm smoking its 'he's over there smoking'. No awkwardness.

phobicsquirrel

wouldn't a big cigar be more of a cool factor?

bbc020

no awkwardness....that's what addiction is all about, covering up that "awkwardness" or fear, wheter it is a physical/chemical fix from a drug, or via mental/chemical fix (chemical produced by the brain)....it's just a little more pronounced in drug addicts. In fact it permeates their whole lives until....well, something happens.

madurofan

phobicsquirrel:

wouldn't a big cigar be more of a cool factor?

Indeed

madurofan

bbc020:

no awkwardness....that's what addiction is all about, covering up that "awkwardness" or fear, wheter it is a physical/chemical fix from a drug, or via mental/chemical fix (chemical produced by the brain)....it's just a little more pronounced in drug addicts. In fact it permeates their whole lives until....well, something happens.

huh, never thought about it.

phobicsquirrel

NatGeo had a good program on the "drug war" and they talked a lot about how addiction was more pronounced from manufactured drugs than natural drugs. wonder why... we humans know how to make things much worse.

Bad Andy

phobicsquirrel:

NatGeo had a good program on the "drug war" and they talked a lot about how addiction was more pronounced from manufactured drugs than natural drugs. wonder why... we humans know how to make things much worse.

or better depending on how you look at it...Hydrocodone, essentially a man-made herion, is much worse than the real thing and they know it but they continue to use it.


I quit smoking a couple years ago as I was just getting into cigars. That probably explains why I don't always taste some of the complex flavors of cigars. But I do remember what sickratts taste like...@SS!

Krieg

I have never smoked cigarettes, and never plan to, but I love the taste of a good cigar. One of the big differences between a cigar and a cigarette is the amount of nicotine. As a cigar is made through aged tobacco, and as the tobacco ages, it loses nicotine. Typically, when a cigar is rolled, the tobacco leaves have around 2-3% of nicotine per leaf. Unlike cigarettes, which have much more, not to mention all the other additives to get you addicted, like Arsenic. There is always risk in smoking tobacco, but IMO, cigarettes are more dangerous than cigars. I tend to stay moderate in my cigar smoking, I smoke maybe 1 or 2 cigars a week, that way I can minimize my health risk.

kuzi16

Krieg:

I have never smoked cigarettes, and never plan to, but I love the taste of a good cigar. One of the big differences between a cigar and a cigarette is the amount of nicotine. As a cigar is made through aged tobacco, and as the tobacco ages, it loses nicotine. Typically, when a cigar is rolled, the tobacco leaves have around 2-3% of nicotine per leaf. Unlike cigarettes, which have much more, not to mention all the other additives to get you addicted, like Arsenic. There is always risk in smoking tobacco, but IMO, cigarettes are more dangerous than cigars. I tend to stay moderate in my cigar smoking, I smoke maybe 1 or 2 cigars a week, that way I can minimize my health risk.

one cigar has more nicotine than one cigarette. its the delivery system that makes it different. when you bring the smoke from a cigarette into your lungs the nicotine can enter your blood very quickly and at a high rate per puff. in a cigar the nicotine enters the body through the walls of your cheeks. this is a much less efficient way to get nicotine into the blood system. it is less nicotine per draw over a much longer amount of time.

Krieg:

There is always risk in smoking tobacco, but IMO, cigarettes are more dangerous than cigars.

cigarettes are more dangerous.
i wish i could remember where i read this so i could cite it but, i read that studies show you can smoke up to two churchill size cigars a day and have very little impact on your overall health in the long term.

here is a link to some related issue but not exactly what we are looking for... ill get working on referencing my claim. http://www.stogiefresh.com/journal/Cigar_Journal/Cigar_Science/Entries/2007/12/3_Second_Hand_Smoke_and_Health.html

kuzi16

another link on second hand smoke: http://www.davehitt.com/facts/epa.html


... I cant seem to find the article i was thinking about. I think it was in cigar-magazine. it was an article relating cigar smoking health myths(and how they are using it to raise taxes via s-chip) and global warming (and how they are using that fraud to raise taxes also)

ill try and get my hands on it to give the issue date.

jlmarta

I came across an article regarding heart disease related to smoking at: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/32/5/802#top from the Oxford Journals that I found interesting although a bit long and dry to read. In it, they compared men who had never smoked to men who smoked 1-2 cigars per day, 2-4 per day, etc. and what I came away with was that a guy who smoked 1-2 per day has only a 1.2% greater risk of heart disease than the guy who never smoked at all. To my way of thinking, that's almost as good as no risk at all. And, when you consider that I only smoke a cigar about every other day, the risk is even lower. I focused on heart disease because I happen to have it but the article also deals with cancer, I believe.

kuzi16

kuzi16:

another link on second hand smoke: http://www.davehitt.com/facts/epa.html


... I cant seem to find the article i was thinking about. I think it was in cigar-magazine. it was an article relating cigar smoking health myths(and how they are using it to raise taxes via s-chip) and global warming (and how they are using that fraud to raise taxes also)

ill try and get my hands on it to give the issue date.

got it

Cigar Magazine Summer 2008 issue in an article named "Second hand smoke and global warming: more connected than you think"

AND

Cigar Magazine Summer 2005 issue an article named "junk science"

Krieg

kuzi16:

kuzi16:

another link on second hand smoke: http://www.davehitt.com/facts/epa.html


... I cant seem to find the article i was thinking about. I think it was in cigar-magazine. it was an article relating cigar smoking health myths(and how they are using it to raise taxes via s-chip) and global warming (and how they are using that fraud to raise taxes also)

ill try and get my hands on it to give the issue date.

got it

Cigar Magazine Summer 2008 issue in an article named "Second hand smoke and global warming: more connected than you think"

AND

Cigar Magazine Summer 2005 issue an article named "junk science"

hmm..."a person who smokes 1 or 2 cigars a day and does not inhale actually runs a slightly lower lung cancer risk than a non-smoker". Can this truly be correct?

kuzi16

the theory is that cigars promote relaxation. when you relax and reduce stress its good for your body in general.