A Russian roulette would give you about 5 in 6 survival rates, would you like to guess what kind of odds you are playing with smoking cigarettes? The answer is 1 in 2, that’s right your classic 50-50 survival chance. Tobacco related disease kill 1 out of every 2 smokers.
It’s amazing how people could care less about what could happen to them in 10 to 20 years down the road even if it involved death. No one in their right mind would light another cigarette if it meant they would have a 50-50 chance at getting cancer the next day. And yet if it’s 10 or 20 years in the future the odds start to look pretty good to smokers. How does that make sense to you? Are assuming your life would be less precious 10 years down road? Life is life, and elderliness does not make life any less special than youthfulness. In fact, I would argue in a personal manner that we would have more reasons to live as we age. For most of us, the longer we live, the more we’ve loved and therefore there’s more to love. The people we love make our lives worth living and we have a responsibility to them, to be with them and love them for as long as our natural lives allow us.
The Scottish actor Ewan McGregor quit smoking in 2007. He admitted the thought of explaining to his kids he was dying because he took his health for granted was enough to have him quit smoking. Now I’m not saying you should quit smoking because a Hollywood star has done it. But he displayed a commendable act as a father, an example we can all follow for our own reasons.
If one chamber of a revolver was loaded with a dud bullet and you could play Russian roulette safely for the time being. The only catch being if the dud hits, you have to shoot yourself in the head exactly 10 years future. Would you do it? I don’t think I need to explain to you that you are playing with even scarier odds if you do not stop smoking. Continue with “A Doctor’s Aggressive Stance Against Cigarettes“.
