Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

@Clueless 1 v2 Basically avoiding things that are known to be risky to health - smoking being the most obvious - but also sensible around other known risk factors. A lot of people do think things won't happen to them of course. Human nature I suppose

 

When I was a student nurse in 1971 I was sent to do a stint in A&E in Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton which is near the A3 so it took car crash patients. But after 3 weeks there were only 2 patients in A&E, one for a dressing change and one for a bee sting so I was sent to Outpatients instead! People went to their GPs in those days and GPs did home visits. My small son fell over and needed stitches. Our GP did them, no need to go to A&E.

 

That's the problem with statistics. Actually not with statistics, but with the interpretation of statistics.

I'm not sure if more cyclists die in accidents than any other activity. I once read that most fatal accidents are actually falls at home. But let's hypothetically say it's true, more cyclists die in cycling accidents than any other activity.

There would be a number of ways to interpret this. The obvious and incorrect way would be that cycling is the most dangerous activity. Another way would be more nuanced, looking at what percentage of a person's time is spent doing a particular activity, in order to calculate a likelihood of being killed by it. But there's another way. One could look at the population as a whole and work out likelihood of death before a certain age, and then see how cyclists compare to the general population. If more cyclists die younger compared to the general population, then it is safe to assume that cycling is overall more dangerous than not cycling. But if it turns out that the cyclists, on average, live longer than the general population, even after considering fatal accidents, then a possible conclusion would be that despite the risks, in general cycling promotes better health.

Statistics are brilliant. You can say anything you like with them and be right.

 

I agree, but playing devil's advocate on the smoking point, smokers will tell you it's quite effective for short term stress relief. Doctors will tell you that stress, if it's regular and becomes the norm, is very bad for you. It can mess you up physically and it can break you mentally.

Smoking is bad. Chronic stress is bad. Smoking to ease chronic stress? Probably still bad but is it as bad as having a breakdown and doing something silly and dangerous and throwing your job away?

I am technically an idiot. I was smoke free for years. Then I had a run of bad luck in my family. I actually chose to start smoking again. I was struggling to cope, smoking eased it. Other things would have eased it, like alcohol abuse, but I knew there's no coming back from that so I chose smoking as a lesser evil. Eventually I got passed the stressful situation, and in February this year chose to quit. Smoking had served it's purpose. It helped me to not cave in or have a meltdown. I still have my job and my house and my family, so it worked.

I think people that have never smoked have no chance of understanding. People never wake up in the morning and think, today I will start spending a fortune on poison which I will set on fire several times per day and inhale the fumes.

 

I agree with you @Clueless 1 v2 , I was a smoker from my early teens until I decided to quit in my 30s. There have been many times in recent years that I would have loved to have a ciggie, mainly for stress-calming purposes, but decided to try other ways to combat that with varying degrees of success.

 

I had alot of black and blue musles after this stamped + a fracture foot, guest what i didn't even go to hosital or see the Doc's, a few month at home but still keaped going i was right as rain in a few months

 

I'm sorry for you that you suffered that, but that is an excellent photo. While young adrenaline seekers are posing on cliff edges and thinking they're it, there's you surviving getting steam rolled by a bull.

 

It may have been a bit different if one of them horns went into my back/chest, but that living in the countryside, no pain no gain and i even still helped to get the bullock in

 

I have been in a low place since last year, even though I had quit smoking and was very tempted, I hit the drink.

My daughter was diagnosed as being a, Turner Syndrome girl, she started seeing a consultant in Newcastle and started hormone treatment when she was 15 years old, at 20 years old now, her ovaries still haven't fully developed along with other under developed medical issue's. When she started Uni in September 2022, everything was going fine, until she came back in October for half term, she had lost weight and was very fussy about her food. Then the day before I was due to her back to Uni, she came into the living room frantically pointing to her mouth. I knew she was choking and it was only when she grabbed me by the neck to look inside her mouth that I could see the tip end of a tooth brush. I managed after a few attempts to grab the brush, but I could not stop shaking for hours.

I then knew she had an eating disorder, what I didn't realise was how quickly it would affect both of us. If she didn't answer the phone, I was automatically thinking the worse. She went from being 44kg on her 18th Birthday when we were at Newcastle hospital to 28.3kg one year later. I could not sleep and resorted to drinking spirits to help me stop over thinking, three bottles plus a week became the norm.

May last year my daughter knew she needed help, she contacted her GP in Lincoln and they put her down to start counselling back at home when she finished her Uni for the year. It has been a slow progress going forward, sometimes one step forward and two back, but we are both heading in the right direction and helping each other. I went and had a few counselling sessions myself, they said seeing my daughter choking especially with an eating disorder was a lot to take in and that I hadn't processed it. I had to drive all the way to Lincoln last Tuesday to take her to Freemans hospital for an MRI of her heart, my Mrs is doing the next run in 2 weeks time for further tests at the RVI in Newcastle, with probably more of this to come in the future, this eating disorder hasn't helped but as long as she doesn't have a relapse she will be okay. She was 42.3kg when they weighed her at the hospital, still below her ideal BMI.

 

I'm so very sorry @gks that you and your family have been having such tough times. I hope telling it here has been in some way cathartic and I wish you all the best for continuing recovery.

 

I packed up smoking in 1993, after smoking from age 13, (25 yrs) it was hard, and even two years down the line I nearly went back, but made it in the end.
I know its banned but I think there is an argument for cannabis regarding relaxation as I dont think you have to smoke it.

 

All the very best to you and your family @gks , hope sharing it has helped you

 

They have in Thailand, it was legalised in 2022 which has resulted in a boom in farming and dispensaries shops, they are like internet cafes. I was shocked about how many cannabis shops had opened on our last trip there last year. Going for a walk along the main Suhkumvit road in Bangkok I tend to have to walk over a mile to get to a pub, yet now I would pass a dozen cannabis dispensaries. There was quite a few thousand inmates released from prison when the government legalised cannabis for recreational use. It has boomed that much that the government is now doing a u turn where the sale of cannabis will only be allowed for medical reasons only.

They reckon the bill will get passed that bans those born before 2009 from legally been allowed to buy fags, I don't support it. They go on about how much smoking treatments costs the NHS, yet the NHS spends more on alcohol related treatments, then there is a strong argument you could apply the same law as fags. Mind you, when duty from fags is roughly £8 billion, but £12billion from alcohol which is expected to rise to over £16 billion by 2028.

 

When I was young, smoking was seen in some circles as cool. In fact when I was a young man about town, I used to carry a box of ten Lambert and Butler and a lighter as part of my 'pulling kit'. Some ladies smoked, and I figured if I want to cast the widest net I must give myself every possible advantage, including being able to offer a cigarette.

Nowadays it's not cool. The government aren't actually doing anything with their proposed ban. Let's consider it's potential impact.

Anyone that wants to smoke, will smoke. They'll get someone else to buy them, they'll buy them from abroad when they go on their holidays, they'll ask people to bring some back when they're friends go away, or they'll buy bootlegged ones.

But most of the youngster's aren't going to smoke anyway. They'll vape, or use whatever other nicotine delivery mechanism is cool at the time. The big baccy companies know about this trend and are getting in on it. There's emerging data that suggests that vaping and other nicotine options actually lead to higher and more frequent use than smoking, largely due to here being more places where it's socially acceptable. Once the government starts taxing vaping the same way as cigarettes, then the actual smoking ban will just see more revenue generated.