Is quitting smoking contagious?

I could really go for a smoke. Actually yeah, I hate to admit it, but yeah, I'm I'm a smoker. I'm I'm a big time, heavy, heavy smoker. Have been doing it for many, many years. That's what gives me this thick, lustrous voice. Um made for radio. Yeah yeah, And and as Chuck and most of the other people in the office, no, uh, if I could smoke in my cubicle, I would do so constantly, right, Like, It's

exactly how I wish it was the fifties. So yeah, because not only could I smoke, I could also drink at work as well, which you know, yeah, yeah, it'd be like a madman. As you've mentioned, you like, right, great show. So since I can't smoke in my cubicle. I have to pop downstairs, you know, seven eight times an hour, UM, which I understand. People in the airline industry you have to do as well. Now, UM, the

the f A A band, the use of UM. This this smoking cessation drug called the verenda cline better known as shantics shantics, Yes, yes, UM, I always call it shaviks for some reason. I don't know if you knew that. UM. And And basically, if you're an air traffic controller or a pilot, UM, you are doomed to a life as a smoker because at the very least you can't use verendacline. Reports started trickling in that some people were suffering psychotic

breaks UM epilepsy seizures. I've heard it could make you suicidal, suicidal thoughts, and I gotta tell you that and and this this is linked hasn't been proven obviously, UM. Disclaimer disclaimer, UM. But the uh that the the last thing you want in an airline pilot is suicidal tendencies. You know, because if you're gonna go down, you might as well take the whole plane with you. As you know, that's my

my worst way to die. Plane crash, so um, everybody in the airline industry that's either controlling planes or driving them is not allowed to take very client anymore. And UM, so they're they're investigating it because it's a brand new uh class of drugs. It's not like any other drug on the market, and it targets UM these nicotinic receptors which are like really sensitive on the brain, UM, and they basically amplify other neurotransmitters. So if you are drinking um,

you know, an alcoholic beverage, uh, the you want to smoke? Right. The reason why it's there's a Kansas State study that just came out that's just that's because nicotine. You're not so much addicted to the direct effects that nicotine has on you, you're addicted to the accompanying effects that has. It turns up the pleasure that you get and right, right, which actually provides a a lot of UM foundation for

Newport's Alive with Pleasure ad campaign. I wonder if they knew that back then or else if they were just shooting in the dark and just happened to hit the target. Will smoking definitely makes you feel better to a certain degree, right, it does? We should probably tell everybody how smoking works. Right. Uh, yeah, I've been right, I've been writing. I've been writing a lot about smoking lately, so I've I've got smoking on the brain for sure. Okay, Well that's funny because that's

where smoking has its effect, right, the nicotine receptors. Yeah, well, the nicotinic receptors, but also um uh in a very standard way. What we know about smoking is is that, um, it activates what the colinergic Yeah, pathways. That's the best way I can say it. You know, colinergic, We're gonna go with colinergic. Um. If you know, the correct pronunciation is world, keep it to yourself. Um. So, So nicotine

activates this uh. And it's a pathway that transmits a set of acetal colwine, right, which is responsible for the parasympathetic nervous system, which does what chuck the opposite of what you knew it was going to come to this sooner or later. It always the key to the universe, the theory of everything. So basically, um, this stuff makes you sharper, It makes you feel focused, but also calm

as well. Right. So that's that's one effect. The problem is is that um, when you when you have these pathways damaged, it can lead to Alzheimer's because this stuff is in charge of memory and other cognitive functions. Right, so smoking by proxy could arguably lead to Alzheimer's since it would overuse these pathways. The same thing goes with dopamine. Openmine is in the reward pathways your brain, and uh, they reinforce things that help you survive, like you want

to eat, you want to sleep. Yeah, that's that's how we learn behavior, right right, And basically it just stimulates pleasant feelings. I'm glad we don't have a punishment system in our brain. I'll bet that would hurt punishment pathway. Yeah exactly, Yeah, exactly, I've got that going on. Mine's highly acute and well developed. Uh yeah. It also increases endorphins. And now you know a little something about endorphins. I

I want to tell you about endorphins, chuck. Um. Basically, they're the body's pain killer, natural painkiller, UM and and it's triggered by stress or pain. Also, sex actually triggers the release of endorphins and UM. When you have a rush of them, uh, you you get kind of high, you get euphoric. This is what's responsible for the runners high, which I can tell you as a smoker, I've never achieved.

I have no clue with the runners high feels like right, um, I start to wheeze very very quickly before I ever even get close. You have runners low. Pretty much. It's more of like a runners like dragged myself across the floor kind of thing. Um. But so it's kind of like, um, you get this from what I understand, the the endorphins attached to the opiate receptors, So all of a sudden, it's like taking a giant hit a smack it right in the old right, in the old left arm, and

and there you go. The weird thing is is that endorphin is released in different doses depending on the individual. It's unique to each person. So you and I could bang the same knee, each of our knees on on the same coffee table with the same force, and you know, we get different doses of endorphins released. So I didn't realize that. Apparently that's it's endorphins are one of the

few neurotransmitters that happened like that. So basically, smoking get you going in all these way, right, and you know, nicotine we know is highly addictive substance, naturally occurring subsce. Was that ever proven? Because I got to tell you, the big tobacco guys are telling me that's not really true. Man's true. Those guys are evil incarnate, buddy. Are you sure? Yeah,

I'm very sure. I've been doing a lot of smoking research, and not only is nicotine really addictive, but cigarette companies have gone out of the way to add all sorts of stuff to make it even more addictive, to uh, to increase that rush of endorphins. It's just it's unreal, man, when you start reading about this thing. Look, I saw the Insider too, but I mean, really, I've got some

facts for you. Let's hear them. Well, there's four thousand, four thousand chemicals and a cigarette and five hundred and ninety nine ingredients in each and every cigarette. So that's value. I mean, how much is a cigarette? It's nothing. It's it's one way to look at it. You're getting methane and butane and rocket fuel and ammonia and cadmium. Where else am I going to get this in my daily life? Yeah? Right, Okay, you don't need that stuff, man, does your body doesn't?

Your cell phone battery does I should probably stop taking my caminium supplements. You should. Uh, here's another smoking stat you might like. Um, a packet day smoker in just a full cup of tar one every year into their lungs. What about a two packet day smoker would be two cup cups of tar. It's it's a one to one ratio there. So that's a full cup of tar in

your lungs. And one reason, you know, I used to kind of scoff at people who when the cigarette company started getting sued, like everyone knows they're bad for you. How can you see the cigarette company? I don't feel that way anymore. Why don't doing this research because I don't know about you as a smoker, but a lot of smokers when they wake up, they have a pretty bad cough. Eight percent of smokers have that for a cigarette in the first ten minutes of their day, and

it makes them stop coughing. So throw yourself back to the nineteen fifties, before all these Surgeon General's warnings and things, when the Surgeon General was actually smoking right exactly. Uh, you would wake up and cough and feel really bad. You have a cigarette and make you feel better, so you keep smoking. What's going on there is uh inside your body, inside your lungs and your bronchial tubes and everything. A little silly little hairs that are like little street sweepers.

It just kind of swing back and forth and they clean out, you know, the bad debris and the particles, and they get to work. Smoking. Uh kills those guys, numbs them or kills them so where they stop sweeping, so you collect all the cook down in there, and then when you don't smoke overnight, they wake back up again and start sweeping again. So when you wake up as a smoker, you have all this mucus and UH and stuff built up, so you want to cough it out.

Take that first cigarette, and it kills acilia again. They stop working. You stop coughing, You think you feel better. That's nuts, Isn't that crazy? That's biology? Man, Here's something else for you. Free you. You You know what free base nicotine is. I know what free basing is. Well, it's it's kind of the same same thing as crack cocaine. Honestly, Basically, it's nicotine that's missing a hydrogen, the ion. It's molecular structure, it's missing one hydrogen ion, and without it it makes

it turns into a gas easier. And if it's turned into a gas easier, it goes to your brain quicker, and things that go to your brain quicker, is quicker to make you addictive. It hits your brain faster, quicker reaction, same as crack cocaine. It's quicker reaction and get you high quicker. So it's missing a hydrogenion and it's stilled with cadmium. Oh yeah, there's still the cadmium. Uh So what they found out is a lot of these major brands of cigarettes um have like ten to twenty times

the amount of free based nicotine that they thought. So they're doing this on purpose. Not only that they put it in the first uh the end of the cigarette, so your first few puffs get you off quicker and get you you know that that nicotine hit quicker. So it's all very deliberate. It's all it's all on purpose

because they like to sell smokes. They're making a lot of money on so much so that there's another startling stat fifty of people that have had surgery for lunk answer start smoking again after the Yeah, I've known a couple of people who are not lung cancer but like heart attacks, Um, major coronary bypass surgery, right, Um, who still smoke? And it's I, I guess that is kind of that's either a testament to their their stupidity or you know, the addictiveness of the power of smoking. So

this is kind of a downer for you probably and others. Well, what am I supposed to do? Chuck, Well, you're supposed to quit, so maybe we should talk about that, all right, I guess we can. It's uh, this brings us to the article I wrote, is quitting smoking contagious? And it turns out it's sort of is by contagious, we mean it's much much easier to stop if you do it with a partner, Okay, alright, so let's talk about that, all right, let's do Uh there's a few little stats

here we could talk about. Two. Men generally have a generally have a seven percent higher likelihood of quitting smoking than women. You've got that on your side. They don't only know. They think one reason might be because a lot of times there's a weight gain associated with quitting, and that women might be a little more bashful about putting on some pounds than men are um and it's a lot of it has to do with genetics too. That you're talking about the nicotine receptors in your brain. Uh,

there's a receptor gene called exciting. It's called c HR in A five of course. And uh, if you have this gene in your body, you're born with it. You're more likely to enjoy that very first cigarette you ever have. Oh really, so you than by by extension to be addicted, yeah, and to be to continue smoking. Basically, so genetics are involved, your sex is involved. Um, mental illness, This is kind

of interesting. Seventy of schizophrenics or smokers. Really, well, that's funny because um they were hoping to use uh chavicks to treat Yeah, that's okay, thanks, uh you all. That is interesting because bipolar disorder six and alcoholics of alcoholic smoke too. Again though, that falls in line with that Kse State study that you know. It's it's smoking and

drinking alcohol, smoking and drinking coffee, smoking in food. We derive pleasure from all these and it's like this, it's like um, you know, putting the whipped cream on the ice cream with when you have a cigarettes, just eating vanilla ice cream but then hey, you've got the whipped cream on topics, right, you know, it's kind of like that. So what they've learned is that there was this big study. I know that you love the study, the Farmington Heart Study.

I love the study. It's enormous, it's sweeping. This is what a study should be like twenty one years. What twelve thousand, twelve thousand residents of Farmington, Massachusetts were studied over thirty two year period. I mean that is you're talking about some really a really good data, significant data. Yeah. Yeah, it's really cool. So they studied all these people and uh, it's a heart study, so it wasn't just for smoking,

it's just about the in general. But um, about five thousand out of these twelve thousand are smokers, which which they defined by smoking more than one cigarette every day. Yeah, which is a little high. Actually, only about of the population in the United States smokes. Now really, yeah, that's

that's on the high side. I'm part of a dying breed on a yeah you are, yeah, very very literally literally, So, uh, they studied these folks and they found they what they basically did was a researched friends and family members and co workers to get a subset of of connection, basically people who are connected to each other. But they found were that people that quit smoking. Um, whose spouse quit smoking, your sixty seven percent less likely to smoke if your

spouse quit. Now, I can understand that. You know, because you're living with somebody, you you get able to see you every day. Uh yeah, But but in quite the opposite, You're you can intimidate your mate out of smoking if they know they're going to get in trouble. There's there's that kind of fear fear based exactly. Uh. And it extended even further than that. Co workers were thirty four percent less like it can can continue smoking because I know a lot of times you have your smoke buddies.

If it don't have your smoke with sure, I'm not naming names though, no names being named, but um, if that person were to quit, then your thirty four percent uh less likely to continue smoking. Did you think that's a significant drop? I mean, uh, that's six. Well, hopefully that's kind of a good ratio from your spouse to a coworker. I guess yeah, close friends, you have a

thirty six percent chance of of continuing smoke. Siblings so there's they definitely established a link that if you quit smoking with somebody else, uh, big significant chance that you're gonna quit smoking as well. Well. What I found super interesting in in this article was that, um that you said that the six degrees of separation rule actually apply. So Kevin Bacon roll exactly. Yeah. Um. And if if you put it, there's subject A B and C and subject A no subject B and subject BE no subject C.

Is everyone following this so far? Yes? Okay, Um, if subject A quit smoking, then subject C is more likely to quit smoking as well, even though they don't know each other. Yeah, I don't know, I don't I don't understand that. Does does subject be you know, just by knowing subject A carry the triumph of quitting with with him or her to subject C or what? Maybe? So I don't think that can be explained, but it's it's in the data, I mean, less likely to continue smoking.

Subject C is if Subject A quits even if they don't know each other, and subject D it extends even further eleven chance. That's so that's four people, three people away.

So they they there's a statistical link. They're just not entirely certain what that link is No, they're not sure what that link is, but what they do know from the study is it, uh, just as you enable each other when you smoke, smokers form clusters usually, and when that cluster starts to break up, you'll either be a part of the non smoking cluster or you'll go off and form a new cluster with new smoking friends. Right,

And I can totally understand that. Um. Just you know, down in the courtyard, I know people who I don't see at all anymore because they quit smoking one of the one of the two. Yeah, I hadn't. I hadn't considered that. But the good news is you need a buddy up with somebody, not you. Of course i'd like you to quit, but you out there who are smokers, buddy up with someone, if it's your wife, try it together.

You might want to kill each other at first, but it turns out it's much much easier when you have some support around you. So, Chuck, thanks for all this. Um. As a smoker, my my one real takeaway from this is don't bother smoking anything but the first third of the cigarette because that's where the pop is. So yeah, yeah, I'm glad that was your takeaway. It was I'm gonna actually go uh and puff over this whole thing, right,

chew over it. I mean, I'm gonna go for a jog. Well, don't you go anywhere, don't smoke or anything like that. Stick around for a second to find out which article and practice Chuck thinks is ridiculous. I honestly don't know what it is. Chuck, what what? What article do you think is ridiculous? And what practice? I should say, what practice? It's called noodling? And what is noodling? Noodling is uh the best way to say this. Rural folks um will go out into a lake. They will get into the water.

They will reach down underwater with their hands into mud holes and let a catfish bite onto their arm and pull this thing out onto their attached to their limb. Okay, I actually have heard of that, but that is called stumping, I think, or something like that. Well, by any other name, is also a rose. I have no idea, but it's called noodling in this article, and it's, uh, it's ridiculous

to me. So why why why? I mean, if you can catch a fish without having to spend the money on hook or bait or anything, why not I know we're going to get complaints from noodlers all over the country. I agree. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and say that catfish is d lish. No matter how you get. It's frightening. Maybe more than anything. It reminds me of the scene in Flash Gordon where Timothy Dalton is reaching into that hole. I have no idea what you're talking. That's a good movie.

You should see it, all right? Well, uh go see Flash Gordon apparently, and be sure to read how noodling works on how stuff works dot Com. Chuck command you for more on this and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com? Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you