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MyHealthNewsDaily
About one in 10 smokers say they don't reveal to their doctors that they light up, according to a new survey.
This could equate to more than 6 million smokers in the United States, the researchers said.
The findings are important because health care providers "play a critical role in reaching smokers with appropriate messages and resources for quitting," said Cheryl G. Healton, president and chief executive officer of Legacy, the organization that conducted the study, which advocates prevention of youth smoking and helping people to quit.
"It becomes a missed public health opportunity if [smokers] do not talk to doctors and nurses about smoking and quitting," Healton said.
The reluctance of some smokers to discuss their smoking may be due to the increasing social stigma surrounding the habit. Of those who kept their smoking a secret from their doctors, 42 percent said it was because they felt ashamed, according to the survey.
Increased public health efforts to ban smoking in public places and create smoke-free workplaces may unintentionally lead smokers to feel marginalized, and less willing to discuss smoking with their physicians, Healton said.
Doctors should be aware of this problem, and be provided with tools to help them better communicate with their patients about smoking cessation, the researchers said.
Smoking stigma
The findings are based on a nationally representative survey (completed online) of 3,146 smokers or former smokers in the United States.
- Eighty-seven percent said they inform their health care provider about their habit, while 13 percent said they did not.
- Smokers who kept their smoking a secret from their doctor were more likely to be light smokers, and to have tried to quit in the last 30 days, compared to those who did admit their habit.
- Fifty-three percent of all smokers said they feel comfortable talking about their smoking, but just 24 percent sought help from their health care provider during their last attempt to quit.
- Two-thirds of those who said they did not disclose their smoking status to their health care provider said they did not want to be lectured about their smoking.
- More than half of smokers (53 percent) perceived medium to high levels of stigma related to being a smoker. Thirty-five percent of smokers kept their smoking secret from their health care provider said they perceived high levels of stigma, compared with 14 percent of those who informed their provider.
Speaking to patients
Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in N.Y., said sometimes smokers don't speak with their doctors about their smoking because doctors simply don't ask.
"The doctor has to ask about smoking history," Horovitz said. And if the patient doesn't tell the truth, "you can often smell it on their clothes or their breath, and so you have to confront them," Horovitz said. "It's the physician's job to elicit this from the patient," he said.
Horovitz said he recommends that doctors set a date for smokers to quit, and when that date arrives, ask whether they've cut down, or need some help.
Legacy has created guidelines that Healton said may help health care providers conduct conversations about smoking and quitting. The guidelines advise doctors to ask every patient if they smoke, and to be positive and encouraging when advising smokers to quit.
"This initiative aims to educate physicians and nurse practitioners to broach the subject proactively, without lecturing or judgment," Healton said.
The survey was funded in part by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Pass it on: About 6 million smokers in the United States keep their habit a secret from their doctors.
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If the doctor can't figure out that you smoke just by the smell of your clothes or the sound on your breathing, I wouldn't rely on him to be so astute to pick up a more serious condtion....find another doctor
Oh, yeah. Smokers are notorious for deluding themselves about the smell. In a doctor's office, where there is no smoking and no stinkingass ashtrays, you can smell the smokers in the waiting room, and find them blindfolded. The are not hiding it from their doctor.
I think most doctors can, but I doubt they are going to say "do you smoke" and then when the patient says "no"...the doctor yells "LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!"
you see, they are a bit more professional than that...if someone wants to lie to a doctor, so be it.
it's their health, and the doctor shouldnt care if the patient doesnt care...PERIOD.
I asked my doc if he thought I would live 20 more years? He asked, "Do you stay out late chasing women?" I replied, "No". "Do you eat alot of red meat and drink fine brandy every evening?" "Um, no", I said. "Do you drive really fast with reckless abandon every chance you get and smoke Cuban cigars?" I again replied, "No." He asked......
"So why the hell do you care?"
Why be honest about it? All it does it provide ammo for bureaucrats and insurance companies to bilk you for more money. Tax rates on cigaretts are obscene. If liberals care so much about the plight of the working class maybe they should consider lowering taxes on tobacco.
Personally I think that if only 1 in 10 is not fessing up that is pretty good. I think it goes to show that smokers are rather honest people.
Rachael Rettner, thanks for the story, but was it even worth the effort? I'm mildly surprised at the numbers... would have thought 2 in 10 lied to their doctors about smoking. When you're dead the doctors will know the truth, and so will the insurance company you also lied to!
The thing about insurance is they ask if you are a smoker.
But you could easily quit and then pick it up again.
I quit smoking when I finish the cigarette.
So technically, as long as you are not currently smoking, you have quit smoking.
Hide what? Your chest sounds like Niagara Falls, your tongue is yellow, and your hair smells like a barroom.
BlackBox; I consider my self to be a liberal, I don't consider Democrats to be liberals, I see them as being just like your party....easily manipulated.
I smoke and when they raised the taxes this last time, I did contact my local politicians. They target minorities because the majority would rather punish people like smokers than share the burden to pay their fair share of taxes. Sin taxes are never used to help the people who pay sin taxes, like helping them quit...nope, the do gooders would rather pass the buck and make others pay for the pot hole that got fixed in front of their house.
Our Country has run out of legitimate ways to pass the costs along, so they resort to the path of least resistance. Do gooders ain't so good when you know the facts.
Yes; I know smokers cost you more when it comes to Health Insurance - or do we? If I die at 60 yo then I'm not around costing the system for 25 more years like the grossly old do. Your obsession to live to 90yo is just as bad if not worse - move aside and let the young flourish. Without modern medicine we died at 50yo...this living twice as long is screwing up the balance of nature.
Ryan in Texas...if it were only that easy....my darling quit 11 months ago...insurance requires him to be tobacco free for two years before they will change his status. I have been smoking electronically for 11 months...the last I checked they have no clue how to classify me as technically, I am not smoking tobacco.
That is the reason us smokers put clean clothes on, take a shower, chew gum, and don't smoke right before a doctors visit. I don't want to pay higher insurance premiums just because I do something legal...imagine if they said that to drinkers. Gov't should not regulate my body, and neither should an employer or insurance company. I understand an employer's right to demand it on property, but not outside of work, and certainly not in my home. If people don't like it, they can make it illegal...I'm ok with that too:)
"I don't want to pay higher insurance premiums just because I do something legal."
Smoking is legal but lying to obtain benefits isn't. And you're doing it at my expense.
Any doctor who can not tell that a patient is a smoker should probably not be a doctor. There are too many signs that someone is a smoker for any decent doctor to miss them all. People who lie to their doctors about their smoking could be putting their own lives at risk in the process. There may be some medications that cause an adverse reaction when combined with nicotine, particularly those for blood pressure or heart conditions. Also, it is well known that certain birth control medications should not be taken by smokers because of increased risks of blood clots. Lying to your doctor about what you are putting in your body is never a good idea.
The issue wasn't about IF the doctor had figured out if they smoked or not. The study was to see if the smoker admitted their habit. Regardless if the doctor knew, or figured it out. derr derr.
I was just wondering. Has anybody on here ever had VD?
I've never been a smoker, but until I moved out of my parents' house, I smelled like I was. I was questioned by my doctors about my smoking habits and I'm fairly certain they believed I was lying about the fact that I don't smoke. I can't even visit my parents without leaving reeking of the smell and that's just from walking on the porch since they stopped smoking in the house nearly 20 years ago. If you think that bathing and changing into clean clothes in addition to not smoking before a doctor visit is doing you any good, you apparently can't smell the stale smoke that is in your house and your car. That clean outfit you just put on has been polluted by cigarette smoke since you took it out of the dryer and put it in the closet. Don't believe me? Use some clean water with white vinegar in it and clean your walls... that nasty mess in the bucket is from smoking. And if you clean the same walls again in, say, six months, it'll be just as gross.
Cheetah, try reading that article again. Most people who lie about it are light smokers.
The people you are describing are the kind who can't go 5 minutes without a cigarette. Most people don't smoke like that. And I have yet to see someone with a yellow tongue.
I’ve never smoked but I have to wonder if part of the problem is that some doctors are downright nasty towards patients that make unhealthy decisions. Sure, patients need to be honest with their doctor but there is another side of that coin: if doctors WANT patients to be forthcoming they need to be respectful even when the patient does something unhealthy.
wildmetfan - I agree with you 100%, if a doctor can't tell if a person smokes by the smell on them, all they should have to do is listen to their lungs for a second or two and hear the slime gurgling around in there. And if they can't, like you said, you need to go to another doctor, one that has actually graduated from Medical School. Peace.
Do they hide it from the insurance companies as well so they can pay non-smoker premiums?
definitely
That's probably one of the main reasons they lie about it. The fact that the majority of smokers are lower income individuals, and the huge taxes on cigs in many states doesn't help. Its an addiction and this is one of the results of the silly idea of making it so expensive people will quit.
Servo,
Study after study in various countries have shown that increased cig prices are a deterrent to use. A certain portion of people quit every time the price is raised.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21059183
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22132381
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20483500
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20379130
Weak exscuse for the government to gouge people for engaging in a legal activity which they have every right to enjoy if they choose.
@sad
Sure some may quit.. but your not going to totally exterminate the phenomenon with by raising prices, and are likely to further reduce the health of those who don't. Those who don't are more likely to find savings in other areas, reducing their quality of eating, lying to the insurance company and doctor , buying black market cigarettes etc.
Not to mention reducing tax income and creating a black market which funds violent crime.
I would even argue that in practice it has no effect since it drives more cigarette sales to the blackmarket which reduces the availability of hard statistics of actual purchases.
Studies are great.. but they don't always take into account the effectiveness and/or unintended effects of policies in the real world.
Percisely, government control creates opportunities for criminals which then translates in to a rise in other types of crime as well. It's the same way with the war on drugs and gun control.
the only thing I try to hide from my doctor is my wallet....
No one ever imagined that a cigarette tax would eliminate all smoking, I am just pointing out that it does (consistently) result in fewer smokers.
BlackBox, smoking is legal, absolutely. On a population level smoking creates outrageously high medical costs, too. It seems only fair that there should be some way to get smokers to bear some of the increased medical costs that they cause for the country. I agree with posters that say that many lie to doctors to avoid increased insurance premiums. So they are skipping out on the bill there. Ideally taxes on cigs would help partially defray some of the medical costs that their legal, self-destructive behaviors are causing for the rest of us. If the US had a fee-for-service system, I say no problem; no cig taxes. Smokers would end up paying for their oxygen tanks and their COPD meds, lung cancer treatment, arterial stents, amputations and countless smoking related hospital visits. But it is not and they don't. Therefore I say tax away. The smarter ones will quit and the others will help cover a small fraction of the bills they create in service of a legal "right."
@sad
The problem with your assertion is it doesn't, it only results in fewer people legally purchasing cigarettes, and any result it does have disproportionately effects those of lower incomes. Which are also the most likely to not be able to afford the added insurance premiums, reduce the quality of their diet etc in order to continue paying for it. So it simply shifts any costs that may be saved from those who quit to new health problems by those who don't.
Studies have also show the vast majority of smokers (those between the ages fo 25 and 44) do not respond to the increase in taxes.
So the effect is simply to get a few to quit while increasing black markets, Increasing the range of health problems and increasing the funds available to violent criminals.
Seems like its a wash if your lucky. The added taxes needed for policing the black markets, the added money used for other health problems etc are probably More than the health care costs saved by getting a few to quit.
Servo, could you send the link to those studies? I could not find any to support your claims.
What I did find was that taxes reduce smoking behavior regardless of source (eliminating the black market argument as anything more than a negligible). In other words, perhaps some people do use black market cigarettes after a tax increase but a) it is a very small number b) does not change the fact that the total number of people who smoke decreases.
As for disproportionately affecting the poor: Excellent! The poor are unlikely to pay for the increased medical bills that they are causing through their behavior, so they should not be smoking in the first place. Look, I am a liberal and I am not interested in disproportionately taxing the poor, but this is a case in which a very poor choice directly increases health care costs (and not by a little amount). The poor are least able to take on the costs of smoking, both in the cigarettes and in all of the health care costs that come from that behavior. You keep saying that they will simply give up other things in their life like healh care premiums to continue to afford more expensive cigarettes. What a supremely poor and irresponsible choice.
@sadmoronsvote2
Except that the money collected aren't being used to treat people, it's being used to pay the fat salaries of bureaucrats over at USDHHS who justify their jobs by waging a propaganda war on tobacco. States use the tax money to fund projecs which have nothing to do with smoking. It is nothing but highway robbery.
Actually i've tried to link numerous studies and reports but newvine keeps removing them. If you know why and how to resolve it please let me know.
As to the black markets one only has to look at new york or new jersey. A simple google search should show you the problem is much larger than you think. New york estimated 7.3 million packs per month were being sold in the black market.
Lastly.. I suppose you support taxing soft drinks, fatty or high cholesterol foods, alcohol, sports cars, red cars, low income housing, having kids, television, milk, teenage pregnacny and anything else that has been shown to increase the risks of an accident or future health problems? Or is it only smoking?
Every time the government raises taxes on tobacco and more smokers quit, revenue is lost. What happens when the government doesn't have revenue being generated by the sale of tobacco? They will find a way to generate it by putting taxes on something else...let's see - tax on sugared drinks, tax on plastic bags, tax on drinks in plastic bottles, etc. Any behavior that the nanny state government in power at the time believes they have the power to control - they will. Oops, you don't recycle? Add a surtax. Oops, you refuse to cram your family of 4 into a compact electric/hybrid vehicle? Add a surtax. Oops, you weigh more than what some panel deems is the optimum weight for you? Another tax.
I do not bow down to the stigmatised version of my smoking. I can remember when it was fashionable until the electronics industry figured out they needed a scapegoat to cover up the real cause of cancer and a lot of other illnesses.They hired good old Koop to put the kibosh on smoking, Everybody jumped on the bandwagon, smoking became the greatest evil since Adolph Hitler. Next time your doctor tells you how dangerous smoking is, ask him to show you a death certificate listing the exclusive cause of death being due to smoking. No such animal. in ninety five percent of the time it isn't even listed as contributary. Ask him to give you the statistics on how many none smokers die from all illnesses as compared to smokers dying from those same illnesses. He can't the medical profession does not publish those statistics. Ask him why doesn't Africans who don't live in or around major cities get breast or prostrate cancer or most other cancers for that matter. Lord knows they die from a host of other illnesses or diseases but cancer is not a widespread cause. Preventing smoking by our current political philosophy is a means of generating income by the States and charging smokers more for everythng else, insurance in particular. I've been smoking for sixty one years, I feel my age but I'm in better health than many men who are ten to fifteen years my junior who don't smoke. Its a practice I would't advise anyone to take up but, I've researched the subject smokng with the possdible exception of someone falling asleep with a lit cigarette and burning hiself up has never killed one person medically.
N.C., my father would have said the same thing at your age. He thought he was healthy as a horse and his doctor said his lungs didn't sound like he had been smoking as long as he admitted to (and my father doesn't lie about his smoking, how much he smokes or how long he's been doing it). A week before his 64th birthday, at midnight on February 1, 2011, I get a phone call from my mother crying hysterically because my father (who has never been sick a day in his life) has had a massive heart attack (later referred to by his cardiologist as a widow maker) and had died... with a long pause before telling me he had been revived and was in surgery. My father survived and is still alive. His heart disease was traced back by his cardiologist not to the foods he eats that would have caused high cholesterol and clogged his arteries but to his smoking habit of 55 years. So while smoking is not listed officially as a cause of death, the cause of death can be attributed to smoking in a direct way. Unfortunately, 55 years of smoking combined with the number of cigarettes he smokes every day proved to be too difficult an addiction for his life being cut short by it. Not even having to get a defibrillator implanted in his body because his heart function is so low that it could just stop beating at any time was enough of a deterrent. He has started smoking again and we have been told by his doctor that he will probably die in the next year. Cigarettes will not be listed as the cause of death, but we know what is killing him. And so does he.
When will people realize that some people like smoking, enjoy it and are sick of all the hysterical anti-smoking bullies that are constantly in your face about a perfectly legal product...........
Probably because people are sick of paying for treatments for uninsured smokers that develop cancers (which most will) and then can't pay the hospital bill.
Not to mention, it has been proven that 2nd hand smoking is dangerous. Smoking in public not only destroys the smoker's health, but all those innocent others who just happen to pass by.
Maybe that's why people dislike smokers?
oh im well aware of it, just think we need to move to a different insurance model.
for every "bad, but legal" habit we engage in, that ups our risk for disease...we should pay a premium.
obesity, booze, drugs (legal or not legal), cigarettes, ect...
I dont mind people making personal choices...they should just be responsible for them, and not push the reality of the costs onto other people...not making the same decisions.
I hear you. I quit smoking almost a decade ago but I used to love smoking. I don't pay my dentist to lecture me about how I don't floss well enough and how I should really brush 3 times a day or whatever. I know the consquences, I'm an adult I can make an adult decision not to floss or skip brushing once in a while if I just don't freakin' feel like it. If I was still smoking and I didn't have any intention of quitting I wouldn't want my doctor to lecture me about the dangers of smoking. Plus by now, who really doesn't already know that smoking can give you horrible breathing and circulation problems that can lead to a miserable and painful death? I have the same opinion about illegal drug use, as long as you aren't hurting anyone else, it should be your decision to do whatever the hell you want to your own body, even if it does kill you.
Smoking is stupid, but there's an enormous misconception when it comes to health cost burdens. Sin taxes on cigarettes pay far more than the actual health care costs caused by smoking (yes, they are both very costly). So you're technically not paying for anything (besides second-hand smoke if that is significant in you given circumstances). I'm not saying we shouldn't tax it more, but if we do, it's for disincentive purposes, or an easy way to exploit addicts, not b/c of some medical drain.
The Chinese smoke WAY MORE than Americans, but live longer.
And 1/3 of Smokers with lung cancer didn't get it from smoking (that is the background rate - the rate that non smokers have).
As for them paying for themselves -
1. Poor people rarely pay for their own healthcare, and more poor people are smokers.
but
2. They do pay higher insurance premiums and plenty of taxes on the cigarettes.
and
3. They die younger. And since it reduces the final, most expensive years, it means less is spent on them in nursing homes and repeated end of life hospitilizations.
There are different figures, but when everything is put together, they do not cost more than non smokers.
There are currently only 3 legal mood altering drugs available in the US. We already tried prohibition on one of them. And you can't mix caffiene and alcohol in the same product anymore. Someone asked me if I thought we would ever legalize marijuana - I responded that with the Gov't growing this fast, and with no limitations, I expect cigarettes to be declared illegal - so forget marijuana.
If only all our 'sins' were as easy to pick out as that of a smoker. (My eSmoke is looking better and better...)
I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of people hiding from their doctor's that they haven't had regular exercise in quite some time, or that they ate fast food 2-3 times last week. I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of people hiding from their doctor that they drink more alcohol than they should.
Smokers are the current pariah. Once the wicked smokers have been dealt with, there will be another vice chosen. It is what it is.
This is very true. My mother had smoked from the time she was out of high school and started working. In the mid-1970's she was hospitalized with pneumonia. At that time her family physician found out she had been smoking all that time. He was very upset with her - knowing he would have probably done chest X-rays, possibly other tests over those years. The doctor even confronted me and other family members, asking whether or not we had known. My mother hid her smoking from everyone she could - she would smoke when we were away at school, even taking a drag out the kitchen window, as though she could hide the smoke smell from her breath, hair, clothes or house. After she stopped smoking my sister and I asked her if she really thought she hid her smoking from others. I don't believe my mom and dad hid their smoking from their insurance company - I'm not sure that was or wasn't a factor at that time.
Last saw a doctor, for an ailment, in 1969. Have smoked since 1955. I used to be courteous to non-smokers but no more. Keep you slobby fat a$$ out of my face.
Want to die early? See a doctor or go to a hospital.
I love it when smokers like you blow your vile stinky smoke in my face. I love the look on your face when I take your cigarette and put it out on your clothes. Heck, it's making me smile just thinking about it.
I also have been known to get out of my car when stopped at a light and "retrieve" the lit cigarette the car in front of me tossed out their window. It's really fun to watch them frantically search for that cigarette after I flick it through their window back into their car. There I go, giggling again!!
todd, you do know that that's vandalism right? who do you think the cop is going to deal with more harshly, you or the smoker? but dang it if you didn't just seem so macho and tough!!
proamerica - huh, I used to be courteous to smokers...but after reading your arrogant comment, no more.
what a beautiful america this is...where we can be as nasty as we want to be, and pretend to be christian all the while.
Dear Jesus, dont hate me for being a POS of @!$%# who only cares about MYSELF...it's the american way!
Todd.....yeah right........try that to some of the smokers I know and you'll be giggling with no teeth in your mouth......jerk.....
"Last saw a doctor, for an ailment, in 1969. Have smoked since 1955."
Just like my father. He died a thousand times in a heart/lung spiral in his last three years. He died his last a week before Christmas.
Happy New Year.
"It's really fun to watch them frantically search..."
They could get a ticket for littering. You could go to jail Rambo.
If I have to go to the doctor it's about something specific not for a 1/2 hour lecture about smoking/quitting.
So doctors encouraging people to improve their health is a bad thing? Is that not what they're for?
*cough* "Doc, I can't breathe."
"Maybe that's because you've been smoking a pack a day for fifteen years, genius."
I believe this is the same mindset the obese have...and it's working out well for them, id say.
And I believe this is a good factor in why people don't tell their doctors that they smoke. I always hated that lecture and finally got to the point where they would start it and I would just say don't bother.
I don't hide it from my doctor's but I wish I did. The second you tell them you smoke they stop listening
Me: My shoulder has been hurting for no apparent reason for the past three months
Doctor: It's because you smoke
Me: Ever since I got this new eye prescription, I've been having headaches
Eye Doctor: It's because you smoke
Greeaat, thanks for all your help....
Some people keep it a secret because privately purchased health insurance is cheaper for non-smokers. Most big company and federal government insurance do not charge a penalty for smoking.
Well the problem with that is if you say you don't smoke and you get a reduced premium when they find out you do smoke it is pay back time. Sooner or later the truth comes out and you won't win. Worse part is if they find out when you are on the slab your beneficiary might not get what you think they will. Maybe Nothing! The term for it is Fraud and it can exempt the insurance company form paying anything.
I guess they would have to prove that, first. There are some days that I walk into work that I can barely breath because of the Diesel exhaust that is heavy in the air.
ihateliberals-3787409
I wasn't trying to justify lying about smoking to the doctors. I don't even smoke. I was just saying, that is a reason some people lie about it.
You can't lie to your last doctor, the coroner....
great reply
You don't like my smoking? You got two legs...Walk the f##k away!
That's the problem J, sometimes I can't walk away. Like when there is a group of smokers happily puffing a smoke cloud in front of the restaurant door. My wife is very sensitive to smoke and sometime walking through that cloud causes a negative reaction. If you want to poison your own body, be my guest. But don't force me to breath it in please.
Tell your crybaby wife to quit whining and deal with it. If you can't handle walking near ciagrette smoke outdoors for 2 seconds then you've got bigger problems in life.
"And in tonight's news, an unidentified black box was found at the scene of a horrific accident. Barely intact, the box may be able to provide clues as to just what exactly ran over it." "Back to you Todd."
I smoked for 30 plus years, close to a pack a day most of them. I stopped going to my doctor because I knew he would say "stop smoking, eat better and exersize". After 12 years of not seeing him I did quit. Now I don't go around my siblings much because they chain smoke and it takes two days for my lungs to feel normal afterwards.
How many people do you think you have driven off?
It is a masty habit and selling them should be banned, but big brother is trying to contol us too much already. Smoke away J. just not around me please.
I quit telling the doctors that I smoke because they blame everything on smoking! You go to the doctors for a sprained ankle and they will tell you it is because you smoke!
But on the positive side of this article less people will be reported as dying from smoking.
If the doctor can't tell you are smoking then you have the wrong doctor. I have 5 kids and when they were teens they tried to hide their smoking from me. They were good at it too but it never worked.
wheeeze wheeze no i dont smoke
the cigarette does
i started smoking at 12 years and quit after smoking kool cigarettes for 6 months
that was at 18
i coughed all day and night
after waking up every night for a month i finally quit
im 50 now
and cigarettes make me ill smelling them
especially when 90% of my friends smoke
them dam cigarette butts are the worst
People know that smoking is bad for their health, some want to quit and some don't. Two of my brothers smoke, one tells his doctor and pays the added insurance, the other doesn't. The one that doesn't says he doesn't want to be treated for cancer and only carries insurance in case he's hit by a car or something--so he won't wake up in a hospital owing tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars. I think there should be some way for people to be pre-identified as to how much they're willing to spend on hospital care--and if they reach that limit, just medicate for pain and let them die. It's a nasty and expensive habit, but something is going to kill everybody someday...there's no knowing what or when (but I don't let them smoke in my house!).
Any smoker who thinks their Dr. can't tell that they smoke, is doing just that........blowing smoke!!!! You stink when you smoke. I know, I was a smoker for 45 years and quit 10 years ago. I have grandchildren who smoke...........and they stink...........anyone who smokes has it on their clothes, their breath, their hair, their hands, etc , etc, and if they smoke in their house or car it stinks in their too. I am so thankful that I quit.
many smokers dont tell.... was the link i clicked on. 1 in 10? come on. 5 in 10 dont even tell the doctor the right medicine they are on.
I've got to tell you something. If you lie about smoking, most doctors aren't going to push very hard to find out if you are lying. They can document that you said you didn't smoke and they don't have to bother with the almost always fruitless smoking cessation strategies. You think a physician enjoys trying to get you to stop smoking or stop eating yourself to death if you are not motivated to do so? Sure they might do a little preaching, but trying to get an unmotivated person to quit through outpatient visits is essentially impossible. You learn to focus your energies on people that want to quit and in those cases you get them help outside of a traditional medical office visit.
I pretty much keep it a secret from my family and work. I don't want to hear sermons constantly from all of them because I frankly enjoy smoking. I come from a very clean living family and they have all had bad cancers in places other than the lungs. I enjoy my life, dirty little secret and all. If I die from lung cancer, I'll remember the words of Frank Sinatra's song "I did it my way."
It was the phrase "light smoker" that really made me think. I was a light smoker (non-smoker now), about a pack a month for years.
I never told my doctor. I never told my surgeon before my back surgery. I did quit completely during both of my pregnancies. But, I went back to light smoking (away from the kids) every time.
I already knew what the doctor would say. It's pretty much the worst habit to have and it will probably kill you. It turns your lungs black, and on, and on, and on. No one could have made me feel any worse than I did myself. I would have been embarrassed and changed doctors. It's a stupid habit and a person is being stupid when he or she smokes.
I think that light smokers don't usually smell like smoke (I didn't), especially right before they see the doctor! They may not have smoker's wrinkles, constant cough, or any other tell-tale signs. So they can get away with it. If you smoke a cigarette in the car right before your appointment, it's kind of hard to lie about it.
Not surprising. I used to tell doctors I smoked, but I stopped when then they kept making up nonsense about "oh your blood pressure is a little high" and "well why don't you come back again, we'd like to run more tests on something" -when I felt perfectly normal- when I was 20! I don't smoke anymore and feel no different. It's just a scam to make people who smoke feel unhealthier than they really are. If they're going to do that; I wish they'd start harassing all these fat people & make them pay more for health insurance. They're more of a burden than smokers and it's a problem that affects way more people in this country.
My wife had COPD and smoked. She told the doctor she quit and he didn't find out for 2 years she lied to him. He told her if she quit right then he could give her 5 more years of relatively good heath. She said she would rather smoke and died less than a year later.
Your post speaks louder than the rest. I am so sorry for your loss.
Smokers stink, their clothes stink, and every time they open their mouths to talk, the cigarette stench comes out. It would have to be a doctor without the sense of smell to not know the patient smokes. Also, their fingertips/nails are yellow. It is o.k. if they want to kill themselves by smoking but why contaminate the people who don't smoke? I am a victim of second-hand smoke. I developed fibrosis of the lungs and tumors in my airway because I was around people in the workplace who smoked when it was allowed. If they only knew what it is to suffer because of someone else's bad habits, they might stop their polluting. Very disgusting!!!! I have left friendships because of their smoking habit.
If you shower , put fresh clothes on and brush your teeth before your Dr Appt. there is no way you will be caught. If you are dumb enough to smoke in your car on the way to your appt, why bother lying about it? I think closet smokers are less likely to be caught as opposed to open smokers. It's really nobody's business if you choose to smoke, it is an enjoyable habit although unhealthy we all know that. Sometimes I wish we were back in the 60's where it was not only socially acceptable, but encouraged.
If you have health insurance, it's somebody's business. You are a higher risk participant in the pool, and you should pay higher premiums to help offset those risks.
It's like auto insurers charging more for drivers who have been at fault in a lot of accidents - it's not fair for other drivers to have to carry their extra weight. It's not fair for nonsmokers to carry yours.
How can one hide smoking from a doctor? Unless the doctor has no sense of smell. I can usually smell it on their breath and/or clothes. It's such a disgusting habit and it angers me when I see cigarette butts on the ground. They have no sense of respect for the environment. Just a nasty habit.
"It becomes a missed public health opportunity if [smokers] do not talk to doctors and nurses about smoking and quitting." You've been hiding things from us. Ooooh, you're a naughty little apparatchik. Do it for the Motherland! Don't you want to be just like us and drive Beemers, live in McMansions, join country clubs, and drink wine with parties of boring people?
If you want a confessor, go to church. They're much better at it. The tone of this makes me absolutely nauseous.
I smoke, but I can't understand how someone else who may smaoke, not tell their doctor. It is obvious and you can't get by with not telling him or her. I have to laugh at all these people who don't tell their doctor.
I also had the opportunity to use that high price drug for quit smoking. I was fine the first month, but the first day I took the next step, I threw up and I had already quit smoking. I still threw up and more. Then I decided to quit taking this drug and I quit being sick. I went back to smoking by choice. Smoking helps my rheumatory arithsis. I have severe pain and it helps relieve the pain.