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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know

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Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. Chuck Bryant's here. I'm here Josh as always,

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Speaker 1: and I'm Josh Clark, So thank you for joining us. Um,

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Speaker 1: how are you doing, Chuck? I'm doing good man. I'm

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Speaker 1: kind of crawling out of my skin a little bit,

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Speaker 1: I can tell. And I know why. Yeah, I could.

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Speaker 1: I could really go for a smoke. Actually yeah, I

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Speaker 1: hate to admit it, but yeah, I'm I'm a smoker.

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm a big time, heavy, heavy smoker. Have been

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Speaker 1: doing it for many, many years. That's what gives me

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Speaker 1: this thick, lustrous voice. Um made for radio. Yeah yeah,

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Speaker 1: And and as Chuck and most of the other people

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Speaker 1: in the office, no, uh, if I could smoke in

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Speaker 1: my cubicle, I would do so constantly, right, Like, It's

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Speaker 1: exactly how I wish it was the fifties. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: because not only could I smoke, I could also drink

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Speaker 1: at work as well, which you know, yeah, yeah, it'd

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Speaker 1: be like a madman. As you've mentioned, you like, right,

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Speaker 1: great show. So since I can't smoke in my cubicle.

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Speaker 1: I have to pop downstairs, you know, seven eight times

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Speaker 1: an hour, UM, which I understand. People in the airline

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Speaker 1: industry you have to do as well. Now, UM, the

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Speaker 1: the f A A band, the use of UM. This

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Speaker 1: this smoking cessation drug called the verenda cline better known

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Speaker 1: as shantics shantics, Yes, yes, UM, I always call it

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Speaker 1: shaviks for some reason. I don't know if you knew that. UM.

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Speaker 1: And And basically, if you're an air traffic controller or

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Speaker 1: a pilot, UM, you are doomed to a life as

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Speaker 1: a smoker because at the very least you can't use verendacline.

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Speaker 1: Reports started trickling in that some people were suffering psychotic

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Speaker 1: breaks UM epilepsy seizures. I've heard it could make you suicidal,

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Speaker 1: suicidal thoughts, and I gotta tell you that and and

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Speaker 1: this this is linked hasn't been proven obviously, UM. Disclaimer disclaimer, UM.

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Speaker 1: But the uh that the the last thing you want

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Speaker 1: in an airline pilot is suicidal tendencies. You know, because

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Speaker 1: if you're gonna go down, you might as well take

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Speaker 1: the whole plane with you. As you know, that's my

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Speaker 1: my worst way to die. Plane crash, so um, everybody

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Speaker 1: in the airline industry that's either controlling planes or driving

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Speaker 1: them is not allowed to take very client anymore. And UM,

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Speaker 1: so they're they're investigating it because it's a brand new

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Speaker 1: uh class of drugs. It's not like any other drug

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Speaker 1: on the market, and it targets UM these nicotinic receptors

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Speaker 1: which are like really sensitive on the brain, UM, and

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Speaker 1: they basically amplify other neurotransmitters. So if you are drinking um,

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Speaker 1: you know, an alcoholic beverage, uh, the you want to smoke? Right.

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Speaker 1: The reason why it's there's a Kansas State study that

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Speaker 1: just came out that's just that's because nicotine. You're not

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Speaker 1: so much addicted to the direct effects that nicotine has

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Speaker 1: on you, you're addicted to the accompanying effects that has.

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Speaker 1: It turns up the pleasure that you get and right, right,

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Speaker 1: which actually provides a a lot of UM foundation for

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Speaker 1: Newport's Alive with Pleasure ad campaign. I wonder if they

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Speaker 1: knew that back then or else if they were just

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Speaker 1: shooting in the dark and just happened to hit the target.

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Speaker 1: Will smoking definitely makes you feel better to a certain degree, right,

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Speaker 1: it does? We should probably tell everybody how smoking works. Right. Uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've been right, I've been writing. I've been writing a

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Speaker 1: lot about smoking lately, so I've I've got smoking on

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Speaker 1: the brain for sure. Okay, Well that's funny because that's

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Speaker 1: where smoking has its effect, right, the nicotine receptors. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: the nicotinic receptors, but also um uh in a very

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Speaker 1: standard way. What we know about smoking is is that, um,

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Speaker 1: it activates what the colinergic Yeah, pathways. That's the best

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Speaker 1: way I can say it. You know, colinergic, We're gonna

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Speaker 1: go with colinergic. Um. If you know, the correct pronunciation

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Speaker 1: is world, keep it to yourself. Um. So, So nicotine

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Speaker 1: activates this uh. And it's a pathway that transmits a

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Speaker 1: set of acetal colwine, right, which is responsible for the

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Speaker 1: parasympathetic nervous system, which does what chuck the opposite of

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Speaker 1: what you knew it was going to come to this

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Speaker 1: sooner or later. It always the key to the universe,

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Speaker 1: the theory of everything. So basically, um, this stuff makes

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Speaker 1: you sharper, It makes you feel focused, but also calm

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Speaker 1: as well. Right. So that's that's one effect. The problem

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Speaker 1: is is that um, when you when you have these

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Speaker 1: pathways damaged, it can lead to Alzheimer's because this stuff

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Speaker 1: is in charge of memory and other cognitive functions. Right,

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Speaker 1: so smoking by proxy could arguably lead to Alzheimer's since

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Speaker 1: it would overuse these pathways. The same thing goes with dopamine.

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Speaker 1: Openmine is in the reward pathways your brain, and uh,

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Speaker 1: they reinforce things that help you survive, like you want

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Speaker 1: to eat, you want to sleep. Yeah, that's that's how

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Speaker 1: we learn behavior, right right, And basically it just stimulates

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Speaker 1: pleasant feelings. I'm glad we don't have a punishment system

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Speaker 1: in our brain. I'll bet that would hurt punishment pathway.

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Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, Yeah, exactly, I've got that going on. Mine's

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Speaker 1: highly acute and well developed. Uh yeah. It also increases endorphins.

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Speaker 1: And now you know a little something about endorphins. I

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Speaker 1: I want to tell you about endorphins, chuck. Um. Basically,

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Speaker 1: they're the body's pain killer, natural painkiller, UM and and

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Speaker 1: it's triggered by stress or pain. Also, sex actually triggers

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Speaker 1: the release of endorphins and UM. When you have a

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Speaker 1: rush of them, uh, you you get kind of high,

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Speaker 1: you get euphoric. This is what's responsible for the runners high,

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Speaker 1: which I can tell you as a smoker, I've never achieved.

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Speaker 1: I have no clue with the runners high feels like right, um,

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Speaker 1: I start to wheeze very very quickly before I ever

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Speaker 1: even get close. You have runners low. Pretty much. It's

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Speaker 1: more of like a runners like dragged myself across the

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Speaker 1: floor kind of thing. Um. But so it's kind of like, um,

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Speaker 1: you get this from what I understand, the the endorphins

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Speaker 1: attached to the opiate receptors, So all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: it's like taking a giant hit a smack it right

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Speaker 1: in the old right, in the old left arm, and

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Speaker 1: and there you go. The weird thing is is that

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Speaker 1: endorphin is released in different doses depending on the individual.

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Speaker 1: It's unique to each person. So you and I could

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Speaker 1: bang the same knee, each of our knees on on

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Speaker 1: the same coffee table with the same force, and you know,

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Speaker 1: we get different doses of endorphins released. So I didn't

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Speaker 1: realize that. Apparently that's it's endorphins are one of the

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Speaker 1: few neurotransmitters that happened like that. So basically, smoking get

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Speaker 1: you going in all these way, right, and you know,

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Speaker 1: nicotine we know is highly addictive substance, naturally occurring subsce.

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Speaker 1: Was that ever proven? Because I got to tell you,

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Speaker 1: the big tobacco guys are telling me that's not really true.

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Speaker 1: Man's true. Those guys are evil incarnate, buddy. Are you sure? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm very sure. I've been doing a lot of smoking research,

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Speaker 1: and not only is nicotine really addictive, but cigarette companies

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Speaker 1: have gone out of the way to add all sorts

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Speaker 1: of stuff to make it even more addictive, to uh,

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Speaker 1: to increase that rush of endorphins. It's just it's unreal, man,

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Speaker 1: when you start reading about this thing. Look, I saw

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Speaker 1: the Insider too, but I mean, really, I've got some

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Speaker 1: facts for you. Let's hear them. Well, there's four thousand,

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Speaker 1: four thousand chemicals and a cigarette and five hundred and

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Speaker 1: ninety nine ingredients in each and every cigarette. So that's value.

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Speaker 1: I mean, how much is a cigarette? It's nothing. It's

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Speaker 1: it's one way to look at it. You're getting methane

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Speaker 1: and butane and rocket fuel and ammonia and cadmium. Where

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Speaker 1: else am I going to get this in my daily life? Yeah? Right, Okay,

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Speaker 1: you don't need that stuff, man, does your body doesn't?

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Speaker 1: Your cell phone battery does I should probably stop taking

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Speaker 1: my caminium supplements. You should. Uh, here's another smoking stat

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Speaker 1: you might like. Um, a packet day smoker in just

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Speaker 1: a full cup of tar one every year into their lungs.

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Speaker 1: What about a two packet day smoker would be two

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Speaker 1: cup cups of tar. It's it's a one to one

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Speaker 1: ratio there. So that's a full cup of tar in

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Speaker 1: your lungs. And one reason, you know, I used to

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Speaker 1: kind of scoff at people who when the cigarette company

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Speaker 1: started getting sued, like everyone knows they're bad for you.

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Speaker 1: How can you see the cigarette company? I don't feel

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Speaker 1: that way anymore. Why don't doing this research because I

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Speaker 1: don't know about you as a smoker, but a lot

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Speaker 1: of smokers when they wake up, they have a pretty

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Speaker 1: bad cough. Eight percent of smokers have that for a

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Speaker 1: cigarette in the first ten minutes of their day, and

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Speaker 1: it makes them stop coughing. So throw yourself back to

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Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties, before all these Surgeon General's warnings and things,

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Speaker 1: when the Surgeon General was actually smoking right exactly. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you would wake up and cough and feel really bad.

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Speaker 1: You have a cigarette and make you feel better, so

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Speaker 1: you keep smoking. What's going on there is uh inside

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Speaker 1: your body, inside your lungs and your bronchial tubes and everything.

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Speaker 1: A little silly little hairs that are like little street sweepers.

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Speaker 1: It just kind of swing back and forth and they

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Speaker 1: clean out, you know, the bad debris and the particles,

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Speaker 1: and they get to work. Smoking. Uh kills those guys,

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Speaker 1: numbs them or kills them so where they stop sweeping,

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Speaker 1: so you collect all the cook down in there, and

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Speaker 1: then when you don't smoke overnight, they wake back up

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Speaker 1: again and start sweeping again. So when you wake up

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Speaker 1: as a smoker, you have all this mucus and UH

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Speaker 1: and stuff built up, so you want to cough it out.

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Speaker 1: Take that first cigarette, and it kills acilia again. They

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Speaker 1: stop working. You stop coughing, You think you feel better.

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Speaker 1: That's nuts, Isn't that crazy? That's biology? Man, Here's something

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Speaker 1: else for you. Free you. You You know what free base

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Speaker 1: nicotine is. I know what free basing is. Well, it's

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Speaker 1: it's kind of the same same thing as crack cocaine. Honestly, Basically,

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Speaker 1: it's nicotine that's missing a hydrogen, the ion. It's molecular structure,

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Speaker 1: it's missing one hydrogen ion, and without it it makes

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Speaker 1: it turns into a gas easier. And if it's turned

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Speaker 1: into a gas easier, it goes to your brain quicker,

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Speaker 1: and things that go to your brain quicker, is quicker

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Speaker 1: to make you addictive. It hits your brain faster, quicker reaction,

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Speaker 1: same as crack cocaine. It's quicker reaction and get you

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Speaker 1: high quicker. So it's missing a hydrogenion and it's stilled

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Speaker 1: with cadmium. Oh yeah, there's still the cadmium. Uh So

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Speaker 1: what they found out is a lot of these major

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Speaker 1: brands of cigarettes um have like ten to twenty times

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Speaker 1: the amount of free based nicotine that they thought. So

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Speaker 1: they're doing this on purpose. Not only that they put

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Speaker 1: it in the first uh the end of the cigarette,

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Speaker 1: so your first few puffs get you off quicker and

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Speaker 1: get you you know that that nicotine hit quicker. So

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Speaker 1: it's all very deliberate. It's all it's all on purpose

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Speaker 1: because they like to sell smokes. They're making a lot

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Speaker 1: of money on so much so that there's another startling

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Speaker 1: stat fifty of people that have had surgery for lunk

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Speaker 1: answer start smoking again after the Yeah, I've known a

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Speaker 1: couple of people who are not lung cancer but like

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Speaker 1: heart attacks, Um, major coronary bypass surgery, right, Um, who

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Speaker 1: still smoke? And it's I, I guess that is kind

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Speaker 1: of that's either a testament to their their stupidity or

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Speaker 1: you know, the addictiveness of the power of smoking. So

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Speaker 1: this is kind of a downer for you probably and others. Well,

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Speaker 1: what am I supposed to do? Chuck, Well, you're supposed

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Speaker 1: to quit, so maybe we should talk about that, all right,

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Speaker 1: I guess we can. It's uh, this brings us to

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Speaker 1: the article I wrote, is quitting smoking contagious? And it

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Speaker 1: turns out it's sort of is by contagious, we mean

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Speaker 1: it's much much easier to stop if you do it

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Speaker 1: with a partner, Okay, alright, so let's talk about that,

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Speaker 1: all right, let's do Uh there's a few little stats

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Speaker 1: here we could talk about. Two. Men generally have a

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Speaker 1: generally have a seven percent higher likelihood of quitting smoking

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Speaker 1: than women. You've got that on your side. They don't

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Speaker 1: only know. They think one reason might be because a

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Speaker 1: lot of times there's a weight gain associated with quitting,

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Speaker 1: and that women might be a little more bashful about

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Speaker 1: putting on some pounds than men are um and it's

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Speaker 1: a lot of it has to do with genetics too.

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Speaker 1: That you're talking about the nicotine receptors in your brain. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's a receptor gene called exciting. It's called c HR

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Speaker 1: in A five of course. And uh, if you have

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Speaker 1: this gene in your body, you're born with it. You're

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Speaker 1: more likely to enjoy that very first cigarette you ever have.

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Speaker 1: Oh really, so you than by by extension to be addicted, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and to be to continue smoking. Basically, so genetics are involved,

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Speaker 1: your sex is involved. Um, mental illness, This is kind

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Speaker 1: of interesting. Seventy of schizophrenics or smokers. Really, well, that's

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Speaker 1: funny because um they were hoping to use uh chavicks

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Speaker 1: to treat Yeah, that's okay, thanks, uh you all. That

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Speaker 1: is interesting because bipolar disorder six and alcoholics of alcoholic

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Speaker 1: smoke too. Again though, that falls in line with that

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Speaker 1: Kse State study that you know. It's it's smoking and

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Speaker 1: drinking alcohol, smoking and drinking coffee, smoking in food. We

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Speaker 1: derive pleasure from all these and it's like this, it's

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Speaker 1: like um, you know, putting the whipped cream on the

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Speaker 1: ice cream with when you have a cigarettes, just eating

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Speaker 1: vanilla ice cream but then hey, you've got the whipped

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Speaker 1: cream on topics, right, you know, it's kind of like that.

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Speaker 1: So what they've learned is that there was this big study.

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Speaker 1: I know that you love the study, the Farmington Heart Study.

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Speaker 1: I love the study. It's enormous, it's sweeping. This is

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Speaker 1: what a study should be like twenty one years. What

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Speaker 1: twelve thousand, twelve thousand residents of Farmington, Massachusetts were studied

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Speaker 1: over thirty two year period. I mean that is you're

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Speaker 1: talking about some really a really good data, significant data. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's really cool. So they studied all these people and uh,

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Speaker 1: it's a heart study, so it wasn't just for smoking,

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Speaker 1: it's just about the in general. But um, about five

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Speaker 1: thousand out of these twelve thousand are smokers, which which

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Speaker 1: they defined by smoking more than one cigarette every day. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: which is a little high. Actually, only about of the

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Speaker 1: population in the United States smokes. Now really, yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: that's on the high side. I'm part of a dying

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Speaker 1: breed on a yeah you are, yeah, very very literally literally, So, uh,

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Speaker 1: they studied these folks and they found they what they

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Speaker 1: basically did was a researched friends and family members and

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Speaker 1: co workers to get a subset of of connection, basically

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Speaker 1: people who are connected to each other. But they found

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Speaker 1: were that people that quit smoking. Um, whose spouse quit smoking,

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Speaker 1: your sixty seven percent less likely to smoke if your

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Speaker 1: spouse quit. Now, I can understand that. You know, because

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Speaker 1: you're living with somebody, you you get able to see

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Speaker 1: you every day. Uh yeah, But but in quite the opposite,

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Speaker 1: You're you can intimidate your mate out of smoking if

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Speaker 1: they know they're going to get in trouble. There's there's

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Speaker 1: that kind of fear fear based exactly. Uh. And it

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Speaker 1: extended even further than that. Co workers were thirty four

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Speaker 1: percent less like it can can continue smoking because I

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Speaker 1: know a lot of times you have your smoke buddies.

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Speaker 1: If it don't have your smoke with sure, I'm not

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Speaker 1: naming names though, no names being named, but um, if

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Speaker 1: that person were to quit, then your thirty four percent

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Speaker 1: uh less likely to continue smoking. Did you think that's

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Speaker 1: a significant drop? I mean, uh, that's six. Well, hopefully

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Speaker 1: that's kind of a good ratio from your spouse to

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Speaker 1: a coworker. I guess yeah, close friends, you have a

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Speaker 1: thirty six percent chance of of continuing smoke. Siblings so

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Speaker 1: there's they definitely established a link that if you quit

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Speaker 1: smoking with somebody else, uh, big significant chance that you're

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Speaker 1: gonna quit smoking as well. Well. What I found super

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Speaker 1: interesting in in this article was that, um that you

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Speaker 1: said that the six degrees of separation rule actually apply.

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Speaker 1: So Kevin Bacon roll exactly. Yeah. Um. And if if

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Speaker 1: you put it, there's subject A B and C and

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Speaker 1: subject A no subject B and subject BE no subject C.

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Speaker 1: Is everyone following this so far? Yes? Okay, Um, if

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Speaker 1: subject A quit smoking, then subject C is more likely

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Speaker 1: to quit smoking as well, even though they don't know

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Speaker 1: each other. Yeah, I don't know, I don't I don't

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Speaker 1: understand that. Does does subject be you know, just by

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Speaker 1: knowing subject A carry the triumph of quitting with with

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Speaker 1: him or her to subject C or what? Maybe? So

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Speaker 1: I don't think that can be explained, but it's it's

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Speaker 1: in the data, I mean, less likely to continue smoking.

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Speaker 1: Subject C is if Subject A quits even if they

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Speaker 1: don't know each other, and subject D it extends even

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Speaker 1: further eleven chance. That's so that's four people, three people away.

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Speaker 1: So they they there's a statistical link. They're just not

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Speaker 1: entirely certain what that link is No, they're not sure

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Speaker 1: what that link is, but what they do know from

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Speaker 1: the study is it, uh, just as you enable each

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Speaker 1: other when you smoke, smokers form clusters usually, and when

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Speaker 1: that cluster starts to break up, you'll either be a

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Speaker 1: part of the non smoking cluster or you'll go off

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Speaker 1: and form a new cluster with new smoking friends. Right,

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Speaker 1: And I can totally understand that. Um. Just you know,

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Speaker 1: down in the courtyard, I know people who I don't

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Speaker 1: see at all anymore because they quit smoking one of

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Speaker 1: the one of the two. Yeah, I hadn't. I hadn't

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Speaker 1: considered that. But the good news is you need a

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Speaker 1: buddy up with somebody, not you. Of course i'd like

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Speaker 1: you to quit, but you out there who are smokers,

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Speaker 1: buddy up with someone, if it's your wife, try it together.

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Speaker 1: You might want to kill each other at first, but

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Speaker 1: it turns out it's much much easier when you have

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Speaker 1: some support around you. So, Chuck, thanks for all this. Um.

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Speaker 1: As a smoker, my my one real takeaway from this

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Speaker 1: is don't bother smoking anything but the first third of

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Speaker 1: the cigarette because that's where the pop is. So yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm glad that was your takeaway. It was I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: actually go uh and puff over this whole thing, right,

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Speaker 1: chew over it. I mean, I'm gonna go for a jog. Well,

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Speaker 1: don't you go anywhere, don't smoke or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: Stick around for a second to find out which article

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Speaker 1: and practice Chuck thinks is ridiculous. I honestly don't know

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Speaker 1: what it is. Chuck, what what? What article do you

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Speaker 1: think is ridiculous? And what practice? I should say, what practice?

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Speaker 1: It's called noodling? And what is noodling? Noodling is uh

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Speaker 1: the best way to say this. Rural folks um will

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Speaker 1: go out into a lake. They will get into the water.

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Speaker 1: They will reach down underwater with their hands into mud

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Speaker 1: holes and let a catfish bite onto their arm and

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Speaker 1: pull this thing out onto their attached to their limb. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I actually have heard of that, but that is called stumping,

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Speaker 1: I think, or something like that. Well, by any other name,

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Speaker 1: is also a rose. I have no idea, but it's

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Speaker 1: called noodling in this article, and it's, uh, it's ridiculous

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Speaker 1: to me. So why why why? I mean, if you

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Speaker 1: can catch a fish without having to spend the money

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Speaker 1: on hook or bait or anything, why not I know

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Speaker 1: we're going to get complaints from noodlers all over the country.

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Speaker 1: I agree. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and say that

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Speaker 1: catfish is d lish. No matter how you get. It's frightening.

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Speaker 1: Maybe more than anything. It reminds me of the scene

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Speaker 1: in Flash Gordon where Timothy Dalton is reaching into that hole.

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Speaker 1: I have no idea what you're talking. That's a good movie.

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Speaker 1: You should see it, all right? Well, uh go see

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Speaker 1: Flash Gordon apparently, and be sure to read how noodling

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Speaker 1: works on how stuff works dot Com. Chuck command you

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Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics. Does

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Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com? Let us know what

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Speaker 1: you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com. Brought to you by the reinvented two

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