Obama's Health
The fact that Sen. Obama was a smoker is old news, since he quit. Right? Think again.
The stories that have explored this issue all missed the point: Obama's history of smoking raises questions about his current and future health.
Some, like Jake Tapper, have suggested that Obama was less than honest about whether he still smoked, at least as of last August.
Others have suggested that Obama's smoking history makes him "more human," and that his (alleged) ability to quit makes him more heroic.
And some, perhaps with tongue in cheek to this, think quitting may actually hurt him by changing how his voice sounds.
Meanwhile, Sen. McCain's health questions are almost as old as he is. Congressman Jack Murtha (75), thinks John McCain (71) is too old for the pressures of high office, and he has come under legitimate pressure to release his medical records.
But what of Senator Obama's health? It's not as if once you quit smoking, all of the health effects immediately disappear. In fact, after enough smoking, some health effects are irreversible. Consider just the arteries and lungs.
How long and how much one smokes makes a difference. A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the amount of fatty deposits in the carotid artery depended on total pack-years of tobacco exposure, not whether the patient currently smokes. And a smoker's excess risk of a stroke doesn't return to that of nonsmokers until at least five, or as long as twenty years after quitting. Sen. Obama would have to serve a hypothetical four smoke-free terms before his stroke risk returned to normal.
So how long and how much did Sen. Obama smoke? The information has not been officially released, and the campaign has not returned calls or emails posing this question. But he smoked a lot over his life.
He admits to having smoked up to ten cigarettes a day, but usually closer to five or six. Most people underestimate how much they smoke, but let's take him at his word. Let's also assume he really did quit when he said he did, in February 2007 (although he admits to having fallen off the wagon). That's about twenty-six years, given that we know he was smoking by the time he was a freshman at Occidental College. That's more than 55,000 -- maybe 70,000 cigarettes! Has this aspect of Sen. Obama's ability to serve really been explored?
Just because he's young, looks great, and exercises doesn't mean he's healthy. Recall Jim Fixx. An overweight smoker when he turned his life around at thirty-five, Fixx became the icon of fitness. He quit smoking and started running. Then he died in 1984 at age fifty-three -- while running.
Sen. Obama, while not overweight, smoked a lot longer than Jim Fixx did. And while the stresses of running may have contributed to Fixx's death, it was his years of smoking, not his running, that caused the plaque to build up in his arteries. Doctors say the stress of being president may in fact exceed the stress of running. And it's an unhealthier kind of stress.
The public deserves to know how long and how much Sen. Obama really smoked. Does he have other risk factors for heart disease? Compared to whites, for instance, African-Americans are more likely to die of a stroke, according to the American Heart Association. This, in fact, is probably the only time race is a legitimate question to raise this campaign season -- and just one of several health question on voters' minds.
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A,) You worked with Giuliani. Which leads to B.
B.) Somehow you don't address the downside of candidates who screw around on their wives and the STD's they could spread to their spouses and others by being nasty scummy man-sluts
C.) Any candidate could get cancer for any of a number of reasons. Hillary is of the ripe age for a number of cancers, no comment on that?
D.) Most folks don't give a shit how old McCain is, we just care that his whole campaign is a promise to continue Bush's foreign AND domestic policy. Crazy doesn't have an age, it does have a name though and that is McCain.
I'm going to guess this is satire. If I have to think this hard to figure it out, it's not good satire.
Actually, it's Chick and Georgie's new debate issue. The secondary issue is whether Obama smokes with his right or left hand.
This is Chick and Georgie's new debate issue. Their second question will be whether he smokes with his right or left hand. Of course, if it's the left, he cant' be a muslim.
Perhaps this is an effort to find sympathy in PA, NC, and IN among the many who not only oppose smoking on scientific and medical bases, but simultaneously display a tacit disgust at those who engage in the NASTY habit.
Obama's possible health risks from smoking? Really??
Are you kidding? Most Americans are concerned about the availability of health care in the country and this writer thinks its time to discuss whether Obama might have a health issue.
I'd say we all have a health issue - not just a preventative health issue, but an undeniable truth - millions of Americans have no health coverage.
Please tell me this is satire right?
Because if it isn't, this is so desperate that it's laughable. With all Hillary's oppo team -- the best money can buy -- and this is all you've got, smoking? Actually, not even smoking -- it's Jake Tipper thinking that maybe he smelled smoke on Obama's clothes, get real.
What's next-- he'll have to submit a record of his meals in case he's eating high cholestrol foods or too much sugar? Perhaps you'll also require bodily fluid samples? Hey -- to be fair, how do we know that Hillary doesn't have a drinking problem? Can you see how utterly stupid this is? C'mon -- if you have to sink this low, and grasp at anything this desperately, is it really worth it? {rolling eyes}
I don't know about smoking, but this pale green lettering is making me go blind!!!
"the stresses of running may have contributed to Fixx's death, it was his years of smoking, not his running, that caused the plaque to build up in his arteries"
Actually, Dr. Dean Ornish; Reversing Heart Disease, circa 1990, documented the fact that Fixx had massively high cholesterol and had let it return to high levels under the belief that exercise would prevent further arterial deposits of plaque.
As regards the 1998 JAMA study, I think the poster must have misunderstood or misquoted. The locus of plaque deposits in the arterial system could hardly be specific to the carotid artery. In any case, I know of no conclusions that smoking causes arterial deposits. What smoking is known to do is cause arteries to be less elastic and therefore can contribute to stroke or heart attack probability, but not in the absence of fat deposits. In any case, the effects of smoking on arteries is cleared up in a matter of months not years. There are actual improvements within hours of smoking cessation.
OMG. I can't believe you're trying to pick apart Obama's smoking issue. I'm sure the man has been check out by a doctor. I'm sure if he had arterial problems or heart problems, his doctor would have raised a red flag. The man has actually LOST weight while campaigning, which is totally against the pattern. He eats well. He plays basketball regularly. If he was going to keel over from a stroke, he'd have done it before now. Many of our presidents smoked, and as far as I know, none of them died from it while in office. If this is the best you can come up with, you need to find a better hobby.
By the way, years of stress also take a very physical toll on a person. I'd say torture as a POW (McCain) and years of putting up with an unfaithful spouse who was also President of the United States (Clinton) may have take more of a toll on those two candidates than Obama's smoking has on him.
Will we have to publish full physicals on all candidates from now on? Worry about your own health. Obama is fine.
wow what other aurgument will his opponents try to make up? he quit smoking years ago so he must have cancer and cancer is related to terrorist so he'll lose to mccain.
Coudl you please try to GET YOURSELF A LIFE? This issos ridiculous I think I need a cigarette - and I've never smoked!
What a lame story. The only residual effect of smoking, unless there is significant lung tissue scarring, is a risk factor for lung cancer in smokers of about 10%. About the same number of smokers and non smokers develop lung cancer every year. There are currently fewer smokers and any net effect of that reduction has not yet appeared in statistics. The equal numbers in cancer rates dates from exposures that occurred when approximately 50% of the population smoked. The raw figures are telling a tale that gets no press at all. But hey, nobody reports on economics either.
Age, on the other hand, is 100% fatal, no matter how many vegetables you eat.
I have made this kind of comment in the past. Lets see if it gets through this time, as it bears on the health prospects for a Presidential candidate.
Other than the physical risks, none other than Oprah's favorite Doctor Oz stated that most smokers suffer from anxiety and/or depression
Um, are you trying to say Obama is a depressed alcoholic? Do you really think we wouldn't know all about that if it were the case? Give me a huge break.
Stool samples from all candidates! Now!
Good Christ, this was a stoopid, grasping-at-straws article.
The current president has been able to run the country into the ground with his drug and alcohol-addled brain and everybody just stood by and let it happen.
Hey -- Bush almost choked on a pretzel -- Jeff Steiler is probably also researching to see if Obama eats pretzels. Because clearly if Obama eats pretzels --- that is a health hazard, and we should reconsider our vote {sarcasm}
if we are to be concerned about anyones health..mi
Seriously, this buffoon has nothing better to do with his time than write this tripe? Why the Huffington Post publishes garbage like this article is beyond me.
I was wondering the same thing too. HuffPost needs to have an electronic gong, buzz down or even a reader ratings feature on blogs so we can vote on utter stupidity like this.
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