How Much is Too Much?

[OverMountain]

Physical vs psychological addiction are two different cats.

Personally I seek out low nicotine blends and shoot for the flavor and relaxation aspects. If I start feeling lightheaded or the nic hit I stop, but that’s just me.

 

[Dankpipez]

Hey there!

Regarding your first question, there is an interesting piece of research dating from 2004 that addresses the issue relatively well.

I will post a portion of the results that briefly touches on the increase in the various diseases typically associated with smoking. I highly recommend reading the entire paper though in order to understand the methodology used for selecting subjects and gathering the data. The paper also does a good job of summarizing historical pipe specific research (or lack thereof). This study is a nice one because it focuses only on subjects that exclusively smoke a pipe, and separates them based on number of bowls per day, smoking duration, inhalation/non-inhalation (I know I know, you are not supposed to inhale, but some pipe smokers do and they wanted to control for this in their research, which is a good thing), and also previous pipe smokers. The study is longitudinal taking place over 18 years, and they controlled for factors like alcohol consumption, obesity, and previous/current disease. They also include data from a cohort of never smokers to provide a baseline (I was surprised by the number of people who get lung cancer who are never smokers, interesting!) They also look not only at lung cancer/cancer in general, but also heart disease, stroke, and COPD.

Remember though, while this study does control for some environmental/lifestyle risks, it can not control for everything. Things like genetics, diet, stress levels, etc are incredibly difficult to control for in epidemiological studies.

(from the abstract. Baseline is a value of 1.0)

Trends in multivariable-adjusted relative risks associated with current pipe smoking were evident in relation to the number of pipes smoked per day, duration of pipe smoking, and depth of inhalation (Table 3,3A). The relative risk for death from lung cancer increased from 1.99 for men who smoked 1–3 pipes daily to 7.67 for men who smoked 11 or more pipes daily (Ptrend<.001). Similar increases in lung cancer mortality risk were seen with the duration of smoking (Ptrend = .003) and with depth of inhalation (Ptrend<.001). Statistically significant increasing dose response trends were observed with years of smoking for coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and stomach and bladder cancers and with depth of inhalation for coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pancreas cancer. We observed an anomalous inverse association with depth of inhalation for cerebrovascular disease that we cannot explain.


Here is the link Association Between Exclusive Pipe Smoking and Mortality From Cancer and Other Diseases - https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/96/11/853/2520796

It is an interesting read! The takeaway is pretty common sense in the end, being that the more you smoke both in volume and time, the higher the risk for disease.

 

[Old_Newby]

Physical vs psychological addiction are two different cats.

Personally I seek out low nicotine blends and shoot for the flavor and relaxation aspects. If I start feeling lightheaded or the nic hit I stop, but that’s just me.

I may not be smoking high NIC tobaccos (??) but have not experienced lightheadedness. If I smell chewing tobacco or dip I get dizzy. Hate cigarettes. Been an anti smoker person my entire life except for the occasional cigar on the golf course. This might be a bad habit to start for for now I am enjoying it. I will plan to keep it to only 2 bowls a day and 3-5 days a week.

 

[Old_Newby]

Physical vs psychological addiction are two different cats.

Personally I seek out low nicotine blends and shoot for the flavor and relaxation aspects. If I start feeling lightheaded or the nic hit I stop, but that’s just me.

What are low nic blends you like?

 

[OverMountain]

I use tobaccoreviews.com to take a look at the flavor profiles, as well as the strength. Many reviewers will give their own personal experiences regarding vitamin N levels.

Some of my favorites are Boswells Dutch Treat, B. best, Peterson’s connoisseur’s choice, Sherlock Holmes, Capstan Flake, MM965…..I could go on ?.

 

[OSOBUCO]

I have worked in healthcare for 30 years and too much of anything can be an issue:
Smoking kills - that's a fact
Alcohol kills - that's a fact
Drugs kill - that's a fact (even aspirin folks)
Sugar kills - that's a fact
Laziness kills - that's a fact
Gluttony kills - that's a fact
the list goes on

Conclusion - lot's of things kill, however most things in moderation will not and some in fact might prolong your life even relaxing with a pipe or cigar now and then. Smoking cigarettes killed my mom and almost killed one of my sisters and alcohol did killed another of my sisters - I would never touch heaters and never allow myself to get hooked on anything but I love a cigar and a pipe.

 

[Streeper541]

To the original post:

1) Sometimes I smoke 3 bowls a day, sometimes 10, sometimes... even zero. I don't consider myself to have a health risk nor an addiction.

2) Sometimes I use a different pipe for each bowl I smoke during the day. Sometimes I use the same pipe multiple times during the day. Sometime I even... gasp... use the same pipe all day and even... for days at a time.

Don't get too hung up on the "how manys?" Mileage varies. ?

 

[OverMountain]

I have worked in healthcare for 30 years and too much of anything can be an issue:
Smoking kills - that's a fact
Alcohol kills - that's a fact
Drugs kill - that's a fact (even aspirin folks)
Sugar kills - that's a fact
Laziness kills - that's a fact
Gluttony kills - that's a fact
the list goes on

Conclusion - lot's of things kill, however most things in moderation will not and some in fact might prolong your life even relaxing with a pipe or cigar now and then. Smoking cigarettes killed my mom and almost killed one of my sisters and alcohol did killed another of my sisters - I would never touch heaters and never allow myself to get hooked on anything but I love a cigar and a pipe.

Aspirin? That’s a new one for me. I agree with your medical opinion, everything in joy and moderation.

 

[kcghost]

I smoke two bowls a day. They last me one to two hour, depending on the tobacco. I smoke average size pipe. So you have real tiny pipes or you smoke like a chimney.

 

[OSOBUCO]

Aspirin? That’s a new one for me. I agree with your medical opinion, everything in joy and moderation.

Indeed - Aspirin use causes around 20,000 gastrointestinal bleeds annually with ~3000 deaths. It has robust anti-platelet activity

 

[MacMarty89]

I'm fortunate enough not to be susceptible to addictions. I drink and smoke whenever I feel like it, which is usually during the weekends. One bowl a day. To me pipe smoking is a ritual. I smoke my pipe unmotivated, not doing anything in particular, just enjoying how beautiful, relaxing and restful just smoking my pipe actually is.

 

[scout19d3]

@scout19d3 agrees with "everything in moderation"

 

[magichelm]

As long as you treat it as a reward and not a habit you'll keep your frequency in moderation.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I smok outside and if too cold I don't. That tells me I am not addicted or moving in that direction. We've had several days of sunny mid 50's where I can bake in the sun and have a bowl.

 

[Old_Newby]

I smok outside and if too cold I don't. That tells me I am not addicted or moving in that direction. We've had several days of sunny mid 50's where I can bake in the sun and have a bowl.

That’s me. I am not allowed to smoke inside or in cars. With honey do’s and work and weather I seem to struggle to smoke daily. So I have moderation built in. I have low testosterone and my heart doctor won’t let me take T supplements (Afib). I struggle to avoid a nap around 5PM and am brain exhausted. I work from home and actually hope a light a
nic hit in morning or afternoon (i amusing 6mm filters) will help me. It states a side effect of nic is more alertness and memory.

 

[mikecronis]

One time per day, which lasts anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour is plenty enough for me. If I do more, my taste buds suffer the next day.

 

[anotherbob]

If you look at the studies including the one mentioned it looks like you have to smoke a pipe pretty much nonstop to cause any noticeable harm

 

[Old_Newby]

I smoke two bowls a day. They last me one to two hour, depending on the tobacco. I smoke average size pipe. So you have real tiny pipes or you smoke like a chimney.

Meerschaum Cobs. I think these are half size bowls compared to a nice briar.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

I am psychologically addicted to pipes more than to tobacco.
Barely been smoking one bowl per week lately, but checking retailer updates is like crack.

 

[Simmerdown☕️]

I’ll usually pick a rested pipe, Meer or briar, and a ?. I smoke anywhere between 3-6 bowls per day on my days off depending on free time available. I go back & forth between the ? and the other selected pipe for the day. However, it’s really all about the ? for me. Am I addicted…yeah sure. But, it’s definitely not as bad as my ️ addiction. And, definitely not as bad as those guys addicted to My Little ?…I mean that’s just sick. ?