Leaderboard

Severe engine issues revealed today and I was having trouble coping. Out of nowhere or maybe that somewhere in the mind that tells you that you can’t cope, that there is some nameless something you need to get through this and then just as quickly it’s gone and your left thinking or maybe yelling it aloud in a rage, “I KNOW WHAT I NEEDED!” The addict is always there. It’ll show up when you least expect it to. It enrages me. Leaving me feeling weak and less than. But I am NOT! I’ve been kicking nicotine to the curb for almost three years and I will not release it from the chains that had me bound. The chains that I worked so hard to bind it with. I can’t and I will not. It’s why I still hang around here. Y’all helped me so much and still do. Almost everyday I get some kind of help here. Oh, well after some deep breathing and grounding myself I have gone on about my day. Without that crutch I used to have to carry around with me. It’s good to breathe freely!

Congratulations @Kate18, on your great quit! Its awesome watching you celebrate year after year smoke free given how hard it was for you when you first decided to quit. You should be super proud of yourself. Thank you for sticking around to support everyone

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the acknowledgement. I can hardly believe it!!!!!!!!!!!! There were so many failed starts. But, that old Covid threat -- in my mind, I was sure I'd die if I got it and I was still a smoker -- got me to quit and stay quit. And I finally did get Covid, a couple of months ago, and breezed through it. No lung issues. Because I am saving money by not buying cigarettes, I can afford a 2nd dog to keep dog #1 company while I am at work. Gabriela joined us two months ago from a Humane Society shelter. She is reportedly 8 years old, but I suspect she is a bit younger - 5 or 6. She is so playful and frisky. She loves her stuffed squirrel (not a real one!) So much more we can do when we aren't spending our money on poison. Thanks, all.

Simply and happily NOPE!!

NOPE

Welcome to the Lido Deck, B!! I’m so thrilled for you. Strike up the band… cuz B deserves a serenade for rocking her quit!!

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required)

NOPE!

Well done Gus .. we will have thoughts … but it’s how you react to that thought that counts … You know it would have changed a thing xx

Well done @Gus, you came across a trigger that you hadn't dealt with before and kicked it to the curb! The good thing about triggers this far into your quit as you saw was how quickly it passed

Congratulations Kate! I hope that you are celebrating well!

Well done Kate. Great job.

Congratulations Kate .. 4 Years …Huge Achievement….Celebrate in style x

Thank you friends Love you all

Oh, hell Nope....

NOPE!

NOPE…

Way to go @Gus you rock!!! You are a great reminder to us following, that we cannot be complacent. Well done, very happy for you! Oh and just fyi, you're still wearing your Christmas avatar

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required)

N O P E

Congratulations and welcome to the Lido Deck Bri! I hope that you did something amazing to celebrate. You did so wonderfully well. Hanging around here strengthens you so much and that first year goes by so much easier. I hope you stay to help others along the way.

NOPE!!

congrats @Kate184 years is fantastic. cute pup, too.

Thanks, Doreen. Remember the QSMB days, when I failed miserably, repeatedly? I was desperately wanting Year One. And here it is four years. Amazing. Time flies.

You go girl!!! 4 years is amazing!!

Oh my goodness, 4 years already! I remember when you quit. Good for you @Kate18! Big Congratulations!!!

@Gusthat's how you do it. So glad you kept that awesome quit going.

Congratulations Kate! Great job!

NOPE!

5. Feed them

Well done 12 months is a huge achievement you should be very proud of yourself.

Omg that’s crazy!!! That enrages me knowing it enraged you . I’m so so proud of you for overcoming that and telling us abt it…we think there’s like this huge difference between a smoker and a nonsmoker but we’re the same person we always were and part of that is an addict. So twisted tho to irk you this far in. You did good gf

Brioski, I am so happy and proud for you! I hope you have something wonderful planned, and be sure to buy yourself a special keepsake!!

7. Take pictures of them

6. Wash them

No letters? How about DRHTH Drunk rhino has the hiccups DRUNK

Congratulations Brioski, this is an excellent achievement. Don't forget to reward yourself today because you deserve it.

Yaay Brioski, Congratulations!

Yay @Brioski!!

Congratulations on 1 year smoke free @Brioski Great job!

Welcome to the Lido Deck B huge Congratulations So glad you found us , you are much loved member of our family , thx for the laughs . B treat yourself to something special , what you have achieved if flippin amazin xxx Cheers

Big congrats to you today @Brioski!! Hope you enjoy this day & relish in the pride of accomplishment that you do rightly deserve

Congratulations Bri, 1 year is absolutely AMAZING!!!! WOWIEEEE!!!! You are doing so great!!! Let's celebrate!!!!

One year ago, you made a great decision, today you get to celebrate it! Congratulations!

(Hmmm...that's a tough word to rhyme) Phelps swims good

Best read over here: ===> https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/14/health/smoking-immune-system/index.html Study finds that smoking hoses your immune system. Smoking’s effects on the immune system can last years, study finds By Jen Christensen, CNN 4 minute read Published 11:00 AM EST, Wed February 14, 2024 When smokers in a new study quit, their immune response got better at one level, but it didn’t completely recover for years. Catherine Falls Commercial/Moment RF/Getty Images CNN — Smoking tobacco is so harmful to the body that it changes a person’s immune system, leaving them vulnerable to more disease and infection even years after they’ve quit, a new study found. Although smoking rates have been declining since the 1960s, it’s still the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, causing more than 480,000 deaths each year. For decades, health care providers have told smokers that the habit can lead to serious problems like lung cancer, heart attack or stroke, but a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature offers another reason to quit. RELATED ARTICLECDC anti-smoking campaign takes aim at menthol cigarettes The research shows how smoking decreases the body’s ability to fight off infection immediately and over time, and may also put someone at risk of chronic diseases involving inflammation, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. “Stop smoking as soon as possible,” warned study co-author Dr. Violaine Saint-André, a specialist in computational biology at Institute Pasteur in Paris. “The key message of our study, especially to the youth, is that there seems to be a significant interest for long-term immunity to never start smoking.” The researchers looked over time at blood samples from a group of 1,000 healthy people ages 20 to 69. The group was equally divided between men and women. The researchers wanted to see how 136 variables including lifestyle, socioeconomic issues and dietary habits – in addition to age, sex and genetics – affected immune response. They exposed the blood samples to common germs like E. coli bacteria and the flu virus and measured the immune response. Smoking, body mass index and a latent infection caused by the herpes virus had the most impact, with smoking creating the biggest change. It had nearly the same impact on immune response as important factors such as age or sex. “It’s considerable,” Saint-André said. When smokers in the study quit, their immune response got better at one level, but it didn’t completely recover for years, according to study co-author Dr. Darragh Duffy, who leads the Translational Immunology unit at the Institute Pasteur. RELATED ARTICLE Hoping to clear the air in casinos, workers seek to ban tobacco smoke “The good news is, it does begin to reset,” he said. “It’s never a good time to start smoking, but if you’re a smoker, the best time to stop is now.” The study also found that the more someone smoked, the more it changed their immune response. “Cutting down any amount is still a good thing in terms of this impact,” Duffy said. Smoking, the study found, seemed to have long-term epigenetic effects on the immune system’s two major forms of protection: the innate response and the adaptive response. The effect on the innate response quickly goes away when someone stops smoking, but the effect on the adaptive response persists even after they quit. The innate immune response is the general way the skin, mucous membranes, immune system cells and proteins fights germs. It’s a fast mover, but it’s a blunt instrument. When the body determines that the innate response isn’t protective enough, the adaptive immune system kicks in. It is made of antibodies in the blood and other bodily fluids, B and T lymphocytes that can “remember” a threat and better target threats it’s seen before. “The major discovery of our study is that smoking has short-term but also long-term effects on adaptive immunity associated with B cells and regulatory T cells and with epigenetic changes,” Saint-André said. The new research has some limitations. The experiment was done in blood samples in the lab, but the immune system may react differently in real life. However, human challenge studies are still relatively limited in size compared with what they were able to show with a large collection of blood samples, Duffy says. RELATED ARTICLE5 key health resolutions for 2024 Dr. Yasmin Thanavala, a professor of oncology in the Department of Immunology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, whose smoking immune response research was referenced in the new study, said the work was “a wonderful validation” of what her research has found over the years. Thanavala’s research exposed mice to smoke instead of human blood. Those mice cleared a bacterial infection less efficiently and with a less-robust immune response than mice that weren’t exposed. Changes in the lungs subside, she said, but “never go away.” She points to one limitation in the new study that she hopes researchers will address going forward: the homogeneity of the participants, who were all French and did not have high body weights. “We know that numerous things besides smoking impacts our immune response. Our genetic background impacts our immune response. There’s also increasing evidence that our body weight, obesity, impacts immune response,” Thanavala said. Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. Dr. Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer of the American Medical Association, said that doctors have long known that smoking leads to inflammation in the lung but that that doesn’t account for all the problems with the immune system. It also seems to explain why even smokers who may have quit may still develop conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. “This study is helpful since it tells us what we’ve always thought but now starts to explain the why,” said Rizzo, who wasn’t involved with the new research.