A Brand New Smoker

The reason i wanted to start smoking a few cigarettes a day seem obvious to anybody who knows what i'm writing. I stink.

Like from dog waste that surrounds me. I know the smell accompanied by microbes like protozoa, bacteria and what else, together with the foul smelling dog anal sacks oils get deep into my lungs and then get eliminated with the mucous in my gut changing the normal human microbial flora into a dog one.

Protozoa that might produce dopamine, as a mean for dogs to make their prey fearless and easier to hunt. The old symbiosis.

I read that smoking 2 cigarettes a day is the equivalent of breathing moderate amounts of wildlife smoke. So i figured that if i smoke a little, it may be beneficial to me.

So the first time when i went into a smoking area of a casino, like at Lucky Eagle, i bought a pack of Marlboro, red, 100 mm. If i remember right, i have not been smoking since 2007. I vaguely remember in 2007 i was smoking Camel and Marlboro lights. Though i did not have a clear idea what lights means. I do now. Lower tar and nicotine.

I also remember it did not mean much to me. I wasn't smoking much either. Up to 10 cigarettes a day, maybe. I never realized what it did to my body. I quit mainly because Angela wanted to quit and she could not if i was still smoking. It did not take much effort as i remember.

And something i will never forget. In 2004 i went to Romania because of health problems.

During old times (before 1989) when the only cigarettes you could buy were the locally produced ones, that were terrible. Similar to the so called natural ones, with no additives, like American Spirit and Nats but of lower quality. The work horse of Romanian smoker, Carpați, with no filter, were bitter and somehow acidic.

I had trouble smoking those except if i was drinking. With a drink and a conversation, it was all much easier.

You could find premium western made cigarettes though they were very expensive , like ten-fifteen times the price of the Romanian made. Smuggled by those who were traveling abroad, like semi drivers. Or Marlboro made in Poland who had a license from Philip Morris i think. That were a bit different, maybe milder than originals though flavored. Or the Bulgarian brand, BT or Bulgar Tobacco which were decent. Even Albanian ones, Kruja, were better than ours.

I said it several times before. If Ceaușescu gave Romanians back then cigarettes, blue jeans and coffee, he wouldn't have had that gruesome end. And bananas. And oranges.

But when i went in 2004 you could find all the western brands at stands and everywhere, however, they were something else. Counterfeit. Nothing the brand was showing and they were all the same, LM, Kent, Marlboro, etc..

I remember i bought a traveler's insurance which were mandatory for any trip to western Europe and went to France and checked into a hospital for whatever reason, hoping they will do some tests and i will talk to a decent doctor. Over there of course i bought Marlboro lights and they were totally different even from the American reds. Much stronger.

Which brings me to the point and the purpose of this post. What somebody feels when they first start smoking, in my case after 14 years. When my body lost the tolerance to nicotine and all the goodies in there. The myriad of substances including heavy metals from the ash.

Don't know where i read. It was a translation from a western publication in Romanian in the 70s. One cigarette destroys in your body the amount of vitamin C from a whole orange.

Now i wear improvised patches with vitamin C (i found some on Amazon that have only tiny amounts though). I now have a 2000 mg one that will last for several days.

Is nothing like before. Or even how i felt when i first started smoking, @14. First red knocked me out so badly i was desperately searching for Angela inside the casino thinking i was going to pass out. I think i started a second one that night and it was worse.

I knew that nicotine cause vasodilation. That is dilation of your blood vessels, big or small. I was feeling tingling in my feet seconds after an inhalation. In the areas i think are damaged by the wi-fi emitters that were on my feet, behind the PC.

Vasodilation is good and bad. Is good for your heart because it enhances oxygenation of heart muscle. Is good for inflamed organs. Is bad for loosing temperature. After smoking outside at Little Creek and Chinook last night i got very cold, something i have not experienced in years.

So i didn't really liked those. So i started to search for Kent cigarettes, that were most sought for in Romania, but could not find some.

Kent were pioneers with adding filters to cigarettes. Today's Kent have activated charcoal filters which retain a lot of the chemicals. Then i bought others, kinda similar, that were supposed to be milder. But i felt the same.

After about two weekends and maybe one pack, nothing changed. It seems like i lost the ability to smoke. I can't tolerate it no more. But i feel the urge which i was trying vainly to fulfill with alcohol for so many years or since i started drinking seriously, a few years ago.

When i was a smoker i was taking the peak of the stress with a cigarette. Alcohol cannot do that. I mean it can, but it takes longer and the side effects last for too long. The inability to drive after.

However i figured something important. Cigarettes give you a very intense high of about few seconds and a milder high that lasts for hours (in the case of a new smoker like me right now).

But i am not the same, especially today after smoking 3 or 4. I went at Chinook Winds, i had fewer drinks than usually, mainly because of smoking, i went outside to smoke several times and everything became different. I am less stressed, more careless, have less worries, feeling very similar to taking anti-depressants. I was telling Angela. I do not feel myself anymore.

Kept asking myself if suddenly quitting smoking when i came in US didn't contribute to me ending several times in psychiatric hospitals (like maybe every time when i quit).

Because of smoking for so long and now not having the means to cut the stress which was enormous but not only because of the move, the so called cultural shock, etc.. I was constantly pranked, if not to say harassed, for reason i could not figure for so many years. I was mistaken for someone else.

I mean i was served on a platter by some who knew who i was to the general public who could only imagine or believe their old tricksters.

Trying to imagine from the myriad of chemicals present in cigarettes which do what. But it's not only the tobacco. The so called natural ones, like Nat's, burn slower, tend to extinguish selves because they do not have the additive to enhance burning. So one could understand there must be an additive to enhance burning and that could only be something with oxygen in the formula.

And i think i am finally getting to the main point of this blog post. What is the additive that enhances burning. Saltpeter.

Saltpeter is a chemical that has a long history of human usage, long before being used as additive to cigarettes. But could be saltpeter (potassium or kalium nitrate) present in cigarettes the cause for immediately perceived systemic vasodilation as in my recent experiences.

I believe there is an easy answer to this. Try a Nat's or American Spirit and see if i have the same vasodilating after (tingling in the legs, loosing heat). Will do tomorrow.

And of course. If one smokes for such a long time, when it quits will his blood vessels start to contract, blood pressure to raise, creating problems eliminating heat from the body, thus needing the metabolism (and insulin production) reduced?

Still awake. Figured one more thing. Kalium. The black goddess.

Same goes with alcohol. It causes vasodilation which enhance the oxygenation and bringing of nutrients to muscles and heart which contributes, besides the high, to the well being sensation after drinking. It lowers blood pressure just like medication. The reason old people need to be real careful when quitting.

Cause according to the theories of narrowing of blood vessels due to calcium deposits, it is the alcohol that keeps them open. And as i described above, the cigarettes.

...too sleepy, will continue tomorrow...