Smoking

Some of my friends like to smoke, most don't. Non-smokers will probably tend to hang around more with non-smokers than with smokers, while smokers usually don't care. Smokers need lots of money - because smoking is expensive and keeps getting more expensive - at least in Germany. They usually have a nasty smell around them, except maybe they're women, which means their perfume and general good smell covers it. Their appearance alone makes other people cough. One of my friends is a regular smoker, and when I call him in the mornings - honestly, I can't hear the difference between when he's sick (no voice at all, like the last few days) and when he's just Ð''normal'. Smoking can kill.

These people feel a lot better when the air's clean. In the US they raise fines in certain public areas of several thousand dollars for smoking. Some are totally radical against smoking, and praise every raising of taxes on smokes with happy faces. The less radical amongst them, who still do hang around with smokers, hate the smell and sometimes would rather stay somewhere else, but it's the friendship that counts.

The effects of chronic cigarette smoking on insulin sensitivity were examined in 28 smokers and 12 non-smokers with Type 2 diabetes, matched as closely as possible with regard to sex, age, BMI, waist-hip ratio, alcohol consumption, physical activity level, glycometabolic control, diabetes duration and treatment. Following an oral glucose load, insulin and C-peptide responses were significantly higher in the smokers than in the non-smokers in the face of no significant difference in blood glucose levels.

I tried to be objective (or rather negative on both) explanations of today's words, but it's hard when you're a liberal-sometimes-radical-non-smoker.

I really don't get why people smoke anymore. It costs money, and I don't see any social or other benefits to itÐ'... I meanÐ'... we aren't 14 anymore, right? On the other hand, it's bad for your health, and although smokers like to tell me otherwise, I think the medical costs of a smoker outweigh the benefits of not having to pay their pension because they die at an earlier age.

Being with friends where more people are smokers than non-smokers I usually feel uncomfortable, because breathing can be really hard then.

Additionally - when I'm