[N_Lens]

Picking anecdotal exceptions doesn't indicate broad genetic differences that allow people to "thrive on junk".

Everyone has heard of someone who smoked and drank and lived to a hundred. That doesn't mean smoking and drinking aren't harmful for health; Infact overwhelming evidence clearly shows their harm. Same goes for unhealthy food, and we broadly see the impact statistically as well as viscerally.

[userbinator]

Everyone has heard of someone who smoked and drank and lived to a hundred

It's interesting that the oldest known human to have lived (122!) smoked too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment

Calment continued smoking in her elderly years until she was 117

But I'd say she is definitely an extreme genetic outlier, and would not bet that she could've lived longer had she not smoked.

(Disclaimer: non-smoker and no interest in doing so either, for other reasons.)

[swiftcoder]

Worth noting that there is some controversy about whether Jeanne Calment was actually 122, or it was a case of her daughter Yvonne assuming her identity to commit pension fraud...

This is apparently endemic in the so-called "blue zones" where folks routinely live well past 100 on paper, but its thought that many folks are exploiting poor record keeping in the past to keep drawing their pension checks

[userbinator]

If it was her daughter, she still lived to 99, which is above average and even more so for a regular smoker.

[nprateem]

> Disclaimer: non-smoker and no interest in doing so either, for other reasons

A better word would be "irrelevant"

[andrewinardeer]

My anecdotal experience is there are no long term full time cigarette smokers over the age of 70 because they all died.

[latexr]

Fran Lebowitz, avid cigarette smoker, 74 and counting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran_Lebowitz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGcG7e03Nts

[andrewinardeer]

Yes, I did see her speak earlier in the year. You're right. Some are just built different.

[ikidd]

Haha, my uncle lived to 94 smoking like it was a cure for cancer, and I've seen a picture of him filling a sprayer with 2,4D with no PPE and a smoke hanging out of his mouth.

[sillyfluke]

My anecdotal experience is they were all over 70 but not over 80 -- chain smokers who started when they were children. I'm curious if anyone here knows any in their 80s or 90s.

[znpy]

My grandfather from the south of italy. He died at 85, used to smoke two packs a day until about three days before dying (he wasn't allowed to smoke in the hospital). He did not die from any form of cancer, he died for an intestinal blockage. I don't remember the details, it's been many years ago. From what he told me he started around age 8, stealing his father's tobacco.

The thing is, these stories rarely show the full picture (and they hardly can).

For example: my grandfather was very active for an old person, he kept working in his coutryside until the age of 78-79. That meant a lot of moving around, lifting large buckets of fruit in spring and summer or huge sacks of olives in autumn and winter. At age 75 he was probably way more active than the average user of this forum. He wasn't "fit" by modern beauty standards, but nonetheless he was "functionally" fit.

As far as I know, he started working in the countryside when he lost his father around age 13 (society was different back then) to support his family (his mother and his younger sister).

Btw he still developed senile dementia roughly around the time he stopped working in the countryside.

Smoking alone is a risk factor (and a huge one) but that factor usually has to be put into context.

EDIT Just to disambiguate: I'm not defending smoking, in any way. My main point is that "full picture" is often missing from the "they smoked and lived" stories.

[esseph]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45081132

[rsynnott]

... Are you giving anecdotal evidence against the anecdotal evidence the other person gave?