Does smoking cigars cause lung cancer?

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Smoking in general, actually protects against a small number of different types of cancer, but for the most part, generally promotes cancer.

Cigar smoking is probably WORSE for lung cancer than cigarette smoking.

How do you figure? You don't inhale cigars, you puff them, and they're not an all day every day habit, they're more like a few a week thing for most people.

Yep!

It is technically possible to inhale cigars, but unless you are hardcore, you are probably not going to enjoy that.

Cigars are mostly a risk factor for mouth cancer if only puffed, versus inhaled, to my knowledge?

Cigarettes, because of inhalation, are more of a risk factor for lung cancer.

But it depends on how deeply you inhale cigarettes. The damage is more extensive if a cigarette is inhaled deeply.

You will usually be able to gauge the difference when first trying this, because a deep inhale will cause you to cough in a fit, unless you have iron lungs, or something.

As far as I know even a non-smoker can get lung cancer. It's literally so random.

But the vast majority of people with lung cancer are smokers, or used to smoke.

Unless you are out-of-doors, you are hotboxing -- you are inhaling your own "second-hand" cigar smoke.

I actually took up having a few cigars a week this summer. It's one of those where I work from home - I work, live, and sleep in the same 11' x 11' room, it's not a bad place but I've really gotta get out so in addition to my evening walks I've been trying out different cigars to see what I think.

I know there was a study a few years back by one of the major health organizations stating that less than cigars per day has negligible risks, if you've got telomeres like a Jackson Laboratory mouse you're probably at risk for cancer just by looking at tobacco, I have a feeling I'm probably fine if it's two a week and not inhaling means it's just for flavor and won't hit my wind. It's one of those though where you've gotta calculate your risks and see whether the benefit exceeds the risks. Being able to sit out front with a cigar and an IPA does help a lot for me at least in terms of being able to close out my week with a celebratory ritual of sorts.

I read that Sigmund Freud died of cancer of the jaw from smoking cigars all the time.

Makes you wonder about George Burns, though.

Most people don't really smoke the cigar, they just puff on it, but they and everyone around them is inhaling second hand smoke, so it's still bad.

There’s something amusing about the idea of Freud smoking cigars…

Cancer is not amusing, though.

Yeah, I've been smoking a few a week for over a decade now, no noticeable effects, and last time I checked an actuarial table you don't really have many risks below two day, which is a lot. My brother got me into Cubans in the last couple years, which has been great for my palate by terrible for my wallet, lol, though still cheaper than smoking cigarettes or going out for drinks all the time. There's something funny about having an illegal product delivered to your doorstep with the US Customs markings on it, I don't know if they just don't care or if they don't bother beyond a cursory inspection, the ban is definitely a joke at this point.

Cigar smoking carries a higher risk of mouth, jaw and throat cancers. And yes, you can get addicted to smoking them. Nicotine is absorbed in the mouth. That's why they make nicotine gum to help people stop smoking.

Lots of things increase a person's risk for cancer. As adults we get to choose our poison, so I won't stop anyone from doing their own thing, I just think people should actually KNOW the risks when the decide.

Yes, I know, I'm just not particularly interested in extending my twilight years at the expense of enjoying my prime less.

Yeah, it's a game of tradeoffs. Stress, not managed correctly, can destroy you now.

Similarly cancer isn't a magical thing - it exists in the context of everything else you're doing like levels of diet, exercise, degree of hereditary risk you have, etc.. I think these things tend to be intensely, and sometimes almost moralistically, debated more on cultural grounds and part of the problem is we may not have a good list of common activities and their associated cancer risks and a lot of people probably would question the results of the weighting no matter how rigorous the terms of the meta-analysis was. Yeah, we're tribal by nature but I really think it was made worse by the whole 'Don't eat gum - it'll stick to your ribs for seven years' style of education we received, were even if our parents didn't always end every question from us with 'Because I say so!' our institutions did plenty of that for us and did very little to foster critical thinking.

On a side note - a few I thought highly of: 1) Partagas Black Label and 2) Upsetters Original Rude Boy.

Still working my way through some of the other brands to see what else I'd add, just that so far I'd say maduros get my attention first for some reason and the Acid's, Champagne's, etc. I might need to circle back to try them again but I'm less convinced they're my thing.

Do you use any of the auction sites? That's where the deals are, I regularly pick up decent sticks at $3-6 per on Cigar Bid and Cigar Auctioneer, I really like the Oliva brand, particularly the Serie V and Cain lines. Alec Bradley makes some good stuff as well, I'm fond of the Tempus and Prensado lines, as well as the Undercrown from Drew Estate. I'm not a huge fan of the non-Cuban legacy brands, the Dominican Cohibas, RyJs, Montes, etc as I feel they're generally not bad but overpriced due to the names. I'll go flavored once in a while, the Acids aren't too bad, as are some of the coffee infused from Drew Estate, but they're not my favorites. If you ever feel like taking a walk on the dark side, the site you want is iHavanas, they're legit and have some of the best pricing (always check the clearance/deals section), plus they guarantee delivery, I usually get my order in 2-3 weeks with standard shipping from Switzerland. If you do do that, keep in mind that Cubans like a lower RH in the humidor, 60%ish vs 70% for NC smokes.

I haven't, and I think that's mostly because I'm still sorting out what I like and whether or not I'd invest in anything larger than five-packs on any of these (getting closer but it might be a while). So far it's been Cigars International and a few local whine and liquor stores that admittedly have a pretty good stretch of humidors or walk-in humidors comparable to some of the local cigar-only shops.