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You may have heard or read stories about a spike in COVID-19 cases in the United States. While cases did jump as flu season began, the current trend is a decline in cases nationwide. However, the CDC currently estimates that COVID cases are rising in 35 states. As premium cigar smokers, we are used to taking CDC data with a grain of salt and figured this was a good Blog topic.
Dr. Freud wasn't the only doctor who enjoyed premium cigars. An ad in the Library Digest from 1916 even features a physician recommending cigars! If you haven't been reading CA for long, check out the 1984 piece by another psychiatrist, Charles Carluccio, praising the stress reduction properties of premium cigar smoking. Finally, while not limited to premium cigar smoking, a 2021 study determined that 21% of physicians smoked.
This hasn't prevented the FDA and CDC from treating all tobacco as taboo! It was 2022 when a major review of research on premium cigar smoking was finally conducted. The National Academy of Sciences then stated that "research on premium cigars is largely lacking". The researchers made sure to ignore a 2021 study finding "exclusive male cigar smokers age 40+ years had no statistically significant increased mortality from all causes, heart diseases, malignant neoplasms, cerebrovascular disease, smoking-related diseases or other causes."
While not listed in those results, it seems that tobacco smokers also receive some protection from COVID. "Researchers at the University of Washington and Stanford University School of Medicine have reported a significant inverse relationship between current smoking and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality rates across forty countries." In 2020 French researchers found "daily smokers have a very much lower probability of developing symptomatic or severe SARS-CoV-2 infection as compared to the general population." A review of literature conducted later that year led researchers to assert that "current smoking status appears to be a protective factor against the infection by SARS-CoV-2".
Our prescription is to follow the advice of Kermit Ruffins and the Rebirth Brass Band - Do Whatcha Wanna. If that includes smoking a premium cigar, we know a place where you'll find like company. Join us as we discuss the merits of a long life with premium cigars!
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