If looks could thrill!
We gazed at each other throughout the conference. I was all but 18, representing the National Youth Council at that International Labour Organization-sponsored conference at the Fort Young Hotel. She looked at least thirty, a mature, attractive participant with gorgeous eyes only for me – at least that what my raging adolescent hormones were screaming.
The moment the conference wound up, I was at her side as if drawn by a powerful, unseen magnet. My heart was pounding wildly as we chatted and strolled toward the public library. The shimmering crystal Caribbean Sea extended far beyond the picturesque Roseau harbour. Hand in hand, we beheld the enchanted sun as it was slowly and sensuously swallowed up the hungry horizon.
Six o’clock? Oh gosh man! I had to go. I had another appointment I just could not miss. But like a new batsman at the crease, I was hoping to at least get off the mark before close of play. Just a peck on the cheek would have been the cherry on top an incredible day. Instead she seized my head with both hands and planted a deep, wet kiss…
Sounds like too much information, doctor. You think? Well, perhaps not if you consider where this is leading. So let’s tiptoe back to the intrigue unfolding under that big tree in the yard of the library: Maybe it wasn’t quite a six, but for a fraction of a second it felt like I had definitely hit a boundary. Either way, it was as if I had died and gone to heaven! Um…maybe not my first kiss, but it definitely was my first kiss like that.
Then I took the taste. It was a sickeningly stale cigarette flavour. My mouth filled instantly with nauseous spittle. I recoiled in hasty retreat. She was like, whoy! Where you going so fast? But I managed to tear myself away. I was outta there – all the while mumbling profuse apologies. Whenever I glanced back, she was still there, longing. With gushing smiles, we sneaked little promising waves to each other. But as soon as I rounded the corner by Peeple’s Park, I emptied my mouth and gasped for fresh air.
Oh well, she probably thought I was just ‘fahwoosh;’ the one that got away. To this day she has no idea why I avoided her – and don’t you dare tell her the truth. I wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings. But when it comes to my patients, my Hippocratic oath allows me no choice but to prescribe the truth, as best as I know how.
In practice in Ohio, I once had a few-hours encounter with a 50-year old electrician patient. He had divorced and moved to New York where he established a new family. Having contracted terminal lung cancer, his doctors advised him to get his affairs in order. So he took one last trip back to Ohio to bid farewell to his first family. While there, his lung collapsed and I had to insert a chest tube in the ICU. Somehow, I had to fight his insurance company to arrange a long dangerous trip back to second family. During our time together he was on the verge of tears, “I only smoked a pack a day and look at me now: I just started to live and I’m dying of lung cancer. If only I knew…”
Well, people know. Everybody knows the Marlboro Man, that ruggedly handsome cowboy, died from smoking…and his replacement, and the next one and the one after that. The only way cigarette companies can stay in business is to ensure that they replace each dead smoker. And they are not too picky from where, once the new smoker is agreeable to paying for it. I shudder to think that in my youth, I was tempted to model my behaviour on the really cool guys at dances who had a cigarette in one hand, a beer in another, jamming to the music as they checked out the chicks. I have smoked 9 cigarettes in my life, each time on a date with smoker. I can no longer suppress that memory and now tell my patients that it will never get into double figures.
There is no excuse, really. Stress, they say. It relaxes me – actually not. The half-life of nicotine is 2 hours. As the concentration decreases in the system, craving reaches fever pitch. That is the definition of nicotine addiction. That is why smokers will get up in the middle of the night to suck in their fix. That is why cigarettes command attention first thing upon waking up in the morning. Believers are in the habit of offering thanks and praise to the Almighty as the ‘first fruits’ of their day. Would it be logical to say that one cannot do both things first?
Domestically, the United States has acted aggressively and with measurable success to decrease cigarette smoking. Statistics show that from 1990 to 2002, U.S. cigarette consumption dropped by 20.0 percent, or by about 1.7 percent per year. Great job! However US trade policy has been equally aggressive and successful in exporting death to developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, the top 5 cigarette consuming countries in 1970 were Cuba, the US, Switzerland, Canada and Britain. By 1992 it was Greece, Japan, Poland, Hungary and South Korea. Africa and the Caribbean are being pushed rapidly up that dubious ladder as well.
Abigail Trafford, Health Editor for the Washington Post, asks the really big question, “Why do industrialized countries blame developing countries for growing crops the West deems evil, while insisting on exporting the tobacco products into those same countries?”
Smokers freshen up like everybody else and think they smell as pleasant as the morning dew on the petals of a flower. Ha! At the end of the day, neither the authorities nor purveyors of addictive substances can be trusted to get people over their addictions. Experience has shown that they will say one thing and with a wink and a nod, permit or do the exact opposite. In one sense, smoking is so passé, so old fashioned; yet in Dominica, way too many people still smoke. Yes, addictions we have with us always. But help is at hand medically and otherwise. What really matters is for you and me to stay free. Furthermore, words fail to describe the unspeakable joy we experience by helping others crush this deadly habit.
I thought she was smoking hot;
Then discovered she was not;
Tried so manly to be cool,
Almost ended up a fool.
Never taking up the habit;
Never having then to quit.
Striking now a blow for freedom,
Dr. Sam Christian runs the Urgent Care on 137 Bath Road. It provides prompt medical treatment, surgery and acupuncture. He is Medical Adviser to the Dominica Cancer Society, radio host of the Medical Minute, and author of the faith and fitness nutrition book, ‘Mannafast Miracle.’ Dr. Christian can be reached anytime at 440-9133, 615-8345 or by writing to [email protected].
Yes I as well grew up in a smoke filled home my Father smoked 4 Packs of camel cigs. a day for over 65 years when he finally quit at the age of 74 he got cancer that same year and suffered in pain with different types of cancer until an extremely aggressive cancer killed him in 6 weeks
I used to smoke by the grace of GOD I was able to quit
Now my wife and I prepare natural and organic meals which have actually helped to make people well
Dr. Budwig from Germany actually cured people successfully
for over 30 years from cancer at a higher success rate than is
still possible today using organic vegan diet however you must stay on it for an entire year
She put out her info on the internet it is all there for free
PS: She cured Susan Sommers of her breast cancer
The good Lord has provided us with natural cures for everything we just need to find it and use it
God Bless You We love you
Drs. Sam & June Christian and family
Dr. Christian:
Thank you for your excellent article on smoking. Thanks to DNO it will be read around the world.
I expect many people will receive help at you clinic and I hope it will get the exposure it needs to bring in those who most need that help including people from far beyond Dominica.
Here in my Canadian home province of Ontario thousands of people are dying every year of diseases caused by smoking. The same is true in provinces across Canada and in the territories. It is THE leading cause of preventable death in the nation.
Our governments are spending a fortune of the tax payers money to prevent people from taking up the habit and help those who have to quite. The ironic thing is it was the governments that licensed the manufacture and sale of cigarettes years ago. It was cool to smoke. Even doctors smoked. At least one medical journal carried cigarette advertising!
Of course that was before the research was done and the studies were published. In those days it was not the doctors who were warning people of the dangers. It was evangelical Christian leaders. How their preachers used to irke the people! They did not have any science on their side in those days. But there was something about a man blowing smoke out of his nose that just did not seem right. I remember one old camp meeting evangelist shouting at us if God had wanted us to smoke He would have created us with a smoke stack on top of our heads.
Now governments are talking about decriminalizing marijuana. Some are flaunting the idea of legalizing it, and getting it on the market the same as tobacco and alcohol. Obviously, these governments want to collect the sales tax from it. Their greed for money is greater than any health concern they might have for the public. Unfortunately people are inclined to think if governments approve of marijuana it must be O.K.
Sincerely, Rev. Donald Hill. D.D., International Evangelist.
Website:
http://www.livinghopeministries
With all the hard work of the Cancer Society, lung
cancer is almost always self-inflicted. I like the
way Dr. Sam portrays it as our patriotic duty not
to smoke and to help others quit. Nice personal
story too!
Shame on The US for threatening denial of aid for
countries that try to place barriers to wanton
importation of American cigarettes.
Shame on the USA indeed!
Their size on the world stage gives them a sense of entitlement not unlike that possessed by ancient Babylon, and later by Rome.
They not only want to import cigarettes, but pornography
and gay rights, along with same sex marriage by pushing small nations to conform. They do this of course by threatening to cut off financial assistance.
They are not above threatening small nations with no respect for the fact that these are sovereign independent countries. What they are saying is they will help you if you give them a hand in governing your affairs.
Some feel it is evident they would like more of the beautiful Caribbean.
May it never be
The mess the States are in should be warning enough. The handwriting is on the wall.
Sincerely, Rev Donald Hill. International Evangelist.
CORRECTON:
I wrote IMPORT cigarettes…
It should have been EXPORT …
Sorry.
Don Hill
Ever since my memory resource came alive in my mind, I have seen my dad with a cigarette–that was from 3 years old, believe it or not. Daddy is heading into 82 years old, in June–when I was there in August of last year–2013, he was still smoking–but never did he smoke a pack a day; I am sure of that.
When daddy lights a cigarette, and puts it between his lips, he hold its there, perhaps until one third of that cigarette is consumed–especially if his hands are occupied through something that he is doing. So that means my daddy inhaled most of the smoke from the cigarette not puff it out–like most people do.
However, even at his age today, daddy is not sick of anything, he has never spent one day in the hospital–In fact daddy has never complained of being sick–with the kind of sickness that would cause him to stay in bed for not even one day.
But toady that I am a person with Life in Jesus Christ, I asked God, some years ago, what are my testimonies of His Love in my Life–the Light that keeps my soul awakened to the food of the Spirit?
Well God showed me many testimonies of His Love in my Life–not only of my personal situations, but with my loves ones as well– one of them is about my daddy and his smoking habit.
God reminded of a day that my dad was crying and like a helpless baby and groaning with pain in his head–he had that pain for at least one week, by then pain killer would not help.
God showed me that, on that day of dad’s crying and groaning with pain in his head, was because he had a vein that was close to rapture–I did not know any such thing on that day–I was a mall child with no understanding of Life and God.
Through revealing His Truths, God said to me, your daddy could have died on that day, if that vein had raptured, but He said to me, He did not allow that to happen for two reasons: Read about them in my next entry–since DNO does like those long comments.
Entry number 2: The two reasons that God showed me, why He kept my dad alive was:
(1) I am the first child of my mom and dad, they had 10 of us–today we are 8 women and 2 men–alive and well with our own family. I am the first child of my mom and dad
But on that day when daddy was in such pain because of that nasty vein or artery in his head, I was less than 10 years old.
When I asked Him, God showed me that we–brothers and sisters– and our mamma would have entered some real awful struggle for survival had He allowed my daddy to pass on that day. His Love for us could not let this happen
(2) Today I have those “situations” as testimonies that God, is the Living God of Love through His Person of Love–Jesus Christ, and God’s Love is the Life–the Living Light that awakened my sleeping dead soul, within me, from more than 15 years ago.
My body is not free from afflictions for I am still human–but testimonies, like those which I have, are given to us–that we, who have believed, received, and conceive the Truth of God Almighty should speak those testimonies to those around us–that God might receive the glory; it does not belong to us.
I have written a book of those testimonies, just waiting for the time God is ready for me to publish it–I know that He wants me to publish that book.
Entry #3 In conclusion:
Today I am convicted that through His Son in the flesh. but He, Himself in the Spirit–Christ, with the Mind of Love, in that same Man, Jesus the Son— God Almighty is all in all as far as Life in mankind is concerened.
Without God in Spirit and in Truth, man is the “natural man” with that perishing nature, because that nature is fed only with the futile products of his “carnal” mind, which can only respond to, or process the seeds of the human senses.
The natural man has no ability of “self-control” which is one of the Fruit of the Spirit–the gift in man teaches his mind discernment, the ability to decide between the negative and the positive–as this mind of his is guided by Holy Spirit, from conscience, for Life in him.
Without God Almighty, who connects to us through conscience and by our channel of faith, man’s physical body is dead, on its way to eternal perish.–the dust of which this body was formed
But the apostle Paul has cautioned us, as he tells us that in the Life of Jesus Christ–we are the conquerors. for we have the victory though our weapon of faith–the kind of faith that works through “Love”
“For who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?————”
“For I am persuaded that neither death, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Romans 8: 31–39
Therefore by the stripes of Jesus’ body we can be healed–both physically and spiritually–but nothing happens with God, if we do not allow our channel of faith–the spiritual channel by which He deals with us.
Thanks to you Doctor Christian for your “provocation” by which I respond to those news articles.
You always talking about God!
How come last week when you were stabbing me in my back with Johnny, you did not say to him the venom you both were spewing at me, God does not like such behavior.
You are a hypocrite, and the Bible warned that not all who say Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. There is another scripture which said on that day some of us will ask him didn’t I drive out demons in thy name?
And he will say to them depart from me for I know you not!
You need to be very careful, because everything I wrote medically is true and can be authenticated, but just because Johnny talk his crap, you got on the band wagon with him. That man is not even a medical doctor you know; I told you before I check into his background, and have not found him in any medical directory in the United State you know, I have not found him licensed anywhere in the United States.
Having a Ph.D. does not make one a medical doctor, it takes more than I told you before, one time wrote something, which even an first year medical student should, and that man was dumbfounded about what I was talking about, so I do not know how you who does not know anything beside God, can join forces with him to ridicule me when you two does not have a clue of what I am talking about.
You had better stop playing with God.
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
@Francisco Telemaque April 14, 2014
You always talking about God!—Telemaque
He you madman, why won’t you stop writing your “personal rubbish” and your misery as a “compulsive liar” below my comments here? If that is what satisfies your self ego, sorry but I want no part of it, okay!
How come last week when you were stabbing me in my back with Johnny, you did not say to him the venom you both were spewing at me, God does not like such behavior–Telemaque
God does not know you, so why would He care about what happens to you. Besides no one spewed venom at you, that is another damn lie of yours–you talk those lies much easier than I can drink a glass of water. And you are the one with all the vocabulary of venom or profanity from the mouth–Your attitude of lies and self conceit is what God is ashamed of–not Johnny’s and mine.
You are a hypocrite, and the Bible warned that not all who say Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven–Telemaque
Speak for yourself and not me, I know my dealings with God and His Word in the Bible; what do you know about Him? One of His commands says do not tell lies–but that is all you do through your childish boasting, exaggeration, and you know the other ways.
You need to be very careful, because everything I wrote medically is true and can be authenticated– Telemaque
Where did this come from; and who cares about the stupidity you have been talking about your self about being medically learned?
Last week you were taking about Aaron and geothermal energy. claiming that he did not know what he was talking about–but you did–that is what Johnny rebuked you about and I joined with him; you have no control against what I do or what I don’t do. But spare me about your “doctor crazy” thing–nobody cares!
You have lied so much in the past–beside it seem like you have the IQ of a 5 year old boy; who would take you on about your Twilight fantasy–whatever they are?
I do not know how you who does not know anything beside God–Telemaque
That is how much of an idiot you are. If you think that I know about God, what else is there that I would not know, or need to know for that matter–since He is the One in control of all things.
Knowledge of God means that I am ready to receive Jesus; but if I go to my grave before His returns, I am taking an awakened soul and the Mind of Love with me–only a fool like you would not want to embrace this great blessing–which is the gift of Life.
How you can join forces with him to ridicule me when you two does not have a clue of what I am talking about–Telemaque
You are the one who keeps ridiculing yourself, just as you have done here. But you are right to say that I do not have a clue of what you are talking about; how can I when you, yourself do not know what you are talking about?
You had better stop playing with God–Telemaque
Keep that advice to yourself and for yourself. I have been playing with God since more than 20 years ago, when I met Him by faith. The games get more exciting year after year–especially that He is teaching me how to win against the devil, who is trying to use people like you to come against me–and I am winning the fights fist for fist
Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque