competing theories to explain symptoms of not smoking

[jts]

In a different thread I challenged you all to come up with an alternative theory to explain symptoms of fasting, So far (at the time of this writing) nobody met the challenge. So here I will make an easier challenge, as practice for the more difficult challenge.

The challenge is:  what is an alternative theory to explain the symptoms of withdrawal from smoking?

https://www.healthline.com/health/smoking/nicotine-withdrawal#symptoms2

 

Quote

 

Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal include:

• intense cravings for nicotine
• tingling in the hands and feet
• sweating
• nausea and intestinal cramping
• headaches
• coughing, sore throat
• insomnia
• difficulty concentrating
• anxiety
• irritability
• depression
• weight gain

 

 

If you asked any doctor who supervises fasts for an explanation of these symptoms, the standard answer would be much the same as what they would say about the symptoms of fasting, they are symptoms of detox and/or healing.

Weight gain might be an exception. That could be put down to improvement in digestion.

Another exception, in the case of fasting some people don't have the nutritional reserves to fast. Or they didn't do the fast right, drinking water, sleeping, keeping warm, etc.

------ Smokeville ------------

There is a town named Smokeville. Almost everybody in Smokeville smokes like a chimney. Those who don't smoke are regarded as liars. Almost all the doctors in Smokeville promote smoking as good for human health. For some unknown reason there are lots of doctors in Smokeville and they get lots of business. Everybody in Smokeville knows what happens when you don't smoke; you get sick; obviously smoking is necessary for human health. All the peer reviewed scientific studies in Smokeville show that everybody who quits smoking gets sick, thereby proving that smoking is a necessity of life for humans. This is not questioned in Smokeville except by a few kooks.

There are stories about people outside of Smokeville who live without smoking and without ill effects. But nobody in Smokeville except a few kooks believes these stories. An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence and all we have is hearsay.

There is a quack doctor in Smokeville who is opposed to smoking and who says the symptoms of not smoking are symptoms of detox and healing and after you get past that you can enjoy better health and it is possible to live without smoking. He has been arrested several times for medical malpractice. Some of his patients claim they lived without smoking for years and with no deterioration of health. Such claims must be rejected because it is generally accepted that the human body can't live without tobacco longer than a few weeks. No experiment has been done that proves that death would happen but it is possible to extrapolate from shorter experiments.

It should be obvious to every intelligent, thinking, rational person that the symptoms of not smoking prove that smoking is a necessity of life for humans. Anybody who doubts that is either stupid or irrational. The kooks say the symptoms go away after a while but scientific studies as long as 2 or 3 days show that they don't. The kooks call for longer studies but studies of life threatening length would be illegal. There is no scientific evidence to support anything the kooks say and therefore what they say must be dismissed..

Nobody in Smokeville knows why smoking is a necessity of life for humans. It is obvious that it is a fact, whatever the explanation might be. Why smoking is a necessity of life for humans is a mystery. Nonhuman animals don't need it. There does not seem to be anything in human biochemistry or human physiology that requires smoking. Scientists in Smokeville are working on this mystery. The kooks claim to have it all figured out. But their theory is contrary to conventional wisdom and therefore must be rejected.

The challenge to everybody in OL land is to explain to the scientists of Smokeville why smoking is a necessity of human life and why not smoking produces symptoms and let's not have any nonsense about detox and healing.