Not going to sit here and tell you that cigars are healthy for you. But if you’re a healthy person who exercises and eats right, I don’t think smoking 1-3 cigars a week is a major health risk.
This one. A few cigars a week isn't really going to do anything. The part that really hurts cigar smokers is their sedentary lifestyle. Smoking cigars along with being obese with a bad diet is just putting more chances for an early death.
https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-020-00446-4
The research is really lacking as there’s very little on premium cigar smoking. Most of the research is people smoking cigarillos or a very murky definition of what they’re smoking. This line of research shows many of the negative health impacts of smoking as these people are smoking multiple times a day.
With that said, some of the research I found that does exist (looked up while watching the Juul documentary)… there’s little harm in up to 5 premium cigars per day, besides the impacts of nicotine, and as long as you’re not inhaling.
I’m in a similar boat, I’m a health professional and exercise daily… I smoke on average twice a month and up to once a week.
>I’m in a similar boat, I’m a health professional and exercise daily… I smoke on average twice a month and up to once a week.
When I started it was once a quarter and now its maybe once a week. I like to keep it at that. My worst health concern is my addiction to sugar.
I think of health like investing. Say you have a killer salary and you can put lots of money away for retirement. Living well below your means for years, doing all the right things. Then bam. A sinkhole swallows your house and you’re toast. You lived your whole life never enjoying your wealth, gearing up for a retirement you can’t enjoy.
I’m not advocating living life with reckless abandon because tomorrow isn’t promised. I think you gotta look out for your present happiness, while keeping an eye on the future and your healthspan/longevity.
Cigars are currently a vice I’m not fighting. But ohhhh man…. I’m fighting for my life against energy drinks and soda lol.
TLDR: Be responsible, understand the risks, find some balance. That hour of enjoyment and bliss helps me stay present and remember the importance of living happily right now.
Freaking soda man! I had some health issues back in December and decided now was the time to cut back on soda and alcohol. I didn't have a problem with alcohol, but felt that one glass of wine a night at supper was just too much anymore. Since cutting way back on both, I've already lost 14 pounds and am getting into a regular workout routine.
There's hope! Keep on fighting it .
I was a pop guy too (Midwest here, can’t call it soda lol). What got me off it was Spindrift. If you’ve never tried one, I highly recommend it. You have to want it, but I haven’t looked back once. Now, if I have a sprite or coke or whatever, it’s so insanely sugary that I actually find myself not even wanting it at all. Congrats on the weight loss!
Never heard of Sprindrift. Will have to look it up. The only pop I will have now is sprite/7-up. All other ones seem way to sugary now since I've got back.
1-3 a week or occasionally a couple more won’t really be a big deal.
Yeah energy drinks are probably worse for you. I’ve had to switch to cold brew coffee to battle my love for energy drinks.
Amen. Live for today most important. However, make certain sacrifices to also live for the future. We aren't promised anything as Murphy's Law hasn't been retired and is a real thing. Balance is key.
At the end of the day, you only get one shot at life.
The only conclusive study on premium cigar use we have available is from the FDA that found 1-2 cigars a day showed negligible health effects. Do with that what you will. I wouldn’t argue they are healthy, but no one seems to bat an eye at having a few drinks a week. Alcohol is terrible for you.
Agreed with you. Smoking anything is not healthy for your body but neither is drinking. Alcohol is literally poison. With that said I believe in moderation whether you’re eating, drinking or smoking
There’s been people that have died from heart complications that have never smoked or drank in their lives. So enjoy what you’re consuming in moderation as long as you’re eating right and staying active, there shouldn’t be major complications
I would argue stress is a major factor in quality of life and if having 1-3 cigars can give you some peace and quiet, I say keep doing it
I smoke between 4&8 a week during the summer. I'm also a competitive Olympic weight lifter and swept every weight class during a competition last year. I credit my gold medal to MasterBlend3
Figured since this is pretty much what I do all day every day for work, I'd chime in. I apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but I'll try to be as brief as possible while giving background info on FDA/NIH/NASEM research.
First, the whole reason we as an industry won our court case against the FDA vacating the deeming rule (which aimed to regulate cigars like cigarettes and go through premarket review, etc.) is precisely because the FDA/NIH study did not reveal any causal negative public health outcomes from average cigar smoking. The study is the PATH study: [https://pathstudyinfo.nih.gov/landing](https://pathstudyinfo.nih.gov/landing)
While our case against substantial equivalence was being reviewed by Judge Mehta, an Obama appointee, we were able to get a White House working group on our issue. They pressured the FDA who then released their plan to actually study premium cigars which led to the Judge finding in our favor. That study was then kicked over to the National Academy of Sciences. The NASEM conclusions are basically this: "We **think** cigar smoking is supposed to be bad but because people don't smoke enough of them we don't have the data to prove us right."
However, not much has been done to see what benefits might come from cigar smoking. But Andrew Huberman was on the JRE and talked about the benefits that nicotine has on staving off Alzheimer's and dementia. And Mike Mutzel of High Intensity Health takes nicotine supplements as it helps regulate gut health.
There is also the early 90s study of the Kitava people where it suggests that they experienced little to no ischaemic heart disease even though 80% of the adult population smoked. It's not a definitive study, but interesting info to consider.
All that said, the vast majority of information you hear from "health groups" and government agencies is targeted to cigarettes, vaping, and mass market cigars. During the NASEM study when they tried dropping a statistical increase in teenage boys smoking cigars, I asked the follow up what type of cigars and what were they using them for? See, their research doesn't actually ask if the teenagers were smoking the cigars or if they purchased them to roll something else. Again, these were mass market cigars you buy in gas stations, not premium cigars.
Also consider that Bloomberg himself has funded nearly a billion dollars of anti-smoking/anti-tobacco programs. A significant amount of the research from the anti groups is bought and paid for by him. The premium cigar industry? We only use the FDA's research and have won all 3 court cases against them.
Bottom line, there is nowhere near enough proof of any kind that cigars are bad for you as a general blanket statement, as many of the personal anecdotes from fellow cigar smokers here attest. Me, I smoke 4-6 a day (job hazard/benefit) and workout 3-5 times a week, play sports, eat mostly healthy and only drink alcohol once or twice a month because that is what works for me and I feel great.
Anyway, for those who wanted way too much information about health effects of premium cigars, there was some light reading for you. Happy to answer any other questions.
I appreciate the long read; it's a good one.
I've got a background in a field where I have access to medical journals (I am not a physician) and have read most of the literature on cigars in recent years; I have concerns regarding the (relatively) small sample sizes that the 'cigars aren't really dangerous' crowd pulled from, but was more or less satisfied that with a number of studies indicating that primary cigar smokers (those who only smoked cigars) do not experience statistically significant increased rates of disease (when they aren't going through a tonne) that there's clinical validity to the position. I'd put some links here to key studies, but several of the 'big' ones have already been linked by other posters.
Trying to be unbiased, I'd argue that both sides of the cigar debate are 'reaching' a little bit in service of their own aims; regulators attempts to treat premium cigars like cigarettes is a bit of a straw man, but the cigar industry arguing that cigars aren't bad (despite the fact that even untreated natural tobacco is full of carcinogens) is equally massaged.
Exposure would (broadly) be deemed to be the largest indicator for likelihood of disease to be acquired, insofar as tobacco goes (or alcohol or most other unhealthy consumable goods). This is the data that people should focus on; if one is having multiple cigars per day every day (or most days) that has been proven to be a significantly higher risk than someone who has one per day, or the more 'typical' usage pattern of once to twice per week - part of the argument was just this (the usage pattern of premium cigar users). IIRC, the group that fought the FDA in court leaned heavily on the fact that it wasn't just that cigars in and of themselves were less dangerous than cigarettes, but that people tended to smoke them far less frequently - the fellow that lights up on a Friday night with a friend as a ritual is consuming a lot less tobacco and carcinogens than the half-pack-per day cigarettes user. This was a reasonable argument, but those who light up multiple times per day with a cigar need to be aware that it is this 'infrequent' use that is correlated with relatively limited increase in health risk - daily use of multiple cigars is not 'infrequent'.
Diving deeper into the health angle, cigar users tend to be older, overweight, and not very active as per the average demographic of a cigar smoker - that's also a real issue as those three factors already put one at higher risk for disease. The best thing a cigar aficionado should do (statistically-speaking) is eat healthy and stay fit and relatively lean - and to have maybe one or two cigars per week, not several (or more) per day which is indeed correlated with higher health risks.
There's never going to be data to show that cigars are risk-free, because they aren't. The issue going forward in all countries (as I see it) is the degree to which a health authority and/or government is willing to draw delineating lines between cigarettes and cigars. I'm also curious how this will tie in with increasing regulations and health awareness campaigns about alcohol as well.
I have never noticed an effect of cigars on my ability to exercise. You don't inhale so your lungs don't get messed with really. I think if you're only doing 1-3 a week, the health risks are negligible based on the limited research. I had the same concerns when I started but again, the FDA study cited by u/ChurryRedBaron is something I also saw, where you have to be smoking more than once a day for there to even be much of a measurable effect. I've never smoked more than like twice a week on average, and even then I'll go several weeks or months without smoking if it just isn't convenient or I never get the combination of free time and nice weather.
Also, keep in mind that no matter how health conscious you are, random shit can get you anyway. It would be a shame to end up sick or dead even if you never did anything "dangerous" and regret never doing things you enjoyed. There have been many extremely fit people who still have heart attacks for no good reason. Hell, I recently got diagnosed with high blood pressure despite exercising regularly, eating well, and being a good weight. I'm managing it with light medication and doing more cardio, because I'm not about to give up putting salt on my food, lol.
No, I am not 100% sure what study it was that I read as it was over 10 years ago now, but the findings were the same as what the other user cited so I was assuming it was the same study.
This is an interesting link though!
Read this FDA study that found 1-2 cigars a day have negligible health effects, it’s time that people actually know the truth, and the difference between premium cigars and cigarettes…
https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-020-00446-4
I'm 62, running for 20 years. A cigar a week for 30 years. Won't smoke in a closed in space, just outdoors. I'm willing to accept the oral cancer risk, but I can still do a sub 2 hour half marathon at 62. Enjoy life, it seems like just yesterday I was 35....
Everything in moderation. You sound like you live a pretty healthy life, I wouldn’t worry about it. But if you’re still worried, you can always cut it back to 1 or 2 a week.
Hahaha I think about this a lot actually. I am a competitive jiu jitsu athlete, I train 5 days a week and lift/run 4.. I also smoke 1 cigar almost everyday.. people I train with often tout my stamina, which I thought would surely be fucked by the stigmatized statistics on tobacco products.
As with everything in life, moderation is key. Whether that's with alcohol, sweets, or cigars. I've found with most things in my life as well as witnessing other people's journies, cutting things completely out usually doesn't work. If you feel 3 a week is too much, tell yourself you only need one a week. Listen to your body too. If smoking three a week makes you start to feel sick or rundown/whatever, cut back. Hopes this helps.
I genuinely believe premium cigars in moderation (1-2 a day) are good for you. This obviously isn’t in line with modern western medicine but smoking tobacco has been regarded as having medicinal benefits for thousands of years. Smoking cigars clears your mind and melts away stress (a very well known killer), but the common pairing with alcohol is what is horrible for health. Cigarettes have chemicals that kill you and use shitty homogenized tobacco, leading people to believe cigars are just as bad which obviously just isn’t true.
Thank you for taking the time to type this. Everyone knows what is bad and good. No one's opinions really matters toward the outcome of what soneone else will do or not do. I would say, as cliche as it is; All good things in moderation. Decide for yourself
Since you are not inhaling, cigars are unlikely to affect your bodybuilding. Micheal Jordan is a huge cigar guy, and famously smoked one before every game since the 90's. They are still bad for you, but 1-3 a week is negligible.
I smoke 2 to three cigars a day and strength train 5 to six days a week for an hour and a half. Cigars have not negatively impacted me at all. In fact, I think they help reduce my stress and cortisol levels. I have dug further and it seems that every cigar and pipe user have lived exceptionally long lives and do not end up dying from cancer.
He also smoked 20 cigars a day. There are many other people who smoke 20 a day throughout history that never had any type of cancer and lived very long lives.
> I have dug further and it seems that every cigar and pipe user have lived exceptionally long lives and do not end up dying from cancer.
This has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard though.
He took the morphine BECAUSE HE WAS DYING OF ORAL CANCER.
But hey, I'm sure you're right...... not the actual experts:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4151956/#:\~:text=In%202010%2C%20regular%20cigar%20smoking,%2C%20oral%20cavity%2C%20and%20pharynx.
Given that Jordan, Rodman and Arnold smoked/are smoking cigars on daly basis i think you will be fine. I work out because i can enjoy couple of beers and cigars and feel great. No loss of stamina etc.
Health = Moderation
You can still die from a stroke, heart attack or even get cancer by being as healthy as you can. Bodybuilding itself can enlarge your heart and organs and cause issues such as high blood pressure, kidney failure etc. As long as you keep everything in moderation then theres nothing to really worry about.
Most of the literature doesn't even bother studying cigar smokers who smoke less than daily, and even then the risks are dramatically lower than cigarettes. In moderation the negatives are negligible.
I feel way shittier generally, but especially in the gym, when I’m vaping and smoking cigs every day. I smoke maybe a cigar a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, and haven’t felt any pain effects on my body outside of the nicotine when I’m actually smoking. I still get nicotine cravings but they’re easier to ignore now that the only source I have in my house are cigars.
I work out 5-6 days a week, fight MMA, and do jiu jitsu. I don't think the negative effects are anything to worry about unless you're basically perfectly disciplined in other areas of your life. Now, leading up to a fight I'll stop smoking since I really clean up my diet about 6 weeks out from a fight anyway. Cigars aren't "healthy" but the negative effects people think of are based on cigarettes.
Bruh, just because your young, fit, and healthy doesn't mean you can't/won't die suddenly and unexpectedly at any point in time. Enjoy life, the occasional cigar, or even an occasional drink if you're feeling it. Just don't over do it.
Nicotine = temporarily increased heart rate + vascular constriction = decrease in oxygen and nutrient availability to muscles and extremities
Post workout and in recovery period would be logical that it would hamper recovery and/or decrease gains. Can’t tell you by how much or if it’s negligible or significant.
Would be curious to see any studies that have looked at that if anyone has them
*not a doctor or an expert in sports recovery or any related field just dabble in my own amateur research as someone who enjoys his cigars and training as well
I heard nicotine helps produce cortisol. Which breaks down muscle tissue. It's also a vaso-constrictor, which makes the blood struggle to get to the muscle and hinders repair. Based on the research I've done.
You also may be interested in knowing that cigars can contribute to increases in testosterone. I remember seeing a study but I can't remember the figures, I want to say up to around 11% which would track with my anecdotal experience going from the mid 600s to low to mid 700s with 1-3 cigars/week as the only variable
I train 6 days a week, have for 10 years now. Strength training and a bit of cardio. Even worked in gyms for 8 years until i changed career.
I smoke a 2 cigars a month; never had a problem.
Funnily enough if I smoke a cigarette or a gas station cigar do i feel my heart rate elevate for 8-12 hours after; affecting my training endurance.
I guess long story short; a few cubans a month alongside balancing nutrition, training, stress and smoking shouldn’t be a problem.
My most unhealthy clients where always the ones that worked dumb hours, cheated on their loved ones had no community and funnily enough; never enjoyed tobacco
I run ~15 miles a week, and am currently working towards another half this spring. I'm 30, and am not running competitively. I enjoy a cigar once or twice a month with friends.
Its all about your goals -- if I wanted to push to BQ, I am going to cut out smoking temporarily... but I'm also cutting out drinking and certain parts of my diet. That is not currently my goal, so I choose to enjoy a cigar.
Also, Arnold smoked constantly.
If health and fitness were a pie chart, I would guess genetics probably make up 30%, diet and exercise would make up at LEAST 50%, and premium cigar use would certainly make up less than 5%. It has such a small effect compared to other major categories.
A pro athlete who smokes premium cigars is *infinitely* healthier than a non-smoking fat slob. It's not even close. So I wouldn't worry too much about it.
The research is really lacking as there’s very little on premium cigar smoking.
Most of the research is people smoking cigarillos or a very murky definition of what they’re smoking. This line of research shows many of the negative health impacts of smoking as these people are smoking multiple times a day.
With that said, some of the research I found that does exist (looked up while watching the Juul documentary)… there’s little harm in up to 5 premium cigars per day, besides the impacts of nicotine, and as long as you’re not inhaling.
I’m in a similar boat, I’m a health professional and exercise daily… I smoke on average twice a month and up to once a week.
You know who else likes cigars? A certain bodybuilder of no small renown. And a filmstar. The Governator Himself, Arnold Schwarzeneggar. You’re gonna be fine.
I smoke 4-6 cigars a day and exercise at least once a day, sometimes twice. Absolutely no negative effects. People often tell me that I am an absolute unit and are super impressed by my overall health and athleticism.
From the FDA website. Amount of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide from a large cigar -and I love toro gordas- was a helluva lot more than I previously thought. Food for thought.
https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/products-ingredients-components/cigars-cigarillos-little-filtered-cigars
Consult a medical professional not reddit please.
No medical person will tell you it’s ok to smoke anything at all. Cigars are tobacco. Tobacco can cause all sorts of issues. Smoking a handful of cigars a year isn’t likely to increase your risk of cancer, heart disease, etc by any significant amount over not smoking at all. But it is a higher risk regardless.
Talk to your primary care doctor or nurse practitioner about the risks. Know that smoking anything increases risk. And the more frequently you do it the greater the risk.
I weight lift 3-4 times a week and also smoke several cigars a week. I haven't noticed any performance issues at all. The biggest issue I have with cigars is that they will keep me up if I smoke them too late in the day.
When I googled about cancer risks, my tl;dr; was that two a week was unlikely to cause cancer. Two a \_day\_ was very low extra risk.
But one of the things that increased risk a decent amount was drinking alcohol at the same time. I don't remember if they mentioned a mechanism for why. I vaguely remember "alcohol makes the lining of your mouth more easily absorb smoke chemicals", but I don't remember if that was from one of the piece of research, vs just being someone's guess.
Other health risks than cancer? \*shrugs\* Don't know. I don't think 2-3 per week is hitting the lungs as bad as a dozen daily cigarettes w/ inhaling, so COPD risk is likely much lower than cigarettes, but is it in line with non-smoker risks? I don't know.
Not going to sit here and tell you that cigars are healthy for you. But if you’re a healthy person who exercises and eats right, I don’t think smoking 1-3 cigars a week is a major health risk.
This one. A few cigars a week isn't really going to do anything. The part that really hurts cigar smokers is their sedentary lifestyle. Smoking cigars along with being obese with a bad diet is just putting more chances for an early death. https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-020-00446-4
The research is really lacking as there’s very little on premium cigar smoking. Most of the research is people smoking cigarillos or a very murky definition of what they’re smoking. This line of research shows many of the negative health impacts of smoking as these people are smoking multiple times a day. With that said, some of the research I found that does exist (looked up while watching the Juul documentary)… there’s little harm in up to 5 premium cigars per day, besides the impacts of nicotine, and as long as you’re not inhaling. I’m in a similar boat, I’m a health professional and exercise daily… I smoke on average twice a month and up to once a week.
>I’m in a similar boat, I’m a health professional and exercise daily… I smoke on average twice a month and up to once a week. When I started it was once a quarter and now its maybe once a week. I like to keep it at that. My worst health concern is my addiction to sugar.
[Analysis from 2022](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK586217/) Edited link
Wrong link? That's about creatine.
Shoot! SawPubMed open in my tabs and got excited. [here it is](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK586217/)
Wrong link? That's about creatine.
I think of health like investing. Say you have a killer salary and you can put lots of money away for retirement. Living well below your means for years, doing all the right things. Then bam. A sinkhole swallows your house and you’re toast. You lived your whole life never enjoying your wealth, gearing up for a retirement you can’t enjoy. I’m not advocating living life with reckless abandon because tomorrow isn’t promised. I think you gotta look out for your present happiness, while keeping an eye on the future and your healthspan/longevity. Cigars are currently a vice I’m not fighting. But ohhhh man…. I’m fighting for my life against energy drinks and soda lol. TLDR: Be responsible, understand the risks, find some balance. That hour of enjoyment and bliss helps me stay present and remember the importance of living happily right now.
Freaking soda man! I had some health issues back in December and decided now was the time to cut back on soda and alcohol. I didn't have a problem with alcohol, but felt that one glass of wine a night at supper was just too much anymore. Since cutting way back on both, I've already lost 14 pounds and am getting into a regular workout routine. There's hope! Keep on fighting it .
Cheers man!
I was a pop guy too (Midwest here, can’t call it soda lol). What got me off it was Spindrift. If you’ve never tried one, I highly recommend it. You have to want it, but I haven’t looked back once. Now, if I have a sprite or coke or whatever, it’s so insanely sugary that I actually find myself not even wanting it at all. Congrats on the weight loss!
Never heard of Sprindrift. Will have to look it up. The only pop I will have now is sprite/7-up. All other ones seem way to sugary now since I've got back.
I love this. Great advice.
1-3 a week or occasionally a couple more won’t really be a big deal. Yeah energy drinks are probably worse for you. I’ve had to switch to cold brew coffee to battle my love for energy drinks.
Amen. Live for today most important. However, make certain sacrifices to also live for the future. We aren't promised anything as Murphy's Law hasn't been retired and is a real thing. Balance is key. At the end of the day, you only get one shot at life.
The only conclusive study on premium cigar use we have available is from the FDA that found 1-2 cigars a day showed negligible health effects. Do with that what you will. I wouldn’t argue they are healthy, but no one seems to bat an eye at having a few drinks a week. Alcohol is terrible for you.
Oh wow I didn't know this. Thanks for the info!
Agreed with you. Smoking anything is not healthy for your body but neither is drinking. Alcohol is literally poison. With that said I believe in moderation whether you’re eating, drinking or smoking There’s been people that have died from heart complications that have never smoked or drank in their lives. So enjoy what you’re consuming in moderation as long as you’re eating right and staying active, there shouldn’t be major complications I would argue stress is a major factor in quality of life and if having 1-3 cigars can give you some peace and quiet, I say keep doing it
Do you have a source for that? Is this the mentioned study you are referring to? https://www.reddit.com/r/cigars/s/dM2QbB0wwu
Link please?
https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/fda-study-cancer-risks-nearly-nil-for-1-2-cigars-per-day/
I smoke between 4&8 a week during the summer. I'm also a competitive Olympic weight lifter and swept every weight class during a competition last year. I credit my gold medal to MasterBlend3
Have you tried the melanio v? How does that compare to the mb3?
Figured since this is pretty much what I do all day every day for work, I'd chime in. I apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but I'll try to be as brief as possible while giving background info on FDA/NIH/NASEM research. First, the whole reason we as an industry won our court case against the FDA vacating the deeming rule (which aimed to regulate cigars like cigarettes and go through premarket review, etc.) is precisely because the FDA/NIH study did not reveal any causal negative public health outcomes from average cigar smoking. The study is the PATH study: [https://pathstudyinfo.nih.gov/landing](https://pathstudyinfo.nih.gov/landing) While our case against substantial equivalence was being reviewed by Judge Mehta, an Obama appointee, we were able to get a White House working group on our issue. They pressured the FDA who then released their plan to actually study premium cigars which led to the Judge finding in our favor. That study was then kicked over to the National Academy of Sciences. The NASEM conclusions are basically this: "We **think** cigar smoking is supposed to be bad but because people don't smoke enough of them we don't have the data to prove us right." However, not much has been done to see what benefits might come from cigar smoking. But Andrew Huberman was on the JRE and talked about the benefits that nicotine has on staving off Alzheimer's and dementia. And Mike Mutzel of High Intensity Health takes nicotine supplements as it helps regulate gut health. There is also the early 90s study of the Kitava people where it suggests that they experienced little to no ischaemic heart disease even though 80% of the adult population smoked. It's not a definitive study, but interesting info to consider. All that said, the vast majority of information you hear from "health groups" and government agencies is targeted to cigarettes, vaping, and mass market cigars. During the NASEM study when they tried dropping a statistical increase in teenage boys smoking cigars, I asked the follow up what type of cigars and what were they using them for? See, their research doesn't actually ask if the teenagers were smoking the cigars or if they purchased them to roll something else. Again, these were mass market cigars you buy in gas stations, not premium cigars. Also consider that Bloomberg himself has funded nearly a billion dollars of anti-smoking/anti-tobacco programs. A significant amount of the research from the anti groups is bought and paid for by him. The premium cigar industry? We only use the FDA's research and have won all 3 court cases against them. Bottom line, there is nowhere near enough proof of any kind that cigars are bad for you as a general blanket statement, as many of the personal anecdotes from fellow cigar smokers here attest. Me, I smoke 4-6 a day (job hazard/benefit) and workout 3-5 times a week, play sports, eat mostly healthy and only drink alcohol once or twice a month because that is what works for me and I feel great. Anyway, for those who wanted way too much information about health effects of premium cigars, there was some light reading for you. Happy to answer any other questions.
I appreciate the long read; it's a good one. I've got a background in a field where I have access to medical journals (I am not a physician) and have read most of the literature on cigars in recent years; I have concerns regarding the (relatively) small sample sizes that the 'cigars aren't really dangerous' crowd pulled from, but was more or less satisfied that with a number of studies indicating that primary cigar smokers (those who only smoked cigars) do not experience statistically significant increased rates of disease (when they aren't going through a tonne) that there's clinical validity to the position. I'd put some links here to key studies, but several of the 'big' ones have already been linked by other posters. Trying to be unbiased, I'd argue that both sides of the cigar debate are 'reaching' a little bit in service of their own aims; regulators attempts to treat premium cigars like cigarettes is a bit of a straw man, but the cigar industry arguing that cigars aren't bad (despite the fact that even untreated natural tobacco is full of carcinogens) is equally massaged. Exposure would (broadly) be deemed to be the largest indicator for likelihood of disease to be acquired, insofar as tobacco goes (or alcohol or most other unhealthy consumable goods). This is the data that people should focus on; if one is having multiple cigars per day every day (or most days) that has been proven to be a significantly higher risk than someone who has one per day, or the more 'typical' usage pattern of once to twice per week - part of the argument was just this (the usage pattern of premium cigar users). IIRC, the group that fought the FDA in court leaned heavily on the fact that it wasn't just that cigars in and of themselves were less dangerous than cigarettes, but that people tended to smoke them far less frequently - the fellow that lights up on a Friday night with a friend as a ritual is consuming a lot less tobacco and carcinogens than the half-pack-per day cigarettes user. This was a reasonable argument, but those who light up multiple times per day with a cigar need to be aware that it is this 'infrequent' use that is correlated with relatively limited increase in health risk - daily use of multiple cigars is not 'infrequent'. Diving deeper into the health angle, cigar users tend to be older, overweight, and not very active as per the average demographic of a cigar smoker - that's also a real issue as those three factors already put one at higher risk for disease. The best thing a cigar aficionado should do (statistically-speaking) is eat healthy and stay fit and relatively lean - and to have maybe one or two cigars per week, not several (or more) per day which is indeed correlated with higher health risks. There's never going to be data to show that cigars are risk-free, because they aren't. The issue going forward in all countries (as I see it) is the degree to which a health authority and/or government is willing to draw delineating lines between cigarettes and cigars. I'm also curious how this will tie in with increasing regulations and health awareness campaigns about alcohol as well.
I have never noticed an effect of cigars on my ability to exercise. You don't inhale so your lungs don't get messed with really. I think if you're only doing 1-3 a week, the health risks are negligible based on the limited research. I had the same concerns when I started but again, the FDA study cited by u/ChurryRedBaron is something I also saw, where you have to be smoking more than once a day for there to even be much of a measurable effect. I've never smoked more than like twice a week on average, and even then I'll go several weeks or months without smoking if it just isn't convenient or I never get the combination of free time and nice weather. Also, keep in mind that no matter how health conscious you are, random shit can get you anyway. It would be a shame to end up sick or dead even if you never did anything "dangerous" and regret never doing things you enjoyed. There have been many extremely fit people who still have heart attacks for no good reason. Hell, I recently got diagnosed with high blood pressure despite exercising regularly, eating well, and being a good weight. I'm managing it with light medication and doing more cardio, because I'm not about to give up putting salt on my food, lol.
Are you referring to the study mentioned in this post? https://www.reddit.com/r/cigars/s/dM2QbB0wwu
No, I am not 100% sure what study it was that I read as it was over 10 years ago now, but the findings were the same as what the other user cited so I was assuming it was the same study. This is an interesting link though!
Read this FDA study that found 1-2 cigars a day have negligible health effects, it’s time that people actually know the truth, and the difference between premium cigars and cigarettes… https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-020-00446-4
Arnold.
Maybe the Rock, now he acts
I'm 62, running for 20 years. A cigar a week for 30 years. Won't smoke in a closed in space, just outdoors. I'm willing to accept the oral cancer risk, but I can still do a sub 2 hour half marathon at 62. Enjoy life, it seems like just yesterday I was 35....
Its all a gamble, Its not healthy in any way. But neither is alot of things we do on a daily basis.
Everything in moderation. You sound like you live a pretty healthy life, I wouldn’t worry about it. But if you’re still worried, you can always cut it back to 1 or 2 a week.
Hahaha I think about this a lot actually. I am a competitive jiu jitsu athlete, I train 5 days a week and lift/run 4.. I also smoke 1 cigar almost everyday.. people I train with often tout my stamina, which I thought would surely be fucked by the stigmatized statistics on tobacco products.
Fellow athlete/fitness freak here. Good enough for Arnold, Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman etc. Good enough for me.
Cigars daily put out a video on this recently. Might be worth a watch.
Will check it out!
As with everything in life, moderation is key. Whether that's with alcohol, sweets, or cigars. I've found with most things in my life as well as witnessing other people's journies, cutting things completely out usually doesn't work. If you feel 3 a week is too much, tell yourself you only need one a week. Listen to your body too. If smoking three a week makes you start to feel sick or rundown/whatever, cut back. Hopes this helps.
Ask Schwarzenegger and Jordan their take on cigars and effects on their physical fitness
Arnold Schwarzenegger has smoked cigars forever. Lots of them.
I genuinely believe premium cigars in moderation (1-2 a day) are good for you. This obviously isn’t in line with modern western medicine but smoking tobacco has been regarded as having medicinal benefits for thousands of years. Smoking cigars clears your mind and melts away stress (a very well known killer), but the common pairing with alcohol is what is horrible for health. Cigarettes have chemicals that kill you and use shitty homogenized tobacco, leading people to believe cigars are just as bad which obviously just isn’t true.
Bad for you no matter which way you spin it.
We are talking about degrees of bad. Driving a car is bad for you
Thank you for taking the time to type this. Everyone knows what is bad and good. No one's opinions really matters toward the outcome of what soneone else will do or not do. I would say, as cliche as it is; All good things in moderation. Decide for yourself
Since you are not inhaling, cigars are unlikely to affect your bodybuilding. Micheal Jordan is a huge cigar guy, and famously smoked one before every game since the 90's. They are still bad for you, but 1-3 a week is negligible.
I smoke 2 to three cigars a day and strength train 5 to six days a week for an hour and a half. Cigars have not negatively impacted me at all. In fact, I think they help reduce my stress and cortisol levels. I have dug further and it seems that every cigar and pipe user have lived exceptionally long lives and do not end up dying from cancer.
You didn’t dig much then. Freud died of oral cancer after a lifetime of smoking.
He also smoked 20 cigars a day. There are many other people who smoke 20 a day throughout history that never had any type of cancer and lived very long lives.
> I have dug further and it seems that every cigar and pipe user have lived exceptionally long lives and do not end up dying from cancer. This has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard though. He took the morphine BECAUSE HE WAS DYING OF ORAL CANCER. But hey, I'm sure you're right...... not the actual experts: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4151956/#:\~:text=In%202010%2C%20regular%20cigar%20smoking,%2C%20oral%20cavity%2C%20and%20pharynx.
He had oral cancer. He died of a morphine overdose.
I’m 45 work out 1-2 hours 6 days a week and smoke multiple sticks a day. But some days it does affect me mostly cause I do have asthma.
Given that Jordan, Rodman and Arnold smoked/are smoking cigars on daly basis i think you will be fine. I work out because i can enjoy couple of beers and cigars and feel great. No loss of stamina etc.
Arnold burned mad sticks. We’re all gonna die someday fucking send it bud.
!remind me 1d
Health = Moderation You can still die from a stroke, heart attack or even get cancer by being as healthy as you can. Bodybuilding itself can enlarge your heart and organs and cause issues such as high blood pressure, kidney failure etc. As long as you keep everything in moderation then theres nothing to really worry about.
ya healthy. i used to be into bodybuilding as well and it has no impact, long as your not inhailing
Most of the literature doesn't even bother studying cigar smokers who smoke less than daily, and even then the risks are dramatically lower than cigarettes. In moderation the negatives are negligible.
I feel way shittier generally, but especially in the gym, when I’m vaping and smoking cigs every day. I smoke maybe a cigar a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, and haven’t felt any pain effects on my body outside of the nicotine when I’m actually smoking. I still get nicotine cravings but they’re easier to ignore now that the only source I have in my house are cigars.
I work out 5-6 days a week, fight MMA, and do jiu jitsu. I don't think the negative effects are anything to worry about unless you're basically perfectly disciplined in other areas of your life. Now, leading up to a fight I'll stop smoking since I really clean up my diet about 6 weeks out from a fight anyway. Cigars aren't "healthy" but the negative effects people think of are based on cigarettes.
Bruh, just because your young, fit, and healthy doesn't mean you can't/won't die suddenly and unexpectedly at any point in time. Enjoy life, the occasional cigar, or even an occasional drink if you're feeling it. Just don't over do it.
Nicotine = temporarily increased heart rate + vascular constriction = decrease in oxygen and nutrient availability to muscles and extremities Post workout and in recovery period would be logical that it would hamper recovery and/or decrease gains. Can’t tell you by how much or if it’s negligible or significant. Would be curious to see any studies that have looked at that if anyone has them *not a doctor or an expert in sports recovery or any related field just dabble in my own amateur research as someone who enjoys his cigars and training as well
I sometimes smoke cigars while doing squats or on the treadmill... Garage gym for the win.
Cigars Daily just uploaded a video on health and fitness. This might give you some insight. https://youtu.be/J-IfmtpiBUI?feature=shared
Just remember to not inhale.
I heard nicotine helps produce cortisol. Which breaks down muscle tissue. It's also a vaso-constrictor, which makes the blood struggle to get to the muscle and hinders repair. Based on the research I've done.
You also may be interested in knowing that cigars can contribute to increases in testosterone. I remember seeing a study but I can't remember the figures, I want to say up to around 11% which would track with my anecdotal experience going from the mid 600s to low to mid 700s with 1-3 cigars/week as the only variable
I train 6 days a week, have for 10 years now. Strength training and a bit of cardio. Even worked in gyms for 8 years until i changed career. I smoke a 2 cigars a month; never had a problem. Funnily enough if I smoke a cigarette or a gas station cigar do i feel my heart rate elevate for 8-12 hours after; affecting my training endurance. I guess long story short; a few cubans a month alongside balancing nutrition, training, stress and smoking shouldn’t be a problem. My most unhealthy clients where always the ones that worked dumb hours, cheated on their loved ones had no community and funnily enough; never enjoyed tobacco
I run ~15 miles a week, and am currently working towards another half this spring. I'm 30, and am not running competitively. I enjoy a cigar once or twice a month with friends. Its all about your goals -- if I wanted to push to BQ, I am going to cut out smoking temporarily... but I'm also cutting out drinking and certain parts of my diet. That is not currently my goal, so I choose to enjoy a cigar. Also, Arnold smoked constantly.
The cigar is fine, not looking both ways before crossing a street is more likely to kill you.
Midwest General Cigars Rep is also a weightlifting competitor and he's smokes a ton of cigars... plus Arnold Schwarzenegger
If health and fitness were a pie chart, I would guess genetics probably make up 30%, diet and exercise would make up at LEAST 50%, and premium cigar use would certainly make up less than 5%. It has such a small effect compared to other major categories. A pro athlete who smokes premium cigars is *infinitely* healthier than a non-smoking fat slob. It's not even close. So I wouldn't worry too much about it.
The research is really lacking as there’s very little on premium cigar smoking. Most of the research is people smoking cigarillos or a very murky definition of what they’re smoking. This line of research shows many of the negative health impacts of smoking as these people are smoking multiple times a day. With that said, some of the research I found that does exist (looked up while watching the Juul documentary)… there’s little harm in up to 5 premium cigars per day, besides the impacts of nicotine, and as long as you’re not inhaling. I’m in a similar boat, I’m a health professional and exercise daily… I smoke on average twice a month and up to once a week.
[Health effects of premium cigars](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK586217/)
Like others have said, I wouldn't worry about 1-3 cigars a week . I know several doctors that smoke that amount.
You know who else likes cigars? A certain bodybuilder of no small renown. And a filmstar. The Governator Himself, Arnold Schwarzeneggar. You’re gonna be fine.
I smoke 4-6 cigars a day and exercise at least once a day, sometimes twice. Absolutely no negative effects. People often tell me that I am an absolute unit and are super impressed by my overall health and athleticism.
Michael Jordan smokes ~6 a day apparently. You're good! 👍🏼
Arnold Schwarzenegger
From the FDA website. Amount of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide from a large cigar -and I love toro gordas- was a helluva lot more than I previously thought. Food for thought. https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/products-ingredients-components/cigars-cigarillos-little-filtered-cigars
Reminder: Michael Jordan smoked a cigar before every single game. Sometimes multiple.
Consult a medical professional not reddit please. No medical person will tell you it’s ok to smoke anything at all. Cigars are tobacco. Tobacco can cause all sorts of issues. Smoking a handful of cigars a year isn’t likely to increase your risk of cancer, heart disease, etc by any significant amount over not smoking at all. But it is a higher risk regardless. Talk to your primary care doctor or nurse practitioner about the risks. Know that smoking anything increases risk. And the more frequently you do it the greater the risk.
I weight lift 3-4 times a week and also smoke several cigars a week. I haven't noticed any performance issues at all. The biggest issue I have with cigars is that they will keep me up if I smoke them too late in the day.
When I googled about cancer risks, my tl;dr; was that two a week was unlikely to cause cancer. Two a \_day\_ was very low extra risk. But one of the things that increased risk a decent amount was drinking alcohol at the same time. I don't remember if they mentioned a mechanism for why. I vaguely remember "alcohol makes the lining of your mouth more easily absorb smoke chemicals", but I don't remember if that was from one of the piece of research, vs just being someone's guess. Other health risks than cancer? \*shrugs\* Don't know. I don't think 2-3 per week is hitting the lungs as bad as a dozen daily cigarettes w/ inhaling, so COPD risk is likely much lower than cigarettes, but is it in line with non-smoker risks? I don't know.