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chew, snuff, chaw, dip, etc

at1010

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Recently many of you already know Tony Gwinn SR passed away due to salivary cancaer (sp?).

I recently heard that Curt Shilling now has this cancer.

For those of you who chew, dip, etc do you find this alarming? I have never heard of this cancer to recently, and now seems there is a higher rate with ball players, especially those who chew.

thoughts?
 
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bowhunter1023

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Tony Gwimn, Sr. passed. Junior us still playing ball.

I'm not shocked as we all know it causes cancer and smokeless tobacco is as much a part of baseball as bat or ball. I've been casually using since I was 18. I don't do it enough to worry about as a pouch of chew lasts me a month easy. I've never used snuff and I think its much worse for you compared to chew.

It was only a matter of time before this stuff happened.
 

at1010

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Tony Gwimn, Sr. passed. Junior us still playing ball.

I'm not shocked as we all know it causes cancer and smokeless tobacco is as much a part of baseball as bat or ball. I've been casually using since I was 18. I don't do it enough to worry about as a pouch of chew lasts me a month easy. I've never used snuff and I think its much worse for you compared to chew.

It was only a matter of time before this stuff happened.

I corrected it. Jesse I have chewed/dipped for a long time. I dont use a TON maybe a tin a week, two tins most. I have a dip or two a day, and then ill stop for a few months.

My question/concern is that no dentist has EVER told me it could cause those types of cancers, they always just say "watch for white patchs, move it around your mouth, etc"

Even regular doctors seem to take a nonchalant attitude towards chewing tobacco compared to smokes.
 

jagermeister

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I've been casually using at about the same rate as Jesse for the past 8-9 years or so. Up until Gwinn bit the dust. I've really cut back and only have a chew maybe once or twice a week now. I only chew loose leaf but the thought of dying of mouth cancer really has me gun shy. I really don't wanna go out like that.
 

bowhunter1023

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Read the can dude. LOL. Not sure what doctors you have been seeing, but I've been fully aware of the fact that smokeless tobacco will rot your face off my entire life.

My buddy did a can a day and swallowed. He started shitting blood at 30 and has terrible heartburn and reflux. Its nasty shit.
 
I chewed and occasionally dipped back when I was in college for a few years and quit then as well. I am not concerned about it at all really. LOL I'd be more concerned over the second hand smoke I had to breathe since I was born til I went to college though LOL.
 

aholdren

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Both those guys ate snuff, they always had it in their mouth. I dipped snuff like Jesse chews tobacco from when I was 12 till I was 16, then it was a can every 2 days till I had kids at 32. Since then Ive had a times where I'll chew for a couple of months but Ive been tobacco free for the last 2yrs. If I were an everyday user I would be concerned, Shilling said his gums would bleed cause he used do dip so much. I remember my mouth getting sore but never to the point of bleeding.
 

at1010

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Read the can dude. LOL. Not sure what doctors you have been seeing, but I've been fully aware of the fact that smokeless tobacco will rot your face off my entire life.

My buddy did a can a day and swallowed. He started shitting blood at 30 and has terrible heartburn and reflux. Its nasty shit.

see thats my point! i have always know it wasnt good for you, but how many guys do you know who have dipped everyday/time you see them and never had anything wrong? I see old guys all the time, 80 still rubbing away.

I honest to god had a surgeon at a hospital tell me " chew isnt to bad, we just cut a small piece out, not like lung cancer" I think he was half heartedly joking but still something he told me.

Also the cans I buy read "chew is addictive, may cause gum disease/tooth loss"

My point is I wish to hell I hadnt started when I was 12 or 13. When I get stressed at work, and I drive a lot now I crave it!
 

finelyshedded

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I'm proud to say Ron and I both are still dip free since: me(Christmas), him(New Years). I sure miss the heck out of it at times but refuse to go back to it! Hunting/fishing,working around the house,drinking a few beers,after eatting is when I did it most and prolly had a cud of dip in my cheek or lower front lip most of the day for nearly 34 years. Decided to cut my losses and pray I get lucky and don't get cancer from here on out.
Believe me, when Tonys passing came to pass I was somewhat relieved I had been off the dip for about 3-4 months cuz it tends to scare you hearing deaths like that when you have a huge pinch of Grizz staight long cut in while watching it unfold on the TV newscast!
Dip is very very addicting both physiologically and psyologically, IMO.

And yes Albert for the last 15 years I would talk to my doctor about my fears and apprehensions of continued dip usage and he pretty much had a nonchalant take on it and said I might just move it around.
If I do suffer any ill effects of a lifetime of dip using it would prolly be the acid reflux and heartburn I battle. I did swallow it alot of the years.
Hope you can eventually quit yourself someday, good luck!!!

I've gained about 20lbs since I quit and need to lose it before I die of heart issues now....WTF!!! Lmao
 

MK111

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My BIL died from mouth cancer. It's not a pretty sight. The doctors just taking more and more. Finally there wasn't anyway to stop it. No voice, no solid food for years and had a feeding tube by his shoulder and pour the liquid into.
Sorry but that's the way it is for some unlucky people.
 

at1010

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amazing we both have had the nonchalant experience! I think this tin I have will be my last one, and I am going to try to quit again!


OO BOY I will be buying a lot of gum and seeds!
 

MK111

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My PD shooting buddy has been a Dentist for 40 yrs. I'll ask him his experience with his patients. I already know his response. ASAP.
 

finelyshedded

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Unsalted pistachios,raisins,sunflower seeds work well but Albert, if you can get through one week without a dip each week gets better but take it just one small victory(day) at a time.
 

at1010

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Unsalted pistachios,raisins,sunflower seeds work well but Albert, if you can get through one week without a dip each week gets better but take it just one small victory(day) at a time.

yea my thing is going back to it after a few months or a year. I quit before for over 8 months, then just one day have a dip then quit again. Recently I have just been dipping a lot more. Honestly the last year, I think I have put a skoal ring in every pair of pants I own. I will try!
 

finelyshedded

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If you gave it up for 8 months then you can do it but its got to be a lifetime commitment. I'm a bad example cuz I quit for 13 months during one stretch over the past 34 years of using and one can bought for a trip to Florida on vacation and I was hooked again doing it even more. The chemicals they put in that can are scary!

My wife made me watch a video about an ole snuff dipper on a site called KILLTHECAN.com

It was very sobering and scared the shit out of me TOO.
 

Jackalope

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Something's going to kill you someday.

Too many medium rare steaks will give you a heart disease.

Too much sugar will give you diabetes.

Driving to and from work puts your life at risk every day.

You could fall out of the tree stand, get shot by another hunter, have a muzzleloader breech fail and blow your face off.

You could choke on dinner, choke on sunflower seeds.

Point is. Something's going to get our ass and 99% of the things that could are really out of our control.

Some people unfortunately get cancer, others don't. Some people smoke and drink and never get anything. Others will never smoke a day in their life and die at 37 from lung cancer like a guy I worked with. Another guy I worked with had a heart attack a day after his 40th birthday and died instantly.

The problem with humans is we always look for a reason, something to blame, something we can point to and say that did it. We can't sleep at night unless we know why. Maybe it gives us closure. Maybe we look for these things to blame because not knowing scares the shit out of us. It scares us because we don't know what happened or how to avoid it. We always try to lay the blame somewhere, this way we can trick ourselves to believe that it won't happen to us as long as we don't do that also. It makes us sleep better at night, the knowing. We did it as children with the boogie man. If the closet was dark, we didn't know with certainty he wasn't there, it kept us awake at night. But if the light was on, we knew we were safe. We gave no real thoughts as to how plausible it really was, there was only knowing and not knowing, and the not knowing scared the shit out of us. We like to blame things because it makes us feel comfortable like we are somehow in control. We're not. One day we're all going to die, this is unavoidable. Shit happens. Life's cruel. Good people get fucked every day. Quit worrying about it and live. Because the reality is, driving home today some teenager chatting with her BFF on Facebook can end it all in a heartbeat. You have zero control of that. Don't get so caught up trying to find your way out of the forrest that we call life, that you forget to stop and enjoy the beauty of our situation. Live so that if you die tomorrow you could say, I had a good run. And realize that no matter what, life goes way too quick. When it's your turn to go it will always have been too short. Live now and quit worrying about living tomorrow
 
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MK111

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Joe I sorta agree with everything you wrote. But on the other hand I see no reason to speed it up on purpose when it can be avoided.
 

hickslawns

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My dentist told me there is no actual link between chew and cancer. Told me to move it around. Make sure I rinse my mouth or brush my teeth after whenever possible. I honestly believe we all have cancer in our bodies. Some people trigger it and others never get it activated. My great grandmother rolled her own smokes for years with tobacco she grew. Dipped snuff as well. Lived until she was 2wks shy of 95. Did quit smoking later on in life but in the 1980's she had her first heart issues. She was in the hospital demanding her smokes. lol On the contrary, I watched a 39yr old classmate of mine get buried last week. To my knowledge she did not smoke or chew. Cancer is evil and unpredictable. I am not so sure the chew causes the cancer but I think if you keep chewing when you have sores in your mouth from it. . . probably doesn't help. I hesitantly type this because most of you that have seen me have seen me with a chew in nearly all the time. I am not proud of it. Stopped several times for a month or so. Quit for a year at one point. Seems every time i quit and took it up again, it was harder to quit. If you can casually chew and don't feel like it is a problem to quit, I would recommend quitting. It is an ugly, disgusting, and expensive habit. Whether it hurts your health or not? Who knows. Maybe it isn't the tobacco, but all the other crap the mix in there. Wish I could quit. Probably need some desire to quit in order to start quitting. That is not a good thing on my part.