Agreed, except smoking. Can we agree, smoking isn't a good idea anymore? I lost 20 years of healthy life for a wasteful addiction and it started in 1991 when I was 16.
Do you mean you smoked for 20 years, or that you lost 20 years of lifespan due to smoking?
If it's the latter, I remember reading in a medical study that the adverse health effects of smoking are mostly reversed several years after the person stops smoking. :)
I used to be a reasonably heavy drinker, then I quit more or less cold turkey, didn't drink a drop for over 6 months, and even though I've now gone back to drinking a bit, I'm very careful now to limit my intake to well within the health guidelines (i.e. no more than one or two a night, no more than a couple of nights a week). Not only has this done good things for my health, it's done great things for my finances.
Other damage is certainly done to the lungs that can cause other issues--emphysema, cardiovascular problems, etc--but the risk from the "scariest" threat out there is greatly diminished.
2. If true, why do you think it's compensating for reduced smoking?
Very interesting. Are there statistics that demonstrate this? Specifically, are people really drinking more, and if so, how do we know it is to compensate for reduced smoking?