DR. WALLACE: I'm curious why you always seem to be so negative about teens smoking tobacco cigarettes, but you have little to say about teens smoking marijuana!

For the record, I'm 19 and I totally enjoy smoking cigarettes! I love everything about it. Smoking allows me to relax and gives me a satisfying feeling, especially when I am stressed out, which is a lot of the time during these trying days in our society.

If I smoke a cigarette while I'm driving, my mind is clear, but it would not be if I were smoking marijuana; my reflexes would be compromised. And we all know that any sort of impairment at all could be catastrophic for anyone behind the wheel. I think your advice to teens should discourage smoking, but let them know that if they do decide to smoke, they should stay away from marijuana and embrace tobacco as their go-to when they need to get their smoke on. — Love My Cigs, via email

LOVE MY CIGS: I'm happy that you have been reading this column; thank you for that and for taking the time to write to us here as well.

The use of marijuana has been around for many years and outlawed for many reasons, until recently. But please note that smoking any substance, including marijuana or tobacco, is extremely unwise due to the damage it does to the lungs and respiratory system of the human body. Once smoke is sucked into the lungs, one is more at risk for several health issues. And although your letter did not mention it, vaping is yet another way to wreak havoc on the human body. There have been many recent studies and sad stories reported regarding the dangers of vaping, especially for teenagers, with their still-developing bodies.

To make matters worse, marijuana, vaping and cigarettes all help drain the pocketbook of the individual doing the smoking. In my opinion, this causes smoking any substance at all to be a lose-lose decision.

I WANT TO HELP MY GIRLFRIEND

DR. WALLACE: I have a steady girlfriend and I'm in love with her, and I'm proud to tell you that we have been seeing each other for well over one full year now.

Over the past year that I've known her, she has gained quite a lot of weight; I'd estimate it to be as much as 40 to 50 pounds. Her rapid weight gain in the last several months is now getting in the way of our relationship more and more. Why? She does not seem to have any energy anymore! She goes out less and stays home a lot due to the pandemic, and of course she's eating more and getting very little physical activity at all. Her family has a lot of really unhealthy fast food delivered nearly every day.

I don't want to hurt her feelings and I love her the very same today as the day I first fell in love with her, but it just breaks my heart to see her become more and more unhealthy and withdrawn from life. She seems to only watch shows on her computer, and she doesn't understand that by staying at home, eating a lot of unhealthy food, she's slowly becoming obese. How can I encourage her to eat better food and less of it? She tells me she eats because she's bored. — Want to Help Her, via email

WANT TO HELP HER: My first recommendation for you to help her is to get her to become more active! Try to visit her regularly and get her to go outside, take brisk walks with you and even go on some hikes on local trails.

And when you visit, bring some healthy snacks or meals with you. Encourage her to become more active and to eat a healthier diet, and she will likely begin to lose some of the extra weight pretty quickly.

But during this process of encouragement, be sensitive to her and her feelings. It's her body and you truly have no right to ask her to do anything specifically in this regard. Yes, you can encourage her, and do your best to help her grow any spark she may show in the area of nutrition and weight loss.

Also remember that sometimes people gain weight when something psychological is weighing on their mind. No doubt, this pandemic has affected millions of people in many different ways. I suggest you to talk to your girlfriend about how she's feeling these days and encourage her to confide in you about any issues that she needs to. Seek out opportunities to encourage her in any areas of her life that she would like to try to change or improve, but always do so in a respectful, earnest, nonjudgmental way. You may find that with even a bit of light encouragement, she quickly builds momentum to becoming more active once again.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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