Do e-cigarettes actually work?
Do e-cigarettes actually work?
I have a friend who has been using an e-cigarette for 10+ years. He doesn't seem any less addicted to smoking as back when he was using old-fashioned cigarettes.
I understand e-cigarettes are supposed to help you quit... but has anyone actually had success with them? Or, is it more like trading one vice for another?
Current e-cig user here.
Honestly, as a smoker, it's a godsend. The smoke goes away so quickly, it has higher nicotine than cigarettes when purchased the RIGHT way, and since I can now smoke inside, I can puff on it all day every day as I work from home!
In all seriousness, it's worse imo. It sets the precedent from the 50s of smoking EVERYWHERE and now without any of the negative outward effects like smell or yellowing of the teeth/walls.
It's honestly made my addiction worse. To each their own for sure, but in my experience it just made my bad habit SLIGHTLY healthier, but much more accessible.
It requires a significant amount of willpower to break the addiction, but for those of us that do not, definitely do not pick this up. It will not help. If you have that willpower, it is useful.
I successfully quit with vaping.
Switched to vaping not with the intent to quit, but to just get rid of the smell I get after smoking. While trying different flavors, in time I decreased the amount of nicotine every time I time I bought a new bottle. I then slowly started to forget to bring it with me when I leave the house until I vaped exclusively in my home and after a few more months decided to just throw it all away.
As someone who smoked a pack a day until last year and switched to an e-cigarette yeah, they can definitely be helpful in quitting. I have a few friends who switched over and slowly lowered the nicotine levels until they had non nicotine and kept it for the oral fixation. Personally I switched just because it’s a lot cheaper, and I don’t have plans to lower nicotine anytime soon, but I’ve even felt better using just the ecig compared to normal smokes.
It worked for me, but the intent was to quit. Your friend isn't trying if it's been more than a decade. I started at a higher nicotine, and slowly got lighter nicotine options. Once I got to 0 nicotine, it was mostly just breaking the physical desire to do something when my hands were free or while driving. I think I only bought one bottle of 0 nicotine and moved on.
For me, it was a very effective way of cutting down on my nicotine intake, as others have described, by mixing my own ejuice.
I vaped for 10-12 months with diminishing nicotine, then quit altogether. I 100% would recommend for smoking cessation.
I do wonder about those who demand an end to an nearly-harmless substitute for dirty tobacco - are we really willing to sacrifice 'good' for 'perfect'?I'd been smoking cigarettes for 11 years and just switched to vaping 2 months ago. My lungs feel much, much better. I can walk up multiple flights of stairs/longer distances without getting winded. My mouth also no longer has that eternal burnt paper taste, especially when I wake up in the mornings.
So for the purposes of what I switched to vaping for - to ease back on destroying my lungs - vaping/e-cigs work. I used to smoke 2 packs in about a week and a half. I'd say the amount I vape now is the equivalent of 1 pack every month (I don't constantly hit it throughout the day).
I have no doubt that inhaling vapor with that density is still not good, but it's better than what I was doing previously.
As for helping to quit the habit entirely, I think that's the opposite of their goal. All these fruity flavors they keep coming out with seem like they're designed to be popped like candy.
I found this question surprising. “Do they work?” At first I didn’t understand - work at what? Then I realized that you’re thinking of them as quitting smoking devices. They’re not that. It’s an alternative to smoking. You inhale fewer particulates but often more nicotine, and there have been some health questions about the oils that serve as a medium for the nicotine and how healthy they are to inhale. It’s not thoroughly understood yet and there’s a big range of products out there.
The companies that sell them will swear up and down that they are to help you quit. And some users of them will tell you how much healthier it is and how they’re halfway to quitting. This is all, essentially, lies that they are telling themselves and you.
If you want to see a nicotine abatement product, check out nicotine gum or patches. There is nothing enjoyable about them. They allow the user to divide quitting into two stages: first, getting the habit out of their system, and second, phasing out their nicotine addiction. They do not deliver any enjoyment or rush, and are designed to be clinical and dull. The gum is hard and has a medicine flavor and plain grey color.
E-cigs on the other hand, enhance smoking. They allow you to smoke in more places. They add fruity flavors. The gadgets are cool and the different things you fill them with are stylishly presented. You still go through most of the motions of smoking and you’re getting more nicotine than before.
Why would anyone consider that a quitting tool? It absolutely is not.
I switched to vaping because I'd just met my now wife and she hated the smell of smoke and all the associated stuff that goes with it, partly because she'd just come out of a bad relationship with a chain smoker but also because it's just not nice for non smokers anyway.
That was about 10 years ago and I still vape. I'm will aware that I've just swapped one addiction for another but I don't consider myself a smoker - haven't touched a cigarette since, and genuinely never wanted to for a very long time now. My lungs still feel a lot better, I can run and do excercise without feeling like my lungs are imploding.
A lot of the studies done on vaping it should be noted use old fashioned kit and unrealistic use case scenarios (such testing until a coil gives out - a coil would usually last someone at least a week) -but even taking that into account I'll take my chances with vaping. I tried all the other methods of giving up smoking and none of them worked for me so this is the closest.
As I side note, I am against disposable vapes and think the law should crack down on sales to underage people. A solution would be to only sell in established vape shops and require ID with every sale. I'm not naturally hard-line about this sort of thing but the school vaping thing is well out of control and is need of sorting out
I am currently using e-cigarettes as a former smoker
I would say:
- if you aren't smoking already, there isn't really a good reason to start
- if you are smoking and sort of kind of want to continue, e-cigarettes are most likely healthier than analog
- if you are smoking analog and want to quit, there are better ways to quit for sure - I don't feel like committing to quitting just yet, however when I do feel committed, I will go with the tips outlined towards the end of the Huberman Lab - Nicotine’s Effects on the Brain & Body & How to Quit Smoking or Vaping podcast
This is healther alternative to smoking and way easier to quit.
Quiting is relatively easy if done the right way - add less and less nicotine shot to each bottle until you start forgetting your vape. For example, go from 3mg/ml to 0mg/ml in the period of 6 months.
They're not inherently "supposed to help you quit". That's only if you use them with that superficial intention.
They certainly allow you to reduce or remove nicotine intake - because you can change the fluid.
It can help, yes. But if you don't want to quit, it will just be trading one for the other.
What I can say is that vaping is at the very least, less harmful than cigarettes. You don't get a lot of the combustion by-products you do with cigarettes.
It's not less addictive, and I'm not going to claim it's healthier, just less harmful. Addiction to nicotine in any form is still an addition. Vaping doesn't do anything different than cigarettes when it comes to nicotine. Its still an addictive substance, and the only real benefit you get from vaping (in terms of quitting) is detailed control over the concentration of nicotine in what you're ingesting. This won't matter if instead of vaping for 5 minutes per hour at 6mg, you're vaping 10 minutes per hour at 3mg.
In the end, it's entirely up to you. Vaping is a tool that can give you the control to accomplish the task of quitting, if that's what you're intending to do. If you're just looking for something less harmful, but don't have the drive to actually try to quit, it's just going to substitute one for the other.
The correct answer is: It heavily depends on your individual circumstances. There is behaviours that are difficult to change. And there is nicotine, which is quite addictive. Some people can change things quite easily, while it's next to impossible for other people.
Vaping should come with far less health risks than smoking. you don't smell and your lung capacity gets to a normal level if you get from smoking to vaping.
So either your friend is for example addicted to nicotine. Or their intention is something else than quitting this. Maybe they like e-cigarettes and don't see a reason to get rid of it. You'd have to ask them if they're even trying to quit.
I started vaping seven years ago as a way to quit smoking; I smoked my last cigarette literally outside the vape store before walking in and asking what to I buy to pull this off as nothing worked. The transition was seamless; not only did I never even crave a cigarette again, I very quickly learned to loathe the smell of cigarettes once my full range of smell came back. There's not even a temptation to start up again.
It also helps that I choose vapes that smell amazing.
I am still vaping, yes, but I'm stepping down my nicotine pretty much every two years. I started at 24 and am now at 15 (I was stuck at 18 for a while). Those transitions I can definitely feel, but I can start with adjusting my mod's wattage, air flow, use different coils for a bit, and ease into it so once I step down, there's no chance I step back up, and then reward myself sometimes with a new fancy mod with a touchscreen with more leds or a cooler tank or something. All that and I am spending an order of magnitude less than I ever did on cigarettes and I have the math to prove it.
It's certainly not ideal and yeah, it's slow and basically only progressively reducing harm, but it's a process that for me is guaranteed to work with no backtracking and progress is assured.
I’m to far less harmful for you, but it’s a good aid for quitting too.
I quit by getting progressively weaker liquid. Sometimes I mixed my own and sometimes I’d have a vape shop do it. Every time, I would reduce nicotine content by 10% of whatever my current nicotine level was. Normally if I ran out, I would be in my car going to buy more. But after about a year of lowering nicotine this way, I ran out and said to myself, “I’ll get some the next time I’m out.” And I never did buy more.
The anti vaping laws are atrocious. They often seek to ban the type of e cigarettes that actually let you mix your own liquid or have vape shops mix them. The bills actually require tobacco flavoring and flavoring is the component with the least known health effects. Everything else is pretty well settled and reasonably safe relative to alcohol and caffeine.
Why do people care so much if I have a vice? Why is everyone up my ass on this? I like nicotine, I'm sure your friend does too. They do not need more of a reason.
They are "supposed" to make quit burning tobacco. That's where the harm is.
Nicotine alone does not cause cancer.I quit smoking with them but it was more about harm reduction for me. They're obviously less healthy than not using it at all, but everyone I know who quit smoking using an ecig has their own anecdotes about how they felt better after switching. I used to get bronchitis flare ups every flu season but that hasn't happened since I switched. I don't cough up crud all the time, I can climb stairs without getting winded, and I smell like fruit instead of cigarette butts which I'm sure everyone else appreciates. My nic level is also so low now I'm basically just vaping flavored vegetable glycerin.
Yes. Pack a day + chain smoking when I drank. I used an ecig to quit. Over the course of about 7 years, (yeah, just like your friend!) 12mg then 9mg then 6, then 3, then 1.5, then 0. I stayed on 0 for awhile and then one day I got out the car at a store and my ecig must of hit the ground. I never saw it again. That was the day I finally quit for good. Been 3 years now.
If nothing else, ecigs are way less of a risk and way less of a diminisher to ones quality of life compared to analog cigarettes. There is no stank left on the user and the users clothes. There is no more hacking up a lung every morning. ecigs seem to not suppress the immune system as harshly as analog cigarettes either. ecigs are incredibly cheaper too.
There is a lot of propaganda out there, misinformation, being disseminated by "big tobacco" - cause they are losing and have lost A LOT of profits due to people switching to ecigs and quitting analog cigarettes. They've even lobbied governements to pass legislation restricting access to ecig materials - citing the same old bullshit line: "Won't somebody think of the children!?! OH THE CHILDREN!!!"
It helped me quit.
Been a smoker for 20+ years, a pack a day. Wife made the ultimatum: kids, or a smoke.
In the end, quiting is about the reason why. Some people do it for themselves, others of others. Whatever works for you.
I used the nicotine stickers and a clean esmoker to disconnect the habit from the addiction. Worked like a charm, the esmoker got lost in the car dashboard after a week. The stickers hurt. You wear them for 24h so I put them on my hips, my ass etc because I need to wear them in my sleep. After a few days I ran out of space since the skin is slightly inflamed from the stickers. Switched to a lower dose, didn't help. After 2 weeks I stopped all together.
Mind you, this would not have worked without the esmoker.
e cigs r the new colorful solution for the lil kiddies to start smoking nic early
theyre never meant to get people to stop just make it more accessible under the guise of making a different
You mean are they just as addictive? Yeah. Its just as big of a scam as cigarettes and a monumental waste of money.
My lungs felt better when I switched to e-cigs but my nicotine intake skyrocketed. For cigarettes I had to go outside and devote a couple minutes. With e-cigs I could do it inside and I could just take a quick hit or two as I was doing things. So even though I felt better I felt waaay more dependent on the nicotine, tons of hits throughout the day. I ended up switching back to cigarettes for a few weeks before I finally quit because I found it easier to stop. Still wasn't easy though. Good luck!
It depends by user really, but I've seen people getting addicted to all of the different fruity tastes even more than nicotine. E-cigs with taste have been outlawed in my country recently for that reason - people, especially young, often really vape/e-smoke for the flavours, untill they actually become addicted to nicotine in them. And, of course, the pandemic of single-use e-cigs which promote polution and are made with slave labour.
I smoked for a long time, switched completely to vaping several years ago and still do it. I started at nicotine level 24mg - supposedly the equivalent of a Camel or Marlboro - decreased gradually to where I'm now at the lowest nicotine level widely available in pre-made juices, 3mg.
Remember that nicotine at these doses is not harmful, nor is it a carcinogenic. What it is, is addictive, and the documented harm from the cigarette as a nicotine delivery system comes from the combustion.
With that in mind, I admit that I'm still comfortable with vaping after several years, my health has improved dramatically since then.
I can breathe much better, easier. Now I don't catch every single throat infection and flu of the season, and if I do catch one, it's now usually so mild that I don't even need medication to sleep with a clear nose.What keeps me on edge is the pervasive anti-vaping sentiment, caused by the anarchic environment of the fledging vaping industry at the beginning, many nicotine delivery systems packaged EXACTLY like candy. A greedy gold rush attitude poisoned the well at the outset.
As an analogy, think Bitcoin and crypto.I actually did quit using them. But it wasn’t a case of switching from cigs to vapes and then just quitting a few weeks later.
I smoked for over 30 years and then moved over to vaping. I then vaped for about 7 years before finally managing to quit. That was 557 days ago now.
I will say coming off the vapes did seem easier than coming off cigarettes which I’d never managed to do previously,
Whether the vapes actually helped me quit I can’t say for sure but when I was on them I didn’t stink of smoke and I’m sure they are probably more healthy than actual cigarettes and they’re much cheaper so I look at the time vaping as a positive comparatively speaking.
I have a friend who has been using an e-cigarette for 10+ years. He doesn’t seem any less addicted to smoking as back when he was using old-fashioned cigarettes.
Why would he become less addicted if he keeps getting nicotine? E-cigarettes are not supposed to help you quit. That's just how they arvertise them.
They don't do shit for me. I could vape an entire cart and still want a cigarette just as much, if not more, than before I used the e-cig. The nicotine gum did a better job of curbing my cravings for a cigarette. So did Prozac; but that was given to me for depression and also gave me ED, so I mean... You wanna quit smoking or you want a working penis? You can choose 1. 😖
It depends whether you want to stop or not, it's as simple as that.
E-cigarettes can be a great way to quit smoking, if that's what you want. If you just switch to an E-cigarette and expect to magically stop smoking, you're in for disappointment. Nicotine cessation is entirely psychological.
It's a little bit like that Lap band surgery. You still have to want to lose weight after, otherwise you will blow it open and it will do nothing.
If anyone actually wants to quit smoking I highly suggest the book "Easy way to stop smoking" by Alan Carr.
I understand e-cigarettes are supposed to help you quit
They're not.
An e-cigarette is just like a normal cigarette, but you're not inhaling burned paper. If you were inhaling addictive substances with normal cigarettes, nothing is stopping you from doing the same with an e-cig.
Do they work? In the sense that they "burn" (in quotes) substances and let you inhale them, then yes. That is their purpose.
My gf quit cigarettes for me. switched from cigs to vapes overnight.
she still vapes and refuses to reduce the nicotine levels but it's almost certainly much better for both of us than cigs
I was only able to quit smoking, because I replaced it with Vaping. Quitting vaping was way easier than quitting smoking.
Went from 1 cigarette every hour, to maybe 1 cigarette a year (when I get drunk with my friends during a wedding or something)
And I quit vaping.
So yes, in my case, vaping absolutely helped.
They help you stop smoking. In my experience they don't help you quit nicotine, they just manufactured all the joy out of it.
Oh yes, they work. Got off cigs OVERNIGHT years ago. Still vape because now I love the fantastical fruity flavors and have a fixation.
I managed to quit smoking by vaping about 6 years ago. For the most part a cigarette is a cigarette, but I was buying juice so I could control the level of nicotine. Started at 12, then to 6, 3 and finally 1.5 strength. Took about a year.
When I was at 1.5 I had a real bad chest cold so I put it down, never picked it back up. Vaping really helped me because I could quit without withdrawal of any kind. I worry about the prefilled convenience store pods because it doesn't seem like you get that level of control to ween yourself off the nicotine.
Sigh. I got a vape to help me quit then realized all the reasons I wanted to quit were now gone. So there's basically no chance I'm quitting now. Awesome.
They did for me. Smoked 20 years, vaped 3 years at increasingly lower nicotine levels, then quit. That was several years ago
It took me 6 years,and a lot of lowering nicotine strength. I haven't touched my vape in a year now and still have a box full of vape liquid.
Vaping made it easier to stop when nothing else would help. The laws that limited flavors and sales would have hampered my efforts, buy I was lucky enough to have fully quit when they finally came into effect.
It helps most in the sense that it's not at all as unhealthy. Anything you hear to the contrary is simply scaremongering and terrible advice. Almost half of smokers die from smoking related illness where I live. The negative health effects and oxidative damage from pyrolysis and from vapourizing a liquid are simply not comparable.
Vapes are a good replacement for smoking for a lot of people, and it does do a lot less harm to your lungs. It didn’t work for me at all though, vaping really messes with my lungs, every time I pick it up I get chronic bronchitis. I know a lot of people who quit smoking by vaping, but not any people who quit vaping afterwards.
I've many people have trouble transitioning from cigarettes to vape only and they usually just give up. They never really make that mental push where you say to yourself "I'm not going to buy another pack of cigarettes and rely on the vape".
The next step if you accomplish the first is to gradually reduce nicotine over time. I started at 12 and was at 6 within a few months. Then I vaped pretty heavily at 3 or 1 mg for a lot of years. Finally, after about 8 years of vaping(and not smoking one cigarette) I decided to just vape fluid without nicotine. That led me to forgetting about vaping almost all of the time.
Of course people can do it much quicker than I did but I didn't really care much about the vaping as long as I was off of cigarettes.