electronic cigarette ?

[krazyKemist]

My mom is a smoker, and well she'd like to stop. She tried by herself, with the patches/gum and with Zyban.

The thing is, the patches don't satisfy your need for the gesture.

The Zyban kind of reduced her need to have a smoke, but she was nervous, had palpitations and couldn't sleep anymore.

Today she's seen somebody in a public affairs show demonstrating an "electronic" cigarette. It looks just like a cigarette and is used just like a cigarette. Except it's a metal tube containing a battery and a cartrige filled with a solution of flavored nicotine. When you draw on it, it acts as an inhaler and delivers a mist of nicotine. She would be interested in trying it.

All the stuff I can find out on this is no older than 2008. There are no pubmed hits. There's a warning from WHO that they shouldn't be used as a tobacco-cessation aid (one company had made this claim).

I'm wondering if anybody had heard about this thing or tried it ?

 

[INRM]

Well, it would seem the E-cig is better than actual cigarettes. I think it would be a lot better to smoke none.

 

[Patsy]

The problem with this, like all nicotine replacement products, it that eventually, at some point, you still have to break the nicotine addiction.

Smokers want quitting to be easy, painless, and not require self discipline. It isn't easy, it isn't painless, and it requires self discipline. I know. I quit smoking a decade ago.

There is no secret formula to quitting smoking. You quit smoking, quit making excuses, and tell yourself no like an adult who is in control of their own behavior.

You feel like crap, you're nervous, you're cranky and mean, and you can't sleep for a few days. You suck it up and it passes. Afterwards, you feel better.

 

[krazyKemist]

The problem with this, like all nicotine replacement products, it that eventually, at some point, you still have to break the nicotine addiction.

I think it's actually more than that. One of my collegue's mom, under persistent nagging from her daughter, tried the nicotine patch. My collegue told me she had to angrily scold her mother when she saw her smoking while wearing the patch.

The patch doesn't satisfy your need for the gesture of smoking, ie, puting something to your mouth and inhaling.

That's something this little gadget has in its favor. For now, it's being advertised as an alternative to smoking, not a cessation aid, since there are no studies to support the claims. But it would be highly interesting to see its success vs conventional cessation aids.

What's interesting is its method of braking habits has a reverse philosophy compared to traditional methods. The physological addiction to nicotine can be broken before weaning out of the gesture of smoking (there are different nicotine doses available, all the way to zero).

 

[fishbait]

The patch doesn't satisfy your need for the gesture of smoking, ie, puting something to your mouth and inhaling.

Indeed. I tried the patch but couldn't keep it lit.

 

[quarky]

There's some evidence that benzene compounds from smoke in general, are addictive.
Sitting around a camp-fire more often could help alleviate the habit.

 

[portlandatheist]

I saw someone using one just the other day. You can legally use them indoors according to the smoker. I was very curious and she offered for me to try it but I turned down the offer.

 

[krazyKemist]

I saw someone using one just the other day. You can legally use them indoors according to the smoker. I was very curious and she offered for me to try it but I turned down the offer.

That was probably wise. The higher doses of nicotine aren't recommended for non-smokers. They can make you quite sick (irritation of airways, dizziness, nausea and vomiting), like some people are when they light their first cigarette.