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E-cigarettes and vaping, how bad is it for you?

Toontown said:
I suggest taking a 1-week vacation from work to do the quitting.
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This method worked for me. Coupling the quitting with a change of venue/activity can help because it gets the smoker away from as many of the habit triggers as possible. The first time I quit was when I got out of the Air Force. Cold-turkeyed while driving across Nevada at breakneck speed in an unreliable subaru. Slid back a year later (had a job with an incompetent sign shop owner, decided I needed to take a smoke break to keep from beating the boss to death with his own t-square) and a couple of years later quit during a Thanksgiving trip to go meet my girlfriend's (now wife) family. Tried a cigarette when I got back and it was every bit as disgusting as I hoped.

That said, about once a year I'll mooch a smoke off a drinking buddy. I like the way a cigarette and Jack taste together, at the time, but the next morning I'm pretty sure an ungulate defecated in my mouth while I was sleeping. So I don't carry the desire to smoke forward into light of day.

A few weeks ago I was driving down the road. The day was sunny, the windows were down, a great song was on the radio. As I slowed down for a red light ahead I found myself reaching across the minivan for a pack of smokes. I don't think I'd ever lit up at that particular stoplight, and I have never smoked in that vehicle, and it has been over 14 years since I was a smoker anyway. But for some reason the environmental triggers set off a momentary impulse response. Weird moment.

If e-cigs had been around when I was trying to quit I might have used them. I'm glad to be free of the ongoing expense, though.
 
according to a buddy who started using one of these, some of the guys he works with grind up meth and dissolve it in with the liquid and smoke it right in front of their boss and nobody's the wiser of it.
 
Toontown said:
I suggest taking a 1-week vacation from work to do the quitting. That way, you don't have the work stress and you can sleep through most of the suffering. Maybe you think I'm kidding. I'm not. There is no law of nature that says you have to be awake while you're quitting. Your body will quickly learn that sleep will get you through times of no cigarettes better than food will get you through times of no cigarettes. Your body is already adjusted to not smoking (or eating) while you sleep. So take advantage of that.
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That's pretty much how my mother stopped. She had been a smoker for 20+ years and she then came down with pyorrhea. After the surgery, she was one painkillers and sleeping for about 3 days and her body went through all the withdrawals during that time. That was almost 40 years ago and she hasn't started up since, although she says that she misses it at times, but not enough to start again.

Michael
 
GlennB said:
Is Ebay trustworthy?
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absolutely. just make sure you pay by paypal. I get great deals on everything I buy on ebay, for most items if I buy out of state the tax savings offsets the shipping charge if there is one. ebay and paypal are set up to protect the buyer not the seller.
 
coalesce said:
That's pretty much how my mother stopped. She had been a smoker for 20+ years and she then came down with pyorrhea. After the surgery, she was one painkillers and sleeping for about 3 days and her body went through all the withdrawals during that time. That was almost 40 years ago and she hasn't started up since, although she says that she misses it at times, but not enough to start again.

Michael
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That's similar to quitting drinking. I quit that abruptly in 2000, after about 45 days I tried to drink a beer (after going up to a 15 drink a day booze and beer diet) and felt ill when I got about halfway through. I'd gotten the poison out of my body and it now rejected it. Had I done what some friends have tried, drinking O'Douls and telling myself 1/2 of 1 percent was quitting, the poison and the craving to drink would have remained.
 
GlennB said:
To any regular "vapers" here ... how does the cost work out?

I'm an obsessive smoker of ultra-skinny rollups, but I strongly suspect my habit is as much fiddling-routine as plain nicotine addiction. If e-cigs offer a safer inhalable nicotine hit and make a saving then I might give them I try.

Is Ebay trustworthy?
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I was a pack and a half a day smoker, so it was costing me ~$10 a day. Excluding the initial cost of the hardware (batteries, drip tips, ect.) it now cost me about $2 a day for the disposable cart and liquid. I mix my own nicotine liquid which cost me roughly a bit over dollar for a 20ml bottle (15mg/ml) that would cost anywhere from $5-10 from a vendor.

I've never bought any e-cig items from ebay, but the two vendors listed below have reasonable prices and are very reliable. I've bought and sold plenty (100's) of other items on ebay and have had very few problems.

www.myvaporstore.com

www.myfreedomsmokes.com
 
Toontown said:
My advice: don't turn a 1-week job into a 1-year job.

I smoked for 40 years and then quit cold turkey 3 years ago. The worst was over within a week. I call it the "overwhelming force" option. Hit fast, hit hard, and get it over with.

The problem with any kind of weaning-off method is that you drag out your addiction to nicotine, thereby risking a quagmire and eventual stalemate or defeat. As long as the addiction remains, you remain susceptible. Backslide, and all your efforts will have been in vain.

1-and-done is the way. And I mean weeks, not years. All in all, you suffer less that way.

I suggest taking a 1-week vacation from work to do the quitting. That way, you don't have the work stress and you can sleep through most of the suffering. Maybe you think I'm kidding. I'm not. There is no law of nature that says you have to be awake while you're quitting. Your body will quickly learn that sleep will get you through times of no cigarettes better than food will get you through times of no cigarettes. Your body is already adjusted to not smoking (or eating) while you sleep. So take advantage of that.
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Therebwas some Israeli clinic experimenting with getting junkies of heroin by putting them in an artificial coma for a week. When they woke up, the worst of the withdraw symptoms was behind them.

Sounded like a goodnidea to me, but I don't know how it turned out.
 
I've tried e-cigs and had the same experience as several others -- wanted a real cig immediately thereafter. Two weeks ago, I was hospitalized and immobile for about 72 hours, during which time my body completed its withdrawal. I fully intended to quit using that hospitalization as the starting point. To my credit, we did not stop on the way home from the hospital to buy a pack; I managed to make it 12 full hours before heading to the store.

There's a lot more going on than the physical addition to nicotine.

Maybe, just maybe, if an e-cig could deliver the same amount of "smoke" for the same amount of effort, it might work better. I've tried at least four different kinds, all of which forced me to suck really hard in order to get a couple wisps of vapor. For me, at least, part of the addiction is the feel of the smoke going in and out.

I've been on Chantix for six weeks now, and the only effect I've noticed was the reduced thickness of my wallet. None of the common side-effects, certainly no perceptible main effect. I still get "nic fits" which are quite different from the simple urge to have a cig in my hand. A proper nic fit is more like the rumble in your stomach when your blood sugar drops too low. It's a physical thing with a physical cure. Alas, like eating, the cure is temporary.

I'm working now on eliminating situational cues. I don't smoke in the car except on long trips, so on trips that I used to count by cigs, I now count by miles. The grocery is 8 miles away, not 1 cig. This by itself often gives me several hours at a time without smoking, because usually the destination is non-smoking, followed by another car ride home.

I have failed utterly at cutting out, or even cutting back, on my primary smoking location -- work. Since I work from home, in an office with its own air intake and exhaust, I don't stink up the house. Since my work involves sitting at a desk all day, often for 12-14 hours in a stretch, it's just too difficult to un-associate smoking with working. I've tried making myself go outside to smoke, but such efforts only last until the next important call or big project that won't let me step away.

The biggest success in reduction has come from removing the association of finishing a meal with having a cig. I can usually delay by an hour or more simply by doing something else first (the dishes, taking care of the kids, whatever). I still feel a huge restlessness as the meal winds down -- especially at restaurants -- but I can now recognize it and put it off instead of satisfying it without knowing that I've lit up.
 
DallasDad said:
Maybe, just maybe, if an e-cig could deliver the same amount of "smoke" for the same amount of effort, it might work better. I've tried at least four different kinds, all of which forced me to suck really hard in order to get a couple wisps of vapor. For me, at least, part of the addiction is the feel of the smoke going in and out.
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From the above description, it sounds like the 4 kinds you tried were all "automatic" type batteries that activate by suction. I use the "manual" type that activate by pushing a button. I have to inhale for a longer time than conventional cigarettes, but no harder than taking a normal breath. For a full 10 second drag, I get about as much vapor/smoke as a decent bong hit. For the first week or so, I alternated between e-cigs and real ones. Then I stopped buying real ones and would grub one now and again over the next month. The real cigs started tasting worse and worse until it got to the point that I preferred vapor over smoke. I haven't smoked a real cig in over a year and now get repulsed and sometimes a bit nauseous when someone smokes near me.
 
Yep it all gets a bit geeky after a while. Most serious vapers use manual batteries or 'mods' - a holder of some sort with rechargeable batteries. Mine use 18350 or 18650 batteries and are variable voltage so you can adjust for different juices and atomiser resistances. You can also get variable wattage which automatically adjust power to resistance.
Latest thing are programmable ones, so you can adjust the voltage x amount of times during a puff, but that's a bit too geeky for me.
Add more VG to the mix and you also get more vapour. So wind up the power, hit the button and you can create great plumes.
I'm not looking at it as a way to stop smoking - I have already done that, but it's something I enjoy, like a good cup of coffee.
 
godless dave said:
Nicotine is highly addictive and is a stimulant, meaning it can damage your heart. Not sure if it's carcinogenic on its own.
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Chewing tobacco and dipping snuff are associated with elevated risk of oral cancer, so something in raw tobacco (might be nicotine; might be something else) must be carcinogenic. Of course, for smoking, many of the poly-aromatics in the soot particles are carcinogenic. These compounds are present in smoke from just about anything containing carbon.
 
CORed said:
Chewing tobacco and dipping snuff are associated with elevated risk of oral cancer, so something in raw tobacco (might be nicotine; might be something else) must be carcinogenic. Of course, for smoking, many of the poly-aromatics in the soot particles are carcinogenic. These compounds are present in smoke from just about anything containing carbon.
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Yea the combustable compounds such as Benzene form DNA adducts and is a carcinogen (well understood actually). However for smokeless tobacco nitrosamine(s) are the main suspect, not nicotine. Most every study that has tested nicotine has not identified carcinogenic qualities either directly or metabolically.
 
Toontown said:
My advice: don't turn a 1-week job into a 1-year job.

I smoked for 40 years and then quit cold turkey 3 years ago. The worst was over within a week. I call it the "overwhelming force" option. Hit fast, hit hard, and get it over with.
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Another "me, too".

I smoked (about a pack a day) for about 18 years. However, I could go days without. I never smoked in my own home...so, if I was stuck inside at home for a few days (due to snow, sickness, etc.), I'd often "forget" to smoke. It just never occurred to me. Then, once I crept back out into the world, I'd realize I hadn't smoked in a few days and I'd light up. I think smoking was more of a habit than an addiction, for me.

I promised my first wife I'd quit (after our wedding/honeymoon), but wasn't really sold on the idea. I made my last cig a big deal and cermony. It only last 10 months (tha same amount as my marriage). I returned to smoking for the next 7 years.

With wife #2, I promised to quit with the birth of my daughter. I was on-board with this one. 18 years of a habit I knew was killing me was enough, and I really promised myself I'd quit. One Wednesday night, after some cocktails and cigs with friends, I returned home and to sleep. In the middle of the night, my wife woke me with contractions. On the drive to the hospital I relalized that I had already smoke my last cig. And, 2+ years later, I was right.

I agree with Toontown: Cold turkey. Mind over matter. "Hit fast, hit hard, and get it over with."
 
Eddie Dane said:
I realise it is a new phenomenon, and not much info might be available.
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Exactly.

And, this is also precisely why the FDA and FTC (in the U.S.) haven't really cracked-down on it. Social experimentation at its finest.

~Dr. Imago

P.S. If you are applying for a job where smoking is prohibited, you're still out of luck. Your plasma cotinine levels will still be out-of-whack on e-cigs.
 
Dr. Imago said:
Exactly.

And, this is also precisely why the FDA and FTC (in the U.S.) haven't really cracked-down on it. Social experimentation at its finest.

~Dr. Imago

P.S. If you are applying for a job where smoking is prohibited, you're still out of luck. Your plasma cotinine levels will still be out-of-whack on e-cigs.
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That's actually pretty weird.

You can just let a product loose on the population without proper testing?

That sounds like those stories of paint with arsenic and heroin laced cough-syrup for babies.
 
I use these things, but I like to call them electric hookahs.

I never really was much of a smoker. I do this because I enjoy it. I'm using a Tsunami vaporizer with Elite puffs batteries at the moment. I tried someone else's with an adjustable voltage battery, and it was nicer, but I can't afford one at the moment.

The vehicle isn't oil. It's usually glycerine, unless it's propylene glycol.

There was a report to Congress a few years ago suggesting that the amount of nicotine that these deliver is damn near homeopathic. I think that's possibly right; as I have never gotten the buzz off one of these that I used to get from cigarettes or cigars. I think it's a shame, because I think that Nicotine is a rather good drug. So I doubt that it has much real value to get rid of people's actual dependency on nicotine. Plus, a lot of the fluids have no nicotine at all.

I doubt that they are particularly unhealthy, any more than a steam room is. I find the steam soothing. I have GERD, and sometimes my lungs are a bit rough from vomiting into them in the middle of the night. This seems to soothe them.

It's also fun. The flavors are nice. I'm now using my own custom cinnamon/butterscotch blend. They look a bit steampunk and techno, with the brass and the blue LED.

Elite Puffs makes a pipe that's really nice, but it almost costs $100. Maybe after a couple of paychecks, I can get one.

I've never been attracted to the emotions of either 1) becoming dependent on substance, or 2) freaking out about how they are going to kill you. I do things because I enjoy them. I realize that many people enjoy the other sort of thing, but I don't.
 
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epepke said:
Elite Puffs makes a pipe that's really nice, but it almost costs $100. Maybe after a couple of paychecks, I can get one.
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I too enjoy smoking, but not for the nicotine, nor out of addiction.

The pipe looks cool, the cigarette model looks naff.

In fact most cigarette vaping things look too feminine to me.

maybe women are the more important target group for that stuff.

Having said that, I haven't looked at too many devices yet.
 
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