Can't believe my ignorant doctor's office.

[Rickajho]

Non smoker. But medically speaking, the place I go to says you don't get that classification change until you have been off the butts for one year.

 

[DaveP]

I spoke with my GP and my Endocrinologist and both gave me the same answer. (BTW my Endo is on the board currently doing a 2 year study on the effects of vaping within Texas)
While it is better than smoking by far, you are still inhaling something that is not supposed to be in the lungs.
After saying that, my Endo said that in so far all reports to the board that he sits on there have been no cases that he has seen to suggest that vaping has done significant harm to an individual except for one case, but this person was soon excluded from the report as he was found to have an allergy to VG.
He also did mention that there is a lab test ongoing where a series of mice are being kept in a "fog" of mixtures (different mice being given a different mixture between 100% VG to 50/50 VG/PG to 90% PG) and other than some effects that are to be expected due to the 100% humidity 100% of the time there are still no signs of long term damages. This is the same type of experiment that caused some artificial sweeteners to be pulled from shelves (come on, a diet of nothing but 100% artificial sweeteners is going to kill anyone).
When I see him again in 6 months I will ask for an update.

Unless there's a new PG fog test with mice, that test was back in 1942. There's an abstract of the results at the link below.
All About Propylene Glycol – 180 SMOKE HELP DESK: E-Cigarette, E-Juice, Vaporizers

Here's another account of the test along with others. In one test, they found that PG mist killed the influenza virus. They injected influenza virus into a chamber with mice and all the mice died over time. When they housed the mice in a chamber of PG fog and then injected the influenza virus, all the monkeys lived. That's when they discovered that PG encapsulated the virus and killed it by sinking it to the floor.

http://www.shopecp.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=3

the researchers found that the propylene glycol itself was a potent germicide. One part of glycol in 2,000,000 parts of air would—within a few seconds—kill concentrations of air-suspended pneumococci, streptococci and other bacteria numbering millions to the cubic foot.

How did it work? Respiratory disease bacteria float about in tiny droplets of water breathed, sneezed and coughed from human beings. The germicidal glycol also floats in infinitesimally small particles. Calculations showed that if droplet had to hit droplet, it would take two to 200 hours for sterilization of sprayed air to take place. Since sterilization took place in seconds, Dr. Robertson concluded that the glycol droplets must give off gas molecules which dissolve in the water droplets and kill the germs within them.

The cool part is that PG appears to be harmless to humans and animals even when injected, while killing germs effectively. Even the Surgeon General issued a fairly recent article saying that electronic cigarette vapers may have fewer respiratory illnesses than the general population due to the germicidal effects of PG.

 

[DaveP]

It's interesting that the CDC and the Surgeon General are finally beginning to realize that ecigs may just be the way to get smokers off combustible tobacco and into a much less harmful method of satisfying the urge for nicotine. They are calling it a harm reduction strategy.

Surgeon General Adds New Risks To Long List Of Smoking's Harms : Shots - Health News : NPR

But there's one new wrinkle. Behavioral psychologist David Abrams says this report makes a significant distinction between the harmfulness of burning tobacco and less harmful ways of delivering the nicotine that keeps people addicted.

The report concludes that "cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products" should be eliminated.

"That is new because it implies that less harmful forms of getting one's nicotine — especially if one cannot quit smoking cigarettes — may be acceptable," Abrams tells Shots.

Those allegedly less harmful nicotine delivery systems include e-cigarettes, along with nicotine patches, gums, nasal sprays, inhalers and lozenges.

E-cigarettes are electronic cigarettelike devices that don't burn tobacco. They release nicotine in a vapor that doesn't contain the toxic chemicals that cause most of smoking's harm.

Abrams helped write the report's last chapter on "the changing landscape of tobacco control." He works for Legacy for Health, an anti-tobacco group set up as part of a 1998 legal settlement with the tobacco industry.

Abrams thinks e-cigarettes could help wean millions away from cigarettes. "For the first time in a century," he says, "we have an appealing alternative way to give addicted current smokers a satisfying way to give up their combusted products."

 

[12Cats3Dogs]

I think I'll just go with a lesson learned here. When asked if I quit smoking, I'll just say yes. Period. No further explanation needed. My dr keeps electronic records which I already don't like, so the less information given the better as far as going into the computer=going into the government.

 

[crimsonsoda]

++sorry, needed to delete this comment in order to not endanger my job++

 

[dave51]

I had my yearly checkup last week
The nuse asked if i used tobacco and I said no Im using a vaporizer

The doc came in and ask me about it she said all the facts arnt in but vapeing is 100% better than ciggys
She said she was happy becuse my oxygen content is higher and my lungs sounded much better

 

[samturdo]

I stopped smoking over 2 years ago.............. And that is the only information they will ever get out of me!!!!

FDA Passes the Deeming Reg's and the Doctors/Insurance/Tax people will automatically own us again.

dont be ashamed of vaping...

 

[MissBlue]

UGH. print this out and go back and educate that ignorant person, and firmly request that your medical record be correctly updated.

This article shows that e-juice contains the same ingredients as the "Nicorette Quick Mist" Inhaler.... a product which has been FDA-approved as NRT. (and in fact the Nicorette mist has a few other things in it that are MORE questionable than the 4 basic ingredients in e-juice.)

Show her that vaping IS a form of NRT - and if she refuses to open her mind and be educated, well, if it was me I'd be getting a different doctor.

Electronic Cigarettes vs. Nicorette Quickmist » The Electronic Cigarette Buyers Guide

 

[DaveP]

I can maintain 98% oxygen saturation easily while doing 5 miles on my stationary bike at high levels of resistance. I don't experience the need to breath heavy. When I smoked, I'd huff and puff a little just to walk a hilly parking lot.

I'd be interested to know how vapers fared in the cotinine tests with different nic levels in juices. I haven't had a cotinine test since I dropped to 5.5% nic.

 

[twall]

I like to be honest always, but volunteer very little.

"Do you smoke?"

"No. I quit"

"Okay"

All that needs to be said. If they ask me if I vape, I will be honest. Not volunteering info they did not ask about is not lying, or hiding anything. If they want to know if I vape, they can ask me.

Otherwise - vaping is not smoking, and I quit smoking. That's the way I see it, anyway.

 

[Big Me]

I had my annual "MOT" a couple of weeks ago and when asked if I still smoked I told the nurse that I hadn't smoked a cigarette for nearly a month because I was vaping instead. She asked me the date and put me down as an ex-smoker because it was longer than four weeks (that's the definition they use in England, even when using NRT). She asked about what I was using and I showed her. She'd seen cigalikes but not an ego with Naughty Mini. She could tell I was loving it so was happy for me to continue vaping.

I then went to see my Dr. I told him I'd stopped smoking and he was astonished (and elated). I showed him my setup and he thought it was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen but because it was keeping me away from cigs, he was happy.

Even my Dentist was all for vaping - because it wasn't smoking!!! Lol

The only negative I've gotten was from another nurse. She said, "They're dangerous, you know...", with no reason as to why. *shrugs*.

 

[TyPie]

Great thread. All very encouraging.
A major driving force for change WILL most likely come from the doctors, eventually, as they continue to observe more and more positive results.
In the meantime, keep the stories coming!!

 

[M3CH M0D M4DN355]

If you went in with a crazy beard and a back to front cap and said "smoking is dead vaping is the future, and future is now" and showed her your Clapton coil she would have seen sense!