ecigs/ vaping "just as bad for you"

[TheColdHandedVG]

My mom said the same thing. She wasn't happy about me vaping and when I asked her why she said "You are still smoking"

You just have to explain that smoke comes from combustion (that is the key word). There is no combustion when using an e-cig. The liquid in ecigs is vaporized (key word) and NOT combusted. Combustion causes chemical reactions that create many other harmful chemicals (including, but not limited to, tar, carbon monoxide, etc....)

Plain and simply put, you are not smoking, you are vaping

 

[NetSurfingNightOwl]

I think the nurse conciders you to be a smoker because you still use nicotine. Although there's no doubt it's healthier! And even if it isn't and we don't know about it yet then you still shouldn't worry. At this time it's healthier and you're doing the right thing. Just like when people thought smoking was good for you decades ago.
Otherwise you could be paranoid about everything. And honestly I think the food additives in our meals are more harmful than vaping.

 

[edyle]

Hello, new to forums, this is my 2nd post . I was so excited that I had quit smoking cigarettes and am feeling so much better until i went to the doctor for a regular checkup. When the nurse asked me if i am a smoker i happily said "nope, switched to ecigs". She looked at me and said "your still a smoker". I got into a debate with her because i have done a little research and from what ive read, it is definitly healthier for you! I guess my question is, has anyone done more research than me and found some actual scientific literature on the subject? I would love to arm myself with actual scientific fact rather than "well i read this online".

So you were so unsure, you didn't mention it to the doctor when you saw the doctor? Or did you not see the doctor at all? Or too busy to mention it?

The nurse/medicalclerk wouldn't necessarily know the difference.

 

[edyle]

Look, to many people 'smoking' is a synonym for addiction to nicotine. Simple as that. You are still addicted to nicotine. Nicotine is bad for you. Not as bad as many other things, but it's still bad. It's a fact. Proven time and over again. Vapeing is just less damaging to your health. Much less damaging, but still it's not healthy by itself. Don't be mad at the nurse. Translate her remark "you are still a smoker" to "you are still feeding your nicotine addiction." The rest is semantics.

Not from the point of view of a doctor looking at my chest xray.


And that's aside from the fact that vaping does not mean nicotine.

 

[MD_Boater]

When my doctor asked if I smoked, I said "No." because I do not smoke. He did not ask if I vaped, so I did not tell him that I did. We keep doing this to ourselves, folks. We quit smoking. We started vaping. In my book, the two are as connected as me riding my 10 speed for a couple of miles on the weekend for excercise, and my daily commute to work. Both get me from point A to point B, but if someone asked me if I was driving my car last weekend when I was riding my bike, the answer would be "no".

If one day my doctor says that there is something wrong with me and he does not know why, then I will mention that I vape so that he can see if that is causing the problem.

And I don't answer the dang gun ownership question, either.

 

[edyle]

so I guess having a glass of wine with dinner makes me an alcholic?? so in effect, they dont see it as reducing the potential of the associated harm smoking creates by switching over to a method that is healthier.... ya just cant win can ya?

And if you drink non-alcoholic beer, I guess you're " still drinking " !

 

[edyle]

Besides being addictive, it constricts your blood vessels, increases your blood pressure.

So somebody using nicorette gum is " still smoking " ?

And isn't going to be in your vape unless you put it there. It's not something inherent to vaping. Obviously, smokers trying to get away from smoke, are going to want it there to keep them from craving a real cig.

 

[Elfsong]

My, old job wouldn't let us vape but, would let people dip. That, to me at least, is far nastier than even smoking! Some people were complaining about the "smoke". Many of us tried to educate the management, but it was no use. I still did vape, but stealthily

 

[xjonquilx]

Besides being addictive, it constricts your blood vessels, increases your blood pressure.

An increase in blood pressure is not a bad thing for everyone you know...

Not to mention caffeine does the same exact thing... As do MANY prescription AND OTC drugs...

AND big pharma is working on an extended release oral form of nicotine to treat certain conditions.

So...

Unless you're a complete anti drug purist that only believes in herbal and homeopathic treatments for everything, your original statement that nicotine is bad for you really carries no weight at all as anything but a poorly founded opinion. You implied you've consulted ONE doctor and that trumps this forum. I've consulted EIGHT that all said point blank that nicotine is relatively harmless for anyone short of those with heart disease. As for this forum, every time there is any study on this subject good or bad it gets posted here. Seniority as a member would lend evidence that you've seen all this research.

Sent from my ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Fierce using Tapatalk

 

[edyle]

I don't know if nicotine is as addictive as all that since I still craved cigarettes for the first 6 months of vaping at 18mg. What I mean is that I was getting my nicotine so why was I still craving those cigarettes.. It seems I was addicted to something else in them there sticks. I'm now at 6mg of nic and plan on going lower, Hmmmm. Secondly you are correct that nicotine does cause constriction of blood vessels and increases one's bp but this is temporary and does go away once the nicotine leaves the blood stream.

Nicotine also just affects the user;
chonic smokers on the other hand are at risk of development of tuberculosis which is a communicable bacterial infection of the lungs spread through coughing in the air.

As more people switch from smoking to vaping, there is going to be a clifflike dropoff in the incidence of tuberculosis, somewhat ressembling the clifflike dropoff in big tobacco revenues currently in process.

 

[Mrs C]

Last Dr visit
Him...Still using that vapor thing instead of smoking?
Me... I sure am
Him...How long has it been now?
Me... lil over 8 mths
Him... Teriffic What flavor you have today?
Me...2 of them Peanut Butter Cookie and Pineapple
looks over his readers at me... now I'm hungry and lunch is still an hour away

 

[edyle]

I have a friend who was the head ER surgeon in a major Miami hospital for many years. He is going to be visiting this weekend.
I am going to ask his opinion of e-cigs. I will let you all know what he thinks. He is not inclined to be a sheep and makes decisions on real research not media spew.

I'll be waiting....

 

[edyle]

Since there's no smoke, I consider myself a non-smoker.

So, for that matter, does my doctor, who merrily changed my checkmark to "Non-Smoker" on my records and wanted to play with my e-cig. Both the NP and the doctor had a great deal of fun looking at it and asking questions.

My cardiologist didn't make the change--but he mentioned that the only reason why not is that if I'm hospitalized for some reason, they may need to know that there's nicotine (a minor stimulant) in my system. I asked him what they do about caffeine, and he said he always assumes the person has had multiple cups of coffee that day as it's simply safer for the patient.

Fair enough.

Excellent real world example.
From the point of view of a general doctor, you're a non-smoker.

For a cardiologist, they want to know if you have nicotine and/or caffeine in your system

 

[edyle]

I think the nurse conciders you to be a smoker because you still use nicotine. Although there's no doubt it's healthier! And even if it isn't and we don't know about it yet then you still shouldn't worry. At this time it's healthier and you're doing the right thing. Just like when people thought smoking was good for you decades ago.
Otherwise you could be paranoid about everything. And honestly I think the food additives in our meals are more harmful than vaping.

Actually the nurse/medicalstaff is just doing their job; not being advised otherwise by the doctor they have to fill out the forms and check the boxes and when in doubt they have to stay on the safe side.

 

[Nate760]

ANTZ propaganda has become such a pervasive part of the social orthodoxy that it's almost on par with religious dogma. If you question any part of it, you're likely to be shouted down as a heretic. As we have seen in this thread, it infects otherwise well-meaning health care professionals and even some of our fellow vapers, particularly the pernicious lies about nicotine that have been repeated so often for so long that most people simply presume them to be true.

1. I posted a thread about this a while back, but here's a quick rehash: I didn't tell my doctor I'd quit smoking and started vaping until after he'd seen the improvements in my health between last year's physical and this year's (lower blood pressure, lower resting heart rate, increased lung capacity, clear chest x-ray). Turns out he had a very dim understanding of what e-cigs are and how they work; he thought they contained tobacco, but that the tobacco was merely heated instead of burned. He's not a bad doctor (far from it) or a willfully ignorant individual, he just hadn't taken the time to become well-informed about this one thing (doctors have a lot of things of which to keep track; some things escape their attention; it happens). Once I had explained the particulars to him and sent him some links to the relevant research, he became a firm believer in the harm-reduction potential of e-cigs, and not he mentions them alongside the traditional NRTs to his patients who are looking to quit smoking.

2. I find myself repeating this a lot, but I often find it necessary, even among fellow vapers: nicotine and smoking are not the same thing. Nicotine is not harmful or addictive except when administered in a tobacco-based delivery system. Nicotine dependence has never been observed in an individual who never used tobacco. There is, at this time, no evidence that it's possible to induce nicotine dependence except through tobacco use. "Nicotine is highly addictive" is an ANTZ mantra that no self-respecting vaper should ever mindlessly repeat. Smoking is addictive. Nicotine, by itself in normal doses, has never addicted nor harmed anyone.

 

[Nate760]

Since there's no smoke, I consider myself a non-smoker.

So, for that matter, does my doctor, who merrily changed my checkmark to "Non-Smoker" on my records and wanted to play with my e-cig. Both the NP and the doctor had a great deal of fun looking at it and asking questions.

My cardiologist didn't make the change--but he mentioned that the only reason why not is that if I'm hospitalized for some reason, they may need to know that there's nicotine (a minor stimulant) in my system. I asked him what they do about caffeine, and he said he always assumes the person has had multiple cups of coffee that day as it's simply safer for the patient.

Fair enough.

If you didn't have nicotine in your system, you'd be dead from malnutrition. Nicotine is a normal part of the human diet. Everyone consumes it every day. No one has ever tested negative for it.

 

[CassiusCloud]

Here is the bottom line!

 

[edyle]

When my doctor asked if I smoked, I said "No." because I do not smoke. He did not ask if I vaped, so I did not tell him that I did. We keep doing this to ourselves, folks. We quit smoking. We started vaping. In my book, the two are as connected as me riding my 10 speed for a couple of miles on the weekend for excercise, and my daily commute to work. Both get me from point A to point B, but if someone asked me if I was driving my car last weekend when I was riding my bike, the answer would be "no".

If one day my doctor says that there is something wrong with me and he does not know why, then I will mention that I vape so that he can see if that is causing the problem.

And I don't answer the dang gun ownership question, either.

If it's a doctor you never visited before, and they ask if you smoke, and you used to smoke for 20 years but stopped and now vape, and you merely said "No." without mentioning that you smoked for 20 years........ you wouldn't be doing yourself any favors.

"I quit" might be a more useful answer for the doctor.

When you visit the doc office they typically check pulse rate and blood pressure. If they see highish blood pressure all you say about smoking is "No" they're not going to think to ask whether you're using any pacth or gum, they're just going to go with that and its going to affect what medication they end up prescribing.

If I go by a doc (not something I do alot) am definitely making sure he/she sees my pv before they do the stethescope lungcheck thing.

 

[Stosh]

So...

Unless you're a complete anti drug purist that only believes in herbal and homeopathic treatments for everything, your original statement that nicotine is bad for you really carries no weight at all as anything but a poorly founded opinion......

Nicotine is extracted from tobacco, a herbal product I believe, so it would even fit the "herbal and homeopathic treatments for everything"....

p.s. My oncologist thought vaping was the best thing to come along since sliced bread. I showed it to him, explained what was contained in the liquid. He led me around his office pointing to my PV and telling his staff and patients how great vaping is, and he's not a "newly minted" doctor. (older than me, so about the same age as dirt).

 

[rmk_kelly]

Declarative statements like "nicotine is bad for you" from a person with 14 posts always make me shiver. So much misinformation among vapers, it's not hard to see how confused nonvapers can be.

Just because someone is new to the forum doesn't mean that they are uneducated. Easy now....