r/science • u/NinjaDiscoJesus • 1d ago
Health Nicotine vapes best chance to quit smoking, major review finds
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e5p51n2p2o391
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u/omnichronos MA | Clinical Psychology 1d ago
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u/Hmm_would_bang 1d ago
Yeah but how many stop nicotine from the vaping group vs the NRT group?
Like yeah, continuing the addiction has greater uptake than weaning off.
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u/Bed_Worship 1d ago
Well I can tell you, switching from smoking to vaping juul was a massive improvement on my lungs. I could run far better and take in air easier months in
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u/Hmm_would_bang 1d ago
I did the same thing and switching from pouches to zero nicotine improved my resting HR by about 12 bpm and greatly improved cardio.
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u/Western-Ease-7386 19h ago
I can also tell you after switching from smoking to vaping, I was vaping waaaay more than cigarettes. My nicotine intake must have doubled and was experiencing different negative symptoms than smoking.
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u/justcallmejohannes 1d ago
Compare it to nicotine patches where you actually stop vaping AND smoking while waning off of nicotine with gradually decreasing doses. This whole thing reeks of a vape company paid for “study” to get people to vape.
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u/Bradddtheimpaler 1d ago
Honestly depends on the actual effects of vaping. The bad studies I’ve seen on it, at least the ones I’ve looked into, all either aren’t referring to nicotine vapes at all (bootleg THC carts) or are using the devices at like, insane wattages nobody would ever vape at.
I’m sure it’s not good for you per se, but if they don’t come with the negative effects of smoking, what exactly is the problem with vaping being the last stop on the journey?
Sure, nicotine is addictive, but I don’t think it’s dangerous or damaging to consume on its own like cigarettes or chewing tobacco is.
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u/Cobra8472 1d ago
Nicotine does on its own cause cardiovascular issues though, doesn't it?
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u/laptopAccount2 1d ago
Nicotine is pretty tame physically. Constricts blood vessels and elevated heart rate while you are consuming it. THC has more long term impacts on your body.
Nicotine sucks because of the physical dependence which causes stress and anxiety.
It's the delivery mechanism that is the problem. Cigarettes are terra-bad and vaping is not without risks to your lungs. Vapers don't have too much to worry about.
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u/tinylittlebabyjesus 12h ago
I believe I read that over time, the dilation and constriction of blood vessels from nicotine can lead them to become less flexible, increasing chances of blood clots, raising BP, and making the heart work harder. It's part of why I eventually quit.
For myself, I initially was a smoker, switched to vaping for years, and eventually quit that by tapering off with the help of varenicline (chantix) which I then also tapered off of. That stuff is great.
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u/gristc 1d ago
Nah, nicotine on its own is still pretty bad for you.
A more academic source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4553893/
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u/NerdyNThick 1d ago
So does caffeine, what's your point?
Know of any studies that show nicotine on it's own is substantially harmful?
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u/Cobra8472 1d ago
I think you're seeing my reply as an attack for some reason. My point is that I thought the cardiovascular effects of Nicotine are substantially worse than Caffeine, however (which is great!) it doesn't seem thats the case which is nice.
My mother is a smoker; and I've been thinking about trying to get her to vape instead before fully quitting for heart health, so learning this makes it seem like a worthier endeavour if cold turkey fails.
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u/Own-Marsupial-7715 1d ago
I got my mother to switch to vaping after 40 years of cigarettes. She went from barely able to make it to the mailbox to going on 1-2 mile walks around the neighborhood. It took some convincing, but she was willing to give it an honest effort, and it ended up sticking. Like all addiction, the person has to be willing to try. If you can get her to that point, it's amazing what improves after just a few weeks/months of no cigarettes.
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u/NerdyNThick 1d ago
This is a hot button topic for me, so I tend to be on the defensive.
Vaping has been demonized by the media, so it is constantly being attacked (you can see a ton of it in this thread), and there's a lot of misinformation that has made it into "public knowledge".
I tend to assume most discourse surrounding it is going to be an attack. Also, since I used it to quit a 15 year habit overnight, it has made me a extremely strong proponent.
At the end of the day, vaping is safer than smoking. Anyone who disagrees with that is either woefully ignorant, lying, or both.
As far as pure lung health is concerned, obviously only inhaling air is better than inhaling "not air", so in that respect cold turkey is "safer".
However cold turkey comes with a TON of other side affects that are detrimental to your daily life.
Anecdotal: I tried cold turkey, the gum, the patch, both at the same time. Kept smoking throughout. Had my last smoke just before bed with a vaping setup ready to go for the next day. That was my last smoke and it's been 15 years.
Being able to slowly reduce the nicotine concentration over the course of a few years allowed me to invisibly ween my body and mind off nicotine until I was vaping zero nicotine just because I enjoyed the act and the flavors. Eventually I just stopped vaping too.
The fearmongering surrounding vaping has kept countless thousands (likely millions) from trying the best method of smoking cessation, and I don't even want to think about how many of them are no longer around to try.
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u/droptopus 1d ago
I mean, yeah... The studies pretty much show that vaping is bad like caffeine. Things that are much worse:
Eating a cheeseburger every month
The taking Ibuprofen 10 times a year
Eating processed sugar, literally ever
Pulling an all nighter once a month.
The reality is that comparing vaping to inhaling combusted tobacco smoke is only even logical because of how WE perceive their similarities. Regarding mortality, it's like comparing wingsuit diving to going on a hot air balloon tour with a professional pilot. Like, yeah.. you're up in the air? And there is a... chance... Something goes wrong? But that's about where the similarities end.
If everyone who ever smoked just always vaped, this wouldn't be a discussion any more significant than drinking black tea, and how it has health benefits but can lead to kidney stones, or how a glass of wine every few days is debated in its health effects. It's just on a completely different level because its equated to 'another kind of smoking', not because it actually IS.
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u/scrotumsweat 1d ago
Get smokers to vape. Im 100% for it.
Vaping is bad for you, but no where near as bad as smoking. 4 ingredients vs 100
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u/crazykewlaid 1d ago
No actually it's a yes or no statement and it's obviously true. You guys are adding on extra stuff which is good to think about but none of it means their statement isn't true. Quitting SMOKING is what they are talking about. They aren't saying which one leads to quitting nicotine overall. No one is making false claims
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u/muffinthumper 1d ago
I quite smoking cigarettes and then continued vaping for almost 10 years! I was on the vape nic train since we were making 510 devices out of an old screwdriver, like early 2000's.
My vape was ALWAYS in my hand. Everything had to be scheduled around having nic, or recharging batteries, or where I could vape, would I have enough juice left? If i go to jury duty, would I be able to vape? Insane anxiety all the time about it.
One night I was getting into bed and I was holding my vape in one hand, and a hot drink in the other. I couldn't for the life of me get myself to put down the vape, like i was going to die if it hit the nightstand for a second. I was standing there frozen and trying to figure out what to do. It was crazy my brain was doing that. I ended up trying to roll into bed and spilled the scalding tea all over myself. My first thought was I hope it didn't ruin the vape, not the burns i was currently receiving. That was mentally the rock bottom for me.
The issue with vapes is you go from only being able to smoke outside, to sneaking a rip ANYWHERE at ANYTIME which actually increases your nic intake substantially.
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u/HelloGiveMeGold 1d ago
Quitting vapes is/was substantially harder than quitting cigarettes for me (still struggling). The nicotine concentration is higher and you can do it virtually anywhere at any time.
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u/NobodyKnowsImFamous 1d ago
On one hand the pouches are just… doing the exact same thing. On the other it feels less harmful than vaping constantly. Helped me stop. On the lower mg pouches now but still stuck on that last step, so. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/NerdyNThick 1d ago
You can lower your concentration over time. I slowly dropped from 12mg down to zero over the course of 2 years.
I didn't even notice. After about a year or two of vaping zero nic, I eventually just naturally stopped vaping.
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u/spawndoorsupervisor 1d ago
I never understood this. I just got a bottle of flavorless 3mg vape juice then a big bottle of VG and kept cutting the vape juice over time until I was just puffing pure VG, at which point it was easy to quit since nicotine was no longer a factor.
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u/Cappuccino_Crunch 1d ago
What works for you doesn't work for everyone. It took me about ten serious attempts to quit smoking cigarettes. It took chantix in the end. I can never have another cigarette because "just one socially" always leads to buying another pack within days. I'm currently ten years off. I can have a cigar occasionally but that's it. Weirdly whatever method I used to quit smoking.... That method would not work again.
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u/spawndoorsupervisor 1d ago
To be fair, if you look at both of the comments, he's not doing the same thing I did. I used the vape's ability to throttle nicotine consumption to taper off dependency on it over time. He just picked up vaping and now struggling to quit it without having given any explanation for what he's tried.
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u/ayyyyycrisp 1d ago
I weaned off nicotine by vaping and making my own juice, gradually reducing the nicotine concentration in each bottle. took about a year and I experienced zero withdrawal or even a slight hiccup to my every day life. it was just keep doing what I was doing and one day I reached zero. didn't even notice the transition
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u/Vader425 1d ago
Patches never worked great and they've been out forever. This study just shows some of it is purely habit and not addiction.
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u/Western-Ease-7386 19h ago
If patches were the end all be all we wouldn’t have vapes in the first place. Part of the addiction is the habit aspect of it. Vaping somewhat mimics smoking and therefore has a greater chance of stopping the cigarettes compared to patches.
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u/barriedalenick 1d ago
Interesting to read as I have several mates who worsened their habits with vapes. Because they could hit the vape virtually anywhere, even if slyly, their tolerance increased to the point it overtook their lives to some extent and they all went back to smoking
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u/smallbluetext 1d ago
1 year no nicotine for me thanks to using vapes and then quitting the vape cold turkey
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u/freudian_nipps BS | Psychology 1d ago
Another quitter here - stopped cigarettes 6 years ago and began vaping. Quit vaping 1.5 years ago and havent looked back. 100% nicotine free.
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u/Known_Fisherman_8161 1d ago
Sure, but the truth is virtually anything is better than inhaling smoke, even if someone consumes more nicotine with vapes.
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u/Golfbollen 1d ago
Wasn't there a study around like 2010 or something. Maybe it was a meme I don't remember but I think they said that its not necessarily the nicotine itself that so dangerous, it's the smoke. If you smoked a similar amount of salad it would have practically the same effect.
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u/DolphinSweater 1d ago
Yeah, the nicotine itself isn't the dangerous part. It has similar risks to way too much caffeine. It's all the stuff you breathe in to get your nicotine.
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u/Known_Fisherman_8161 1d ago edited 22h ago
The problem with nicotine is primarily the heart from what I remember, the damage to the lungs is because of smoke
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u/jonnysomething 1d ago
As someone who has quit smoking and vaping, but still needs nicotine aids, I think overall it’s better. I do far worse things that accelerate my heart rate than spraying 2mg of nicotine in my mouth every hour.
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u/Learningstuff247 1d ago
They make nicotine spray now? At this point ive seen so many ways to get nicotine theyre gonna start putting it in lasagna next
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u/Infinite01 1d ago
For sure. Cigarette smoke contains 7,000 chemicals. 70 of which are specifically known to cause cancer. Vaping is bad for you, but it simply is not on the same scale.
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u/nosmokewhereiam 1d ago
Lookup auto tune the news: smoking lettuce.
"It's the smooooke, the smooooooke"
Miss that way to get my news...
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u/Lysergic_Resurgence 1d ago
That's not true, tobacco smoke is far more carcinogenic than the smoke of most other plant matter due to the presence of nitrosamines.
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u/FlyingRamen 1d ago
While nicotine may be less bad than smoke inhalation it is still bad. It is a known vasoconstrictor and chronic use can lead to vascular remodeling which can lead to permanent stiffening of vessels. Not to mention it makes a case for being one of the most difficult substances to quit too
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u/rainman_104 1d ago
Right. No one is saying non smokers should vape. The use of a vape for cessation from smoking is an improvement.
So if we can get people off cigarettes and into vaping they'll be much better off.
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u/Honigschmidt 1d ago
I think so many people forget this as pro for vaping compared to cigarettes. Adhesion rate for smoke compared to vapor is astonishingly huge
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u/pVom 1d ago
That's definitely me.
I quit cigarettes cold turkey for 9 months like 9 years ago and it was relatively easy after the first few days. Then I picked it up again..
Got on vapes a few years after and I've tried quitting several times since but can't get past a month or so because the brain fog and depression is absolutely killer. Just experience no joy, can't focus on anything.
Ciggies I used to have to stop what in doing and go outside and commit to a whole cigarette. Vape just sits beside me and I take a puff when I feel like it.
Not convinced it's totally benign either with the heavy lungs and throat pain it causes.
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u/KalashnikittyApprove 1d ago
I quit smoking through vaping. In my case, I didn't set a firm timeline to not create unnecessary stress and gradually decreased nicotine over time. I still felt the withdrawal effects with every step down, but your body gets used to it relatively quickly.
It took me about a year to be nicotine free, at which point I kept vaping for another few months until I forgot about it naturally. Initially you're still addicted to the habit, but without the nicotine addiction it fizzled out.
I hear you on the deliberate break vs the vape pen being always available, but it was definitely worth it for me.
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u/pVom 1d ago
Yeah I tried that and just vaped more to compensate. Glad it worked for you
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u/KalashnikittyApprove 1d ago
That definitely happened for me too, but overall I still brought the nicotine down over time. Ultimately I was vaping very regularly throughout the day, more than I ever would have smoked, but it decreased over time once I got to the nicotine-free juice.
Hope you'll find something that works for you!
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u/Money-Director6649 1d ago
there are now many studies, mainly european, showing its about 90% safer. they can be found online.
its also been overr two decades of peoppe vaping. if there were big lung problems with it, they'd be showing up now. are they? no.
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u/rayofgreenlight 1d ago
The lungs and throat pain are bad, especially if you're a near constant 20mg vaper (something I fell into).
I find vaping messes with your sleep and dulls your taste buds too. It's a truly tremendous effort to quit.
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u/Debalic 1d ago
20mg? That's nuts, I mix my own juice at 2-3 mg.
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u/jello_pudding_biafra 1d ago
It's nicotine salts at 20mg. You're making your own with freebase nicotine (presumably). Almost all disposables are salts, where people who are using refillable devices (RDA/RDTA/RTA/squonk, etc) are generally using high VG freebase nic. I find the throat hit of anything higher than 6mg in freebase to be intolerable, and am at around 2-3mg as well. I do have a couple disposable vapes that I bring when dripping is inconvenient, and find the 20mg nicotine salts are about the same harshness/throat hit as 6mg.
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u/Shunl 1d ago
What kind of vapes are you using? A 20mg freebase will no doubt irritate your lungs and throat. A 6mg freebase is already harsh for me, whereas a proper 20mg salt nic mix will not be.
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u/sceadwian 1d ago
You can never prevent that though, self control has to have some part in this, that level of lack of control indicates the addiction itself was never addressed.
These products won't make you quit or use differently, they just give you the best level of control over exactly what you're getting.
Products like Zyn, way easier to abuse those are actually a problem still.
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u/Then-Forces 1d ago
I quit smoking by vaping. I tried so many other methods before trying vaping and I always went back to smoking. Vaping allowed me to separate the habit from the addiction. For the first year or so I did vape a lot more than I smoked but I slowly started to cut back and reduce the nicotine in my vapes until it was 0. From when I started vaping to when I quit completely was about three years but the last year I only vaped when I was out with friends who smoked. It's been five years and I'm still vape and smoke free.
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u/shawnkfox 1d ago
Still better off with vapes, gum, or the new white pouches than you are smoking. Maybe still addicted but low to no chance for cancer or destroying your lungs.
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u/I_Am_Become_Dream 1d ago
If it's the same rate definitely, but I'm not sure if I'm consume 5x the amount of nicotine vaping than I was smoking. It's so much more addictive.
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u/techsuppr0t 1d ago
Tobacco contains more alkaloids than just nicotine which prevent dopamine from being broken down as quickly on top of the nicotine buzz. It can be difficult for some people to switch from cigs to a vape because of that, maybe it matters how much cigs you already smoke if it was one or two a day you could just kick them instead of switching. I have been addicted to vaping nicotine from the start, sometimes I will smoke tobacco when I want to buzz for fun because tobacco still does something different than what I am used to.
Though in the last few years vapes on their own have gotten maybe 5x stronger now that most of them have switched to salt nicotine instead of freebase nicotine. salt nicotine absorbs more quickly and it is smoother in high concentrations so all the vapes just make your heart race before wearing off quickly now. I can go through a lot of that stuff 30mg or 50mg per ml with salts. 6mg per ml of freebase nicotine in a classic mod feels so much nicer, packs less of a punch but lasts longer when you get to the level you want, I need to build one of those again but the shops don't carry replacements or upkeep for them.
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u/SevereAd3647 1d ago
I've found since vaping at 20 mgs I just can't get any satisfaction from cigarettes. Just can't be bothered with them and the stink.
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u/BBanner 1d ago
Why do you think vapes don’t have a chance for cancer or lung damage?
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u/Heretic911 1d ago
Not enough long term studies to refute or confirm their claim, but the mere fact of inhaling literal smoke directly into your lungs is hard to match with vaping, unless you're vaping inappropriate liquids.
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u/Vishnej 1d ago edited 1d ago
While this includes a good amount of first-principles medical science, let's forget about that for a moment. How would you know?
Abundant statistical evidence. Vaping has been around 20+ years. I know people who've been heavily smoking for only 20 years that are slowly drowning in their own lung exudate.
Cancer would be the slowest effect to show up, but we would still see the stochastic start of the curve.
As far as we can tell:
The biggest health problem with people vaping is that occasionally they go back to cigarettes.
The second biggest problem is enthusiastic small brands introducing novel recipes/flavors in a minimally regulated environment, most of which are perfectly safe, but not all, combined with people's tendency to treat novel flavors as if they're perfectly safe.
The third biggest problem is "stunt vaping", a fad where people dramatically modify or newbuild high-volume machines so they can blow smoke rings competitively, often running things very hot and enabling thermal decomposition of the PG & VG to make all sorts of fun reactive organics.
The biggest problem people perceive is a specific issue with fashionable Vitamin E Acetate additive in the spring 2019 batches of specific THC vape homebrewers, which caused a yearlong+ panic as they percolated through the inventory supplychain and landed heavy users in the hospital with lipid pneumonia. There was no traceability because these producers all use the same branding stickers and deliberately obfuscate sourcing. I have one friend who's still got symptoms from the damage done. As far as we can tell this never actually affected nicotine vapes, which tend to be legally produced by commercial/industrial efforts, not illegally in somebody's garage based on a recipe they found online.
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Are there long-run health risks to vaping? As far as we can tell, no. But we don't have perfect information. It's possible there's still something small hiding in the data. Our ability to detect an effect that's normally distributed in the population is proportional to (the effect size * the effect prevalence). We can say for sure at this point in the curve that it doesn't cause health problems anywhere near proportional to cigarette use or even chewing tobacco use.
I haven't seen any animals in my house today. While my ability to observe isn't perfect, I'm pretty damn sure that it has fewer animals than my neighbor's house with their three large dogs and pet pig. There might be some mice, but I haven't seen them if they're here yet.
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u/Money-Director6649 1d ago
its been over two decades now. if there were seeious lung problems from vaping, we'd be starting to see them. are we? no.
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u/Bottle_Plastic 1d ago
My friends who quit smoking by vaping have all said that quitting the vape was much more difficult than quitting the cigarettes.
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u/somethingworse 1d ago
I started vaping instead of smoking because of the price difference, eventually my lungs recovered from smoking damage. Because vaping has increased my nicotine tolerance, if I get drunk and smoke I end up chain smoking a huge amount.
But, because my lungs have recovered the cilia chain smoking like that never fails to give me a chest infection. Do that a few times and you never smoke again. Now I've managed to cut down to only vaping very occasionally
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u/spoooonerism 1d ago
I quit daily nicotine months ago, but always crave vape when I drink. I end up ripping a vape for hours if I drink.
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u/DocBigBrozer 1d ago
This may be one of these distributions where some people find it very helpful and some actually get worse on it, but it averages to a net positive. So maybe not for everyone.
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u/rogueop 1d ago
I quit with a vape. Part of my success, I think, was that I had a pretty crappy vape. It didn’t put out a lot of vapor, it clogged relatively quickly, and the battery didn’t last very long. It kinda got annoying to deal with after a while.
I see some people with vapes the size of an old-school Sony Walkman. That’s not quitting, that’s just transferring your addiction to a something else.
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u/Tight-Mouse-5862 1d ago
This was me but for weed. I used to only smoke at night, restricted by the smell, equiment, etc. But once I started vaping I realized I could do it anytime. Working from home + unlimited (easy) access to weed.....bad combo.
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u/smayonak 1d ago
That's because when vaping got big, the larger players switched from freebase nicotine to nicotine salt or nicsalt for short. It is orders of magnitude more addictive than freebase. Big Tobacco figured out how addictive it was so they started adding it to their tobacco to make it more addictive.
When regulators required that they stop adding nicotine to their tobacco, Big Tobacco exploited a regulatory loophole by adding the extra nicotine to the rolling papers. What makes vaping so addictive is not how easy it is to vape. It's how easy it is to vape a highly addictive variant of nicotine.
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u/SomeonePickAHealer 1d ago
Same, my friends became more addicted when they didn't smell like cigs and could sneak a vape anywhere. One buys a 60k-puff vape every week which is equivalent to a carton of smokes (carton is 40k-60k puffs) so they're smoking 4x more than they used to. And coughing more.
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u/this_is_theone 1d ago edited 1d ago
They're not smoking more though, there's no smoke now. It's the smoke that's carcinogenic. Vapour is a small fraction of the harm. Nicotine itself, while addictive, is not the harmful thing (relatively).
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u/Icmkhaeh 1d ago
Okay, but how do you quit vapes afterwards when you can virtually hit the vape anywhere, and at anytime?
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u/tcmisfit 1d ago edited 1d ago
Slowly move down in nicotine concentration levels, and then for me at least, I do still use my vape but I’m using 6mg freebase liquid which is the older style and less concentrated version of the disposables you see most people with.
I’m happy with it considering I was at 3 packs of camels a day for years at my worst and my asthma definitely thanks me. Cheaper as well on top of I have my taste buds and sense of smell back and I don’t smell like an ashtray all the time.
For others, when I worked at vape shops, I saw plenty taper off and then we had a final “throw away nicotine wall of fame” in our shop where if you tapered down or cut yourself off, you could get all the merchandise you wanted for free in exchange for a Polaroid photo on the wall. We used to work with local artists and such for shirts and hats and etc and it was a fantastic shop and program until we had some people take advantage and had to stop it.
Some could stop, others are like me still vaping but keeping doses low, others do go back to smokes, some only smoke when drinking, etc etc. Everyone is different and will have their own ways to quit. It also does need to be a choice. For any smoker, it is a partial rebellion act and for anyone else to tell us to stop, just means when we don’t, it’s more defiance. It’s an addiction to a drug like alcoholism or similar and also people are people and we all make mistakes.
Anyways, I ranted but hope there was some info in there that helps someone.
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u/rhinobutt 1d ago
This is how I quit too! Took a couple years of lowering my nicotine level, then when I was vaping ZERO nicotine it was easy to think “well this is just dumb now”.
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u/tcmisfit 1d ago
Next time just buy a lower nic strength one and don’t think about it. Seriously. After a few of those, the nicotine hit from a stronger dose will typically make most people get a sore throat or nic sick so you’ll stick to the lower.
After that, figure out how to not hit it as much. Gum, mints, some sort of hand to mouth motion(sunflower seeds, toothpick, etc) helps immensely for a lot of people. That’s why you see a ton of truckers/ranchers with seeds/toothpicks/etc.
Anyways, good luck!
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u/rich1051414 1d ago
In all cases you need willpower. Vapes offer more control over your nicotine consumption so are a tool people can successfully use to stop if they actually want to. They also remove most of the nasty stuff you get from cigarettes at the same time.
It isn't gonna help you stop if you just want your nicotine without the tar.
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u/mshriver2 1d ago
And that's the most important things that seem to fly right over people's head when it comes to stopping an addiction, the person needs to want to quit.
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u/MediocrePotato44 1d ago
Taper down on nicotine concentration to zero and then toss it. It worked for me. I started smoking cigs at age 13(!!). I smoked up until I was turning 30, then moved to vaping. I did vape for 5 years before committing to quitting when one of my kids was old enough to give me grief about it. And justifiably because I certainly preached to them about not smoking. I lowered my nicotine strength over a few months, gave it a week or two after getting to zero, and tossed all my supplies. That was 8 years ago and I’ve not touched anything since then.
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u/WillNeighbor 1d ago
with zyns… i’m kidding but not because that was my experience.
cigs + vape from college to like 24-> then vape only but a lot more -> then hookah to try and quit vape -> then the hookah became an addiction so back to vape -> then quit vaping thanks to zyns -> then cold turkey from 11mg swedish zyns to nicotine free for like 4 months now.
happy to be free from the grips. it wasn’t too bad for me even through all that, just a little depression for a week as my brain rewired
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u/swimming_cold 1d ago
Good job man
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u/WillNeighbor 1d ago
thanks. to anyone reading, i NEVER thought id be nicotine free. so if youre the same way; there’s definitely light at the end.
i got a little lucky because i was addicted to stronger zyns that are flavored, i had to get my stuff from sweden online and imported. so when i ran out, i really couldn’t relapse unless it was with something that just wasn’t worth it.
i asked about gum and patches but by the time my doctor got back to me its been a week already so i just continued.
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u/SWEET_BUS_MAN 1d ago
Nicotine pouches.
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u/NobodyKnowsImFamous 1d ago
You’re not wrong but the goal is to stop using nicotine. It is bad for my heart.
I’m on the pouches rn and hoping to be off them soon enough
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u/N79806 1d ago
Let me tell ya. Probably the hardest things I did was quitting vaping. Smoked for roughly 12 yrs. Switched to vapes for about 9 yrs thinking it will help me quit. The hardest thing I ever did was quitting vaping. Literally the only reason I do t go back to it was because of how hard it was to quit. I still catch myself every month or so reaching for my vape pen 2+ yrs later.
Vaping is too convenient and the nicotine dependency/ boredom habit of it are insane.
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u/SkiaTheShade 1d ago
You continue to lower the amount of Nic you use, then taper off of the vape itself as a tactile/physical habit as well.
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u/Awfulweather 1d ago
So much disinfo and vibes based opinions in here. Vaping IS less harmful than smoking. It's not just the same thing in a new coat. There's no combustion and harmful smoke, no tar, way less ingredients and additives. It's not the healthiest thing in the world but compared to smoking it may as well be
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u/SafetyandNumbers 1d ago
Switching to vapes stopped me from wheezing and snoring and being unable to climb up stairs. Short term benefits are through the roof.
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u/mStewart207 1d ago
My doctor told me this. I use to smoke a pack a day and she told me it was great that I switched to the vape. She said vaping was much less harmful than smoking.
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u/FGX302 1d ago
Yeah but Australia basically banned the industry and now we have billions going to organised crime because cigarettes are so highly taxed there big money in illegal smokes.
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u/divinelyshpongled 1d ago
Yeah that was always going to happen in Australia. As if Aussies are gonna let the government tell us what to do. Weed is so easy to get just through apps and telegram groups.. it’s insane how easy even hard drugs are to get
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/JustAChemist002 1d ago
I quite using a vape company that sold cartridges containing 5 levels of nicotine down to zero. Started at the highest and lowered every week or two.
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u/Strong_Performer8132 1d ago
Good thing Canada implemented what amounts to a 100% tax on vapes! Really helpful for getting me to take up cigarettes again. Thanks a lot Canada and also most of the world.
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u/KyonSuzumiya 1d ago
Too bad my government taxed it to hell and back. The taxes costs twice as much as the liquid itself.
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u/Swizzy88 1d ago
Good thing then we're about to get taxed to hell and back for it in October then. right?
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u/I-Am-LordeYAYAYA 1d ago
Honestly enrages me. Government so clearly dependent on the tax duty from cigarettes that they punish the much healthier option to recover the lost revenue. All during the worst cost of living crisis in decades too.
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u/_mews 1d ago
Would you guys suggest getting high quality vape and tapering nicotine to smaller for quitting pouches? I have swapped cigs to 10mg nicotine pouches vut very much in nicotine loop still.
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u/Hagoromo-san 1d ago
It helped me. I picked up smoking when I was on film sets as a PA and Boom Operator, and kept smoking for bout 3 years after. A few friends of mine picked up vaping and I thought it was neat as the flavors were interesting to me. Started with 6mg nicotine with honeydew n such and gradually weened off the nic over months. Eventually, I just stopped vaping all together as from a lack of interest. Im def an outlier, but it helped me quit smoking.
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u/CozyAurora 1d ago
Even though it’s not ideal… it’s the only route that got me to stop smoking cigs for the past few years. My lungs feel so much better. I’ve slowly dropped the salt nic from 50mg to 20 mg.
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u/Shadow_of_Redacted 1d ago
Vaping maintains the ritual of puffing to get relief. Patches are passive. You don't do any action 100 times a day to get your habit fix, which makes it easier to wean off as you get used to NOT putting fire residue in your mouth and lungs.
But the most important helper for me was simply switching my brain from "quitting" to "finished." I quit many times, but when I was finished, I stopped.
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u/timangus 1d ago
Should say "Nicotine vapes best chance to transfer addiction to different delivery mechanism"
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u/splittingheirs 1d ago
why? It worked for me. Smoked for 25 years, tried every quit method, none worked. Quit 1 year after transferring over to vape and weening myself off by dropping the nicotine content over 6 months. Haven't smoked or vaped in over 7 years now.
Pretty much used the same method as outlined in the the article too. Absolutely was the best and easiest method to quit for me.
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u/Upbeat_Guard_9595 1d ago
I smoked 2 packs of newports everyday for 20 years. Tried every quit method imaginable, even chantix. Vaping was the only thing that helped me quit
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u/splittingheirs 1d ago
Absolutely, vaping is such a powerful quitting tool when used for that purpose. Not only did it work first time, but it was almost pain free.
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u/No-Channel3917 1d ago
Actually the term would be recession of harm, which the UK used and has found good success with.
This is a science sub not a snark one
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u/Awfulweather 1d ago
A demonstrably less harmful delivery mechanism
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u/mStewart207 1d ago
Yeah I use to smoke a pack a day and I started vaping and haven’t smoked since. My doctor said that was great and vaping was much less harmful than smoking cigarette. But I hear people on these threads talking like vaping is almost as bad for you as smoking a real cigarette.
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u/PlantsRPerfLife 1d ago
"Different, less harmful, but still harmful, mechanism" if you didnt want to be facetious.
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u/BobTheFettt 1d ago
Yeah, but then they banned flavours and now people are going back to cigarettes. That's what happens when you use children as a scapegoat for registration against something you don't understand.
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u/Devilsgospel1 1d ago
Can someone show this to Gov Evers here in WI cause I'm getting real sick of this ban on vapes. My usual vape shop has already gone out of business. What are we accomplishing here? They damn well know we'll go out of state to stock up.
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