Sally Satel is a great psychiatrist and writer on medical/psych issues.
One of her areas of professional interest is drug addiction.
Here Dr. Satel, who is a down to earth psychiatrist not prone to nonsense or fantasy, advocates for e cigs.
I flew in small plane with a guy who smoked ’em no problem. You can’t smell anything–you can see the “vapor.”
The health benefits for a smoker going to an e cig are obvious, reduces the bronchitic and airway effects.
Nicotine is a naturally occurring thing in our nervous system. It is a chemical critical to nerve impulse transmission, and not toxic from an e cig.
It has nerve effects so you could get a nicotine buzz, that’s the idea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-e-cigarettes-could-save-lives/2014/02/14/31bce704-8d18-11e3-98ab-fe5228217bd1_story.html?hpid=z6
I used E-cigs to stop smoking myself. I used both for a while but eventually stopped using tobacco altogether because of convenience (I was on a ship at the time and the smoke decks were frequently closed). The improvement in my sinuses was noticeable after a few days. After about two weeks the long term effects that smoking has on your taste buds start to go away. There’s a weird day in there when you realize you can taste your mouth. After that when I borrowed a cigarette from someone I found it unpleasant to smoke. I noticed the way the smell and taste got stuck in my nose all day. So for me, at least, it was easy to avoid going back. I got everything I craved out of the artificial. I recommend it to anyone who wants to stop smoking. Most people I know that have made the switch say they prefer it to tobacco if they stick with it past the first few weeks.
That being said, I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone who doesn’t smoke. I still think they should be subject to the same age restrictions as tobacco. I don’t believe their better for your lungs than fresh air, but that’s really not the point. All excuses aside, most people keep smoking because they like smoking and simply don’t really want to quit. Giving those people a way to enjoy the aspects of smoking that they like with far fewer health risks has obvious benefits.
E-cigs are safer than ‘medical marijuana’. Joints produce several times more carcinogens than conventional cigarettes, and they way they are inhaled and held in the lungs maximizes exposure.
E-cigs may also be a better way to take asthma medication – considering the demonization of the HCFCs in asthma inhalers.
Smoking/nicotine is a hell of an addiction. The only way to break the habit is to make the decision to stop. The hand-to-mouth sucking is part of the addiction.
I smoked for over 40 years. I decided to stop, welbutrin took the edge off and I sublimated the habit to food (60-80 pounds). I then lost the weight. E-cigs might be a real problem for me. If I started something similar to my habit, I’d soon be back in the habit.
There are a number of methods to break the addiction or ameloriate the affects of the habit. I have a friend who stopped smoking by going on nicotine gum and not coming off the gum. E-cig’s may be a great crutch to break the habit and they certainly don’t have the “second hand” affects. Just how affective are they? What is the recidivism rate?
If it works, go for it.