Do electronic cigarettes help to quit smoking?

Let's see if vaping to try to quit Smoking is a good strategy.

Vaping, or smoking through vaporizers, has become fashionable among certain sectors of the population.

Some teens take up vaping because it "looks cool" and people won't look at them as bad as if you smoked traditional tobacco cigarettes or joints. And many of the people who start vaping are (tobacco) smokers who are trying to quit smoking vapes, using them as a kind of substitution therapy for something apparently less harmful.

But is it true that switching to vaping helps to quit smoking tobacco? Let's see.

Is vaping bad for your health?

Vaping is definitely less harmful in the short term than smoking tobacco. But it is not good for your health.

Electronic cigarettes work by burning different substances, which create aerosols with harmful substances.

Reasons why vaping is not a good method to quit smoking.

The Preventive Services Task Force of the United States of America has come to the conclusion that there is insufficient scientific evidence to recommend the use of e-cigarettes as an effective means of smoking cessation.. Let's see why.

1. You maintain smoking behavior patterns.

Tobacco smoking is highly addictive, not only because of the nicotine, but also because of other elements that make it easier to reinforce the habit. When a person lights up and smokes a cigarette, there are a whole series of mechanical, repetitive rituals and gestures.. The repetition of these formulas helps to establish any habit.

So when you vape, you are maintaining many of these elements. When you feel the "urge to smoke," you respond to that feeling with the act of taking the vaporizer out of your pocket, the sensation of the vapor in your throat and nose (and all the associated flavors and smells, which in the case of vapers are usually pleasant, fruity smells, etc).

You put all those elements together, and you have a product that is going to continue to take advantage of those cues to make the person dependent on it.

2. From traditional cigarette to e-cigarette, and from e-cigarette to traditional cigarette.

There is no scientific evidence to show that smokers who start vaping stop smoking tobacco or even stop vaping. Among smokers who have switched to vaporizers with the intention of quitting smoking, many have ended up returning to tobacco shortly after quitting, many have ended up returning to tobacco soon after (or smoking and vaping at the same time).

This happens because, as the experiences of smoking tobacco and vaping are so similar, the person maintains the "smoking habit", but with very little or no nicotine. That, in many cases, makes the smoker "taste little" and ends up escalating the consumption of vapers, and eventually, returning to traditional cigars to enjoy their dose of nicotine again.

3. Vaping is not a good method to quit smoking, because the person continues to smoke.

Many of my therapy patients (who have used electronic cigarettes at some point) tell me how they ended up going back to buying tobacco at some moment of crisis, vulnerability, anxiety, etc..

Simply put, e-cigarettes had kept them very close to tobacco, sometimes buying these products in the same place where they sell tobacco. So the transition back to tobacco was all too easy.

4. Vaping is smoking

Vaping is smoking. When a smoker switches to vaping, they may be sending themselves the implicit idea that they will never quit smoking. You vape because you don't know how to stop feeling the need to do so.

If you want to quit smoking, you cut down on what you smoke until you quit. Using vaporizers as a substitute creates a false sense of security..

It's like when someone who wants to lose weight, instead of stopping buying mayonnaise, simply switches to "low-fat" mayonnaise. The impact of that change on their health is going to be minimal, and it still doesn't address the main problem, that they don't know how to eat without abusing ultra-processed sauces.

5. You are still a slave of the tobacco companies.

Most vape products (vaporizers, oils, etc.) are products of the tobacco companies themselves.. It is simply another formula to continue milking their cows (smokers) and to continue contributing economically to one of the most unethical industries in the history of mankind.

6. You are distracted from real treatments

By using vaping as a method to quit smoking, you are displacing other treatments that do have evidence-based treatments that do have proven scientific evidence of effectiveness.. If you start vaping on your own, you stop going to a doctor or psychologist for help with smoking cessation treatment.

In the same way, replacing regular cigarettes with electronic cigarettes does not bring you any closer to your goal of quitting, it often takes you further away.

How to quit smoking (without vaping)

Vaping as a tobacco substitute does not work. E-cigarettes do not help people quit smoking. They simply distract them for a while until they return to tobacco smoking.

At a real smoking cessation treatmentthey will help you to:

• Study and understand your smoking habits.
• Know how to deal with the anxiety of nicotine withdrawal.
• Apply effective strategies to smoke less (that have been proven to work).
• Design relapse prevention strategies adapted to your specific case, so you don't have the constant fear of relapsing the next day.

I am Luis Miguel Real, a psychologist specializing in addictions. I have helped hundreds of people to quit smoking, and to avoid possible relapses.

If you have made the firm decision to quit smoking for good (forever), contact me.