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Reply: electronic cigarette study

I am 40 years old and smoked for 20 years. I tried many of the quit methods multiple...

Posted by Spazmelda

I am 40 years old and smoked for 20 years. I tried many of the quit methods multiple times, except for Chantix as my doctor recommended against it. I was never able to quit smoking for more than short periods of time. As I continued on the smoke and quit merry-go-round, I became more and more demotivated and dejected about the prospect of quitting. I finally came to the conclusion that I would smoke until I died. I didn't like it, but my confidence that I could ever succeed was completely crushed.

A neighbor recommended e-cigarettes and I laughed it off. At this point I had spent so much money on 'approved' quit methods I was reluctant to spend more, and even more reluctant to get my hopes up yet again. My neighbor kept nagging me to try, and I eventually looked them up on the Internet and found many success stories. Still very skeptical, I decided to give it a try. I bought an overpriced e-cig from a local drug store, and even though I now know there are much better devices and flavors out there, I was amazed to discover that I had gone a whole day without smoking. Then two days, then three. I wasn't really missing the cigarettes. I had originally hoped that maybe they would help me cut back. I was an accidental quitter.

Now, almost 1 year since I have had a cigarette, I am so grateful that my neighbor kept nagging me to try these things. I'm a biologist and I've read every scientific study I can get my hands on (there's more than you'd think out there) and for the life of me I can't figure out why the FDA isn't falling all over themselves to get these things approved. I'm not opposed to some oversight and regulation, but that does not seem to be what the FDA has in mind. The opposition to these things is completely out of line from the research that I have read. By all means, do some good unbiased research (unlike the manipulative FDA report from 2009, which actually shows the opposite of what it claims). Let's get these things mainstreamed. Let's let millions of smokers live healthier even if they can't bring themselves to quit.

To be sure quitting all together would be better, and someday I hope to do just that. I have cut my nicotine by more than half since I started, and plan to cut it down to 0 eventually. But, why WHY should I be discouraged from using these devices that allow me to stay away from all the tar and chemicals in cigarette smoke. Using simple common sense tells me that they are orders of magnitude safer than cigarettes, and I am 99% sure that future research will confirm that (as current research is already doing). To be sure, they have given me the courage to think that someday I actually CAN quit nicotine completely, which I had completely lost with the quit or die message.View Thread

Posted bySpazmelda

106 Replies | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:electronic cigarette study I am 40 years old and smoked for 20 years. I tried many of the quit methods multiple...

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