Another question about smoking

[Jennygirl]

FYI, e cigarettes even (if they do contain nicotine) do not deliver it any way like a real cigarette. A real cigarette causes the blood nicotine level to surge, hence the instant gratification and head buzz. Also higher blood pressure, increase in pulse, etc.

E cigs, the blood nicotine level is changed very gradual and minimally even for the higher doses. There is no blood pressure change or other risks. I found a really good article on it, I will try to see if I can find it again.

[Emily Aster]

Could you elaborate further on that?

Looks like Jenny has more info on this. What I read was talking about the blood pressure being increased from the nicotine itself. Her post indicates that this may not be true of all delivery methods. I'd still be cautious about finding other ways to use it without raising flags. For one thing, you're not really quitting and for another, I'm pretty sure nicotine would show up on a test (if they even check for it) the same way no matter what the delivery method was.

[Asfsd4214]

Nicotine is also proven to cause plaques in your brain which will cause dementia and/or alzheimers down the road.

If your going to smoke or not its your choice. It is unhealthy and unwise to do so.

There is no such thing as a safe way of nicotine delivery. The people who advocate vaporizing give me an honest chuckle

People who talk about "x is a poison" or "science has proven y" give me an honest chuckle. Lets go through this point by point.

http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20120109/nicotine-patch-may-improve-memory-in-pre-dementia-patients
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16467186
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/09/could-a-nicotine-patch-slow-dementia/

There's plenty of evidence nicotine could have therapeutic use. Much like marijuana, it's politicially incorrect and discouraged to do studies that may yield a result that's politically embarrassing.

E cigarettes and all those vapo things are still bad for your health. Nicotine is a poison. You can die of nicotine poisoning...

Everything is a poison and everything isn't a poison. You can die from water if you drink too much of it. Botox is a deadly poison, one of the deadliest on the planet, yet we found a therapeutic use for it.

Nicotine its self causes blood vessels in your body to constrict. This is what causes stroke in smokers (rather, elevates the chances that they will have one). Based on this FACT I think that it would be safe to conclude that smoke or ingesting some sort of silly vapo smoke will have a negative effect on your trasition. Since blood is not flowing as freely in your body as it should, you are not getting the Estrogen to flow as freely as it can in your body.

This is just silly conjecture. It would be slightly less silly to argue that stimulants speed up metabolism and thus lessons serum estradiol levels, but even that would be such a mild effect.

Stimulants are prescribed for health conditions all the time.

There is little evidence one way or the other for the health risks of e-cigs, but it is a highly valid hypothesis that it would be relatively safe, and certainly much safer than smoking tobacco.

And finally, science never 'proves' anything. Science is about creating a reasonable hypothesis to explain an observed phenomenon, testing it, ensuring it's falsifiable, repeatable, scientific method, etc, from which we have a strong scientific theory. But it is not 'proven', it's 'evidence'. Science will never say anything is 'proven' because a fundamental aspect of scientific method is that all theories could be found false with further evidence.

Smoking isn't good for you and I will say that right now, but this is just prohibitionist thinking along the lines of marijuana and "there's no proven health benefits and we don't want you looking for any either". 

[Jennygirl]

Here's the article:

http://lstribune.net/lees-summit-news/health/electronic-cigarettes-a-safer-option-for-smokers.htm

Also I should add, you choose the level of nicotine you want in the e liquid. I've been able to completely work myself off of the stuff. Now it's just fulfilling the oral fixation and it tastes/smells good. Plus I love filling a wine glass with vapor... Very cool

[Asfsd4214]

asfsd4214, are you implying that there are certain therapeutic benefits to nicotine?

Nicotine is terrible. Smoking is harmful. What benefit can one get from tobacco?

Water is poisonous? You NEED water to live... nobody needs nicotine for anything. Botox is a poison yes but the harm done to your body from an injecting to some wrinkles is minute as compared to inhale the toxic poison of a cigarette.

asfsd4214, ive everytime I see one of your posts it seems to be some sort of pro poison er smoking cigarette rant. You have a lot of posts and a good reputation so im assuming youve had your say in other threads however its quite damaging that you would come here and try to justify your addiction and belittle the health benefits of abstaining from cigarettes. I dont want to start an argument with you over the internet about smoking as it will obviously get nowhere... all I have to say is that it is NEVER ok to smoke. When you smoke you are doing damage to yourself. You do not truly enjoy the cigarette... you enjoy crushing your nicotine craving. Are you so weak as to be a slave to nicotine? If you live somewhere with a government healthcare program like me, your health problems are going to be paid by healthy tax payers like me. You will become a burden on the system. A burden to society, your friends, your family, and yourself. Do you want the last years of your life spent struggling to catch a breathe?

Smoking also "Ages" you prematurely. Causes wrinkles. Tooth decay. Hair loss. Nerve damage. Heart problems....
Nicotine ALONE is responsible for a lot of health problems.

Smoke and vaporize all you want. Your lives no mine

annndddd im out of this thread

I am NOT saying smoking tobacco is good for you, in fact I said that quite clearly. What I said was that yes, there IS evidence that nicotine as a chemical SUBSTANCE could have therapeutic uses and that the claim that there is "NO" possible way for nicotine to be used in a non-damaging way is unsubstantiated.

I would never recommend ANYONE start smoking but I'm not going to lecture people about quitting either. And I'm sorry but I'm not going to get on board with a prohibitionist "everything about it is bad and it's an evil toxic poison" attitude when the science doesn't back it up.

There is little evidence of nicotine in isolation causing 'significant' health problems, by significant I mean relative to smoking tobacco, such as cancer and various other health disorders. I'm sure nicotine use as a recreational drug in isolation probably DOES have some form of negative health impact, but it's likely quite mild, probably milder than alcohol as a recreational drug.

As for being a slave to it, well, that's one perspective. I enjoy smoking even though I know it's really bad for me, and I know I should quit and I want to quit and I plan to quit one of these days. But I hardly consider it slavery.

And finally, I've heard the "health care" argument, it would hold a LOT more water if tobacco weren't taxed so sky high. As it stands, those of us who smoke already pay a significant amount of tax for our habit. What that works out to in net economics I don't know, but I doubt you do either.

[Jennygirl]

"It turns out that the chemical that makes tobacco so dangerously addictive, is on its own, pretty harmless to one's health. Nicotine is a compound that our body naturally synthesizes for use in fundamental functions in the cells and brain. It is the combined noxious effects of the other 4,000 toxic chemicals created by burning tobacco that, when inhaled, pollute our system and predispose to cancer, heart disease and premature aging."