E-Cigarettes, Good or Bad?

E-cigarettes. They're a phenomenon that seems to have gripped our nation in their strangely 'health advocating', yet still toxic grasp. Now, before you write this off as a patronising lecture on why we should all live a pure and organic lifestyle, living only on the roots of a bamboo cane and drinking water sourced from a glacier in the north pole (no, I don't know of that's possible or not), I will stop you right there. Life happens. Addictions happen. I genuinely - genuinely - want to know if and how healthy these e-cigarettes might be for smokers and am perfectly happy to concede, should the need arise, that they may be a good thing for this generation, given the alternative. With new legislation in place to make e-cigarettes an official aid to stop smoking in 2016, I think there are a few questions we all want to know.

Firstly, do they actually help you quit?
Do they cause more or less harm than a normal cigarette?
Are they as addictive?
When should someone think about using them?

These are all questions any smoker thinking of giving up will have asked. Even those with no intention of giving up have asked, simply because they think it might be an easy alternative to a decision they would otherwise not have they willpower to make. As a hypnotherapist, and with the natural inclination to help people in their battle to drop unwanted habits, I have asked these questions myself. Not least to Google, it has to be said.
So, between therapists, sales reps, smokers and Google, here's what I found.

For anyone still unclear on exactly what an electronic cigarette is, there are three types: the ultimate no fuss, disposable one. The rechargeable, slot in the pre-filled cartridge and puff away one. And lastly, the rechargeable, fill-my-tank-up-with-liquid-nicotine-yourself one.
Basically, air being drawn through the cigarette sets off the little sensor inside which heats up the liquid nicotine mix which then evaporates creating a nicotine vapour to be inhaled.

So, this brings me to my first question. Do they help you quit?
If you are addicted to smoking, and not relying on it as a comfortable habit you can't quite bring yourself to break, then your body is craving the nicotine you receive every time you light up. Without getting too technical, the amount of nicotine in a cigarette affects the brain more than the body as it is said to have more of an 'affinity' with certain receptors there. At higher doses it can cause respiratory and muscular difficulties in the human body however. Anyway, because it affects these receptors in
the brain, it sort of 'turns up' the volume on some of the chemicals. One of these chemicals being dopamine. And, as this is one of the main chemicals that creates that nice relaxed, stress-less feeling you get when you smoke a cigarette, and because your body has a natural desire to feel good in any way it can, it craves this mental state more than anything once it has worn off.
Electronic cigarettes contain the same amount of nicotine, sometimes even more, than normal cigarettes which begs the question, why are they being used as an aid to quit the addiction of smoking when they are quite obviously just as addictive?


Professor Michael Russell once wrote “People smoke for nicotine but they die from the tar.” (1)

So, as you puff away on an electronic stick rather than a roll of paper, you can at least take a little comfort from the fact you are not lining your lungs with thick black stodge which will, inevitably, wreak havoc with you body. And I think it's fair to say this is the reason the NHS have considered e-cigarettes for regulation in 2016 - they will help smokers be physically healthier. Less tumours, less lung problems, less disease in general.
If, like me, you wonder if the harmful long-term physical effects really are caused only by the 'tar' and not, in some small way, by the nicotine, let me share with you an abstract from a paper written some time ago:

"Nicotine is the substance giving the subjective pleasure of smoking as well as inducing addiction. For the first time we report the effect on the rat of long-term (two years) inhalation of nicotine. The rats breathed in a chamber with nicotine at a concentration giving twice the plasma concentration found in heavy smokers. Nicotine was given for 20 h a day, five days a week during a two-year period. We could not find any increase in mortality, in atherosclerosis or frequency of tumors in these rats compared with controls. Particularly, there was no microscopic or macroscopic lung tumors nor any increase in pulmonary neuroendocrine cells. Throughout the study, however, the body weight of the nicotine exposed rats was reduced as compared with controls. In conclusion, our study does not indicate any harmful effect of nicotine when given in its pure form by inhalation." (2)

To some extent, this makes me lean towards e-cigarettes as a useful option for those looking to quit, but it also pushes me to a conclusion I think is useful to keep in mind if you are considering e-cigarette conversion. Your resilience to stop the habit of picking up a cigarette (electronic or real) must still be strong, and you must continue to build upon it even if you switch to e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are not going to help you stop being addicted to nicotine. The only major benefit, as far as I can see, is they do not contain the tobacco. Your addiction still exists, your lifestyle still exists, exactly as it did when you smoked real cigarettes. It is up to you, and you alone, to stop altogether. A fancy electronic stick is not going to do it for you.

And this brings me to my last question: when should someone think about using them?
E-cigarettes have been proven to be 'healthier' than real cigarettes, but not 'healthy'. I have heard of smokers moving to electronic cigarettes, only to be back smoking the real thing as well as the e-cigs a few weeks later. This is quite simply foolish, and if you think you would be in danger of doing this, I would not recommend converting.

I feel a move to e-cigarettes should be done so with a plan to quit for good in the not-too distant future. It should therefore also be accompanied by as many healthy methods of quitting as you can muster - from therapies, to yoga, to new exercise regimes, even launching yourself into new projects at work or in the community.
A habit such as smoking is part of your lifestyle. If you want rid of the habit, you should change your lifestyle to accommodate it. And remember, you always always always have the control of your mind (it might not feel like it sometimes, but trust me on this one) and with this control it is possible to do just about anything. And that most definitely includes quitting smoking.

Now, I've hardly touched on the current/future regulation of electronic cigarettes, but I do feel it is quite important to keep an eye on so here is a useful link to a recent article I found:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/business/international/world-health-organization-urges-stronger-regulation-of-electronic-cigarettes.html?_r=0

Shauney Watson
Dip.Hyp
www.personalbesthypnotherapy.co.uk

Or go straight to the quit smoking page here...


(1) Russell M. Low-tar medium-nicotine cigarettes: a new approach to safer smoking. British Medical Journal, 1976
(2) Long-term effects of inhaled nicotine.

Waldum HL¹, Nilsen OG, Nilsen T, Rørvik H, Syversen V, Sanvik AK, Haugen OA, Torp SH, Brenna E.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8614291

Photograph 1 by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Photograph 2 from http://www.smoke-free-at-last.com/lib/how-nicotine-affects-your-brain-and-why-you-should-be-worried/
Photograph 3 from http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/yoga/health-and-wellness/overcome-smoking-with-yoga