Do electronic cigarettes help to quit tobacco?

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

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

But is it true that switching to vaping helps you quit smoking tobacco? We'll see.

• Related article: "The Effects of Tobacco on the Brain"

Is vaping bad for your health?

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

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

Reasons why vaping is not a good way to quit smoking

The United States of America Preventive Services Task Force has concluded that there is insufficient scientific evidence to recommend the use of electronic cigarettes as an effective resource to quit smoking. Let's see why.

1. You maintain smoking behavior patterns

Smoking tobacco is very 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 and smokes a cigarette, there is a whole series of rituals and mechanical, repetitive gestures. The repetition of these formulas helps to settle any habit.

Well, when you vape, you are keeping a lot of those elements. When you "feel like smoking", you respond to that feeling with the act of taking the vaporizer out of your pocket, the sensation of vapor in the throat and nose (and all associated tastes and smells, which in the case of vapers are usually pleasant, fruity smells, etc).

Put all these elements together, and you have a product that will continue to take advantage of those keys to make the person dependent on it.

• You may be interested in: "The 14 most important types of addictions"

2. From the traditional cigarette to the electronic cigarette, and from the electronic cigarette to the traditional cigarette

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

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

• Related article: "Nicotine: what is it, characteristics and how does it affect our body"

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

Many of my therapy patients (who have used e-cigarettes at some point) tell me how they ended up buying tobacco again at some point of crisis, vulnerability, anxiety.

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

4. Vaping is smoking

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

If you want to quit smoking, you reduce what you smoke until you quit. Using vaporizers as substitutes 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 this change on his health will be minimal, and he still does not address the main problem, that he does not know how to eat without abusing ultra-processed sauces.

• Related article: "How does self-deception work in addictions?"

5. You are still a slave to the tobacco companies

Most vaping products (vaporizers, oils, etc.) are products of the tobacco companies themselves. It is simply another formula to keep milking your cows (the smokers) and to continue contributing economically to one of the least ethical industries in the history of mankind.

6. You get distracted from real treatments

By using vaping as a method to quit smoking, you are displacing other treatments that are effective with proven scientific evidence. If you start vaping on your own, you stop going to the doctor or psychologist to help you with a cessation treatment to stop smoking.

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

How to quit smoking (without vaping)

Vaping as a substitute for tobacco doesn't work. E-cigarettes do not help people quit smoking. They just distract them for a while until they start smoking tobacco again.

In a real smoking cessation treatment, will help you:

• Study and understand your consumption habits.
• Know how to deal with anxiety from abstinence syndrome of nicotine.
• Apply effective strategies to smoke less (which have been shown to work).
• Design relapse prevention strategies adapted to your specific case, so that you do not have the constant fear of relapse 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 to tobacco use.

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