Electronic Smokes -- the latest rage
 

Forget the nasty gum or sticky patches, these are the same as a real paper cigarette in many ways without the harsh smoke, CO, tar, health hits or the big hit$ to your budget-- once you get started. These are almost completely perfected and affordable:http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=6975762

Strange inventions these days

wow.... interesting. The article says that the makers of these products claim that they can be used where cigarettes are banned - good luck explaining to the security guards that the cigarette looking thing in your mouth (which emits what appears to be smoke) is actually not a cigarette at all....

There still is no 'safe' cigarette. Nicotine has negative health consequences even without the tar and myriad other chemicals found in regular cigarettes; Nicotine is still a poison, after all. Granted, this is a lot less toxic then smoking filterless Camels, but it's still not doing your health any favors.

They still leave you addicted to nicotine. :thdown: :thdown: :thdown:

In my case nicotine and menthol :p

You can always tell security its a "wooden cigarette" as seen on Boston Legal :lol:

Anyway I don't need any regular paper ciggy$, anymore-- they taste like burning garbage to me now.

I found quitting smoking real easy, I must have quit a 100 times. This sounds to me like swapping one addiction for another.

I've been using an electronic cigarette for a while now. I don't smoke regular cigs at all and don't miss them one little bit. I consider myself to have quit smoking as much as a person who's given up cigarettes and uses patches or nicotine gum. I've experienced the same health improvements as if I'd just quit smoking cold turkey. Nicotine on it's own is considered to not be much different a health risk than caffeine, both can raise blood pressure. It's mostly the smoke that gets you...whether it's from inhaling cigarette smoke, spending time too close to a beach fire, too much car exhaust around you or inhaling smoke/emissions from any other source...dangerous chemicals are produced/released by combustion. My chances of harming my health or others is much higher if I have a few glasses of wine or associate with someone else who does than they are by using my electronic cigarette. After all, drinking alcohol and getting tipsy is controlled poison. Nicotine, alcohol, certain vitamins and a great many other everyday things around us are extremely toxic if concentrated or purified to finely.

I realize that I'm still addicted to nicotine (and caffeine), but I do believe that using an electronic cigarette is a much safer alternative to smoking for someone who has tried repeatedly to quit and who has proven unlikely to be successful in quitting. In an ideal world addiction wouldn't exist. Besides, I don't have anything else left to give up!

I just got my e-cigarette and so far I really like it. I hope that it will help me to be able to quit smoking.

When stress would hit I would go get smokes. A friend died 2 months ago and I went for cigarettes and disgusted myself. My husband is military and works with a guy who vapes (E-cigarettes) in government building. After some research DH got me one and I never even think about normal smokes.

BE WARNED The main medium PG is used in many things, uncluding medical inhalers but also used on Cows to TREAT Ketosis! So this is a HUGE issue for those of us doing low carb.

Also, you can vape with an e-cig WITHOUT nicotine many are using e-cigs to wean off nic but still get the oral fix. PG is also said to help keep the body Germ free but the data on this is very old and I would like to see someone modern.

There are other thins on the up side and the down side. No matter what though, I really feel that e-cigs are wayyyyy safer than know anologs (normal cigs) killers.

I have been using an e-cig for 10 months now...I started out buying the nicotine "smoke juice" at three different levels, low, medium, and high. I started on the high, and then went to the medium, then the low nicotine, now I make my own "smoke juice". It is simple and I control what goes in my body. I use vegetable glycerin which is used in cake decorating. A bit of flavor from a vanilla bean and a dash of vodka for that nicotine style kick. No nicotine..none.
I LOVED smoking, really enjoyed it, but wanted something not as bad for me...

I LOVE my e-cig. I smoked for 16 years and thought I would die with one in my hand. I have not had a paper cigarette in over 6 months now. I do not wheeze anymore, I can taste my food, and I do not smell like an ashtray.

My doctor said my vitals were much better now as well. I spend less than $100 a month on my "smokes" now. I was spending probably 300-400 per month before.

Some of what you say is true....but cigarettes have 300 harmful chemicals and ecigs have 2. Don't forget that tobacco companies add chemicals that are more addictive that nicotine....to keep you addicted.

I started smoking ecigs in May and I went through a weeks withdrawals for all of the other chemicals that my body was used to having. I haven't smoked a regular cigarette since then. I started on the 16mg and now I'm on the 11mg....I will taper down to 0mg. Awesome tool to stop smoking and if you never intend to stop smoking.....they are still much better than regular smokes. My lungs felt better in just a few days.

I totally agree!

what kind of flavors do you guys use? Do the sweet tasting ones trigger cravings?

I guess you can get roast beef flavored!

I use a tobacco flavor called seven leaves. It is has a woody sweetish flavor but it doesn't cause any cravings.

I do have a rather sweet strawberry flavor as well that has helped with sweet cravings from time to time.

My husband and I have been on the e-cig since January, but I was kind of cheating...I finally gave up "real" cigs on May 23 and now I know what my husband was saying...I can breathe better, no mucous staying in my throat...no colds...my youngest son is home for the summer from college and said for the first time in YEARS, he has not been woken up from hearing me hack and cough in my sleep...I smell better and I am SO happy...I love the taste of my "cotton candy" flavor and have had no problem with wanting "real" sweets...Hubby said we are NOW saving $400 a month since we quit buying the "real things" and our house does not smell like a stale cig anymore either...I have not gained any additional weight...still getting nicotine, but have already gone down from 24 mg. to 18 mg...when we first started the ecigs we bought all supplies from a little store in our area...now, we order online when we need and it is half the price of what we were paying in the store...for me, this is the BEST transition...I could not do Chantix, gum or patches...the vapor is amazing and our flavors don't leave any smell...MY goal is to be done with it ALL by December...we will see :)

I came to this site for Low Carb support, but i saw this and had to respond. In July 2012 my husband and i (after trying for 4 years) finally went to the doctor to see why we couldn't get prego. Before anything else he said we must do the basics. A. Quit smoking and B. lose weight. We picked our electronic cigarette kits (which he actually recommended) with 2 cigarettes left in our packs. 1 was for the ride home (the shop was 40 minutes away) and the other was for after our dinner that night. Since that day we haven't picked up an anolog cigarette since! After 2 weeks using them we didn't wake up coughing, and i could take a deep clean breath without my lungs or chest hurting. It was AMAZING.

Sure you may still be addicted to nicotine, but the beauty of it is, you can gradually step down just like the patch or the gum to less and less nicotine. We started at 24mg nicotine and are down to 6mg nicotine... eventually we hope to just be smoking them for the hand to mouth habit. It has been such an amazing experience for us and anyone having trouble kicking it the cold turkey way, i recomend them 1000000%. There are many brands and styles to chose from and most people start out with something over priced and resembling a cigarette. (i did) eventually you realize you just want something that is good quality and works. We use the Ego-c Twists with variable voltage and the kanger t2's and t3 clearomizers. They work perfectly and are very long lasting. In addition to the reduction in horrible toxins. Trace amounts of nicotine are found in tomatoes, eggplant, cauliflower, and potatoes (i realize negligable) but consumtpion of large quantities does allow you to get part of this nightshade family toxin, and therefore lowering the "dose" we take of nicotine was something we wanted to do. Small amounts actually have a few benefits, like less risk of Alzheimer's, less ulcer flair ups and can help with blood vessel growth (common problem for diabeties sufferers is circulation, this helps that). I'm not promoting it, but i'm just saying it's not ALL horrid. It's those other chemicals that are the most deadly. I figure if i cut out everything else and am just getting low dose nicotine and water vapor with flavoring, i'm doing a lot better than smoking anolog.

I just want to tell others out there after 10 years for me smoking and 15 for my husband it worked for us. Sure someone might walk by after smoking a cigarette and smell like the krispy cream drive thru to you, but for the most part it's a great deterent and idle hands are the devils work so while i'm smoking it i don't eat as much. It has been a savior on my L/C induction.

Good luck and well wishes to anyone trying to quit and trust me once you see that extra 100-200$ cash flow each month for new clothes your gonna wanna stick with it! :) If you need info on great place to buy vampingme .com is a wonderful company with great customer service and free fast shipping over $30 or more!

My mom used to make an organic pesticide that had nicotine as one of the ingredients. It's quite poisonous to bugs.

I know nicotine is bad. I know smoking is bad. Which is why I think ecigs are good. Why? Cause I quit smoking in January but couldn't get past the need to have something in my hand that eventually made its way to my mouth. Now hubby offered to help with this. lol But seriously, this habit- which has NOTHING to do with the actual nicotine, was going to sabotage my efforts.

Enter ecigs. I got the kind that has no nicotine. They work awesome. Because I don't really miss the nicotine. I miss the hand to mouth thing. I will eventually taper down the hand to mouth thing. Eventually. Probably by Spring. When I will switch over to flavored hookah charcoal also nicotine free. For after dinner or for celebrations or other special occasions.

I don't care about the crutch that I seem to need to quit smoking. I just care about quitting.

And the best thing? The brand that I use offer blank cartridges. I get to fill them myself and come up with different flavor combos. And for those of you that have tapered down from 12 to 6 or heavy to light, well, the blank cartridges can be used to tapered down even more by coming up with say one half zero nicotine with half 6mg nicotine. Then you can mix it down even further until you are at zero as well.

Ecigs are awesome for helping smokers be nonsmokers AND STAY THAT WAY.

Just my 2 cents.

That's actually very cool that people are weaning themselves off of cigs and nicotine gradually with this. Going cold turkey was awful.

So is caffeine, water, and even oxygen. Anything is a poison in high concentrations.

The effect of nicotine on the body is very similar to caffeine. The dangerous stuff in cigarettes is the tar and chemicals.

Nicotine has also been found to have some therapeutic qualities as well.