We at askthedoctor.com are bombarded with questions asking if e-cigarettes are safe. We are sure that piqued your interest. This would be true if you are a smoker and looking at e-cigarettes or you want to try e-cigarettes because they are safe. Or you just want a vice that doesn’t cause you disease.
We have gone through all the research and have input data from our expert panel of Doctors to give you the conclusions.
E-Cigarettes versus normal cigarettes
E-cigarettes contain nicotine mixed with propylene glycol or glycerin. The regular cigarette contains tobacco and some other substances which allow the tobacco to burn. This is the main difference between them.
The similarity is that they both cause the oral fixation which helps you overcome the need to have the cigarette in the mouth. Also, exhaling of the smoke later on is also a similarity in both of them. So in effect, you manage to get the physical effects of a cigarette without any of the tobacco effect.
You may want to have an online Doctor visit at askthedoctor.com to ensure that you do not have any risk factors to try e-cigarettes.
Does e-cigarette help you kick the habit of smoking
This might be actually in favour of the e-cigarettes. It has been seen in studies that e-cigarettes help you to stop smoking. This seems logical as the e-cigarette gives you the same high as the cigarette. This is assuming that you get high because of only the nicotine. Thus, people are able to stop smoking cigarettes as they get a similar kick.
E-cigarette companies have used to get people to use e-cigarettes to kick their smoking habit. Now the problem with this is discussed in the next section.
Is the e-cigarette safe?
Even though the question above seems sound, there are huge flaws in this question. Safe compared to what? And is it safe for a non-smoker to start with e-cigarettes.
The answer to the question to the first question is to compare it to see if it is safer than a cigarette. Well, yes if you look at the short term effects. The e-cigarette is not going to cause you damage in the next 5 years or the next 10 years. But, no long term study has been done. It is entirely possible that the e-cigarette does damage after 40 years or so. If you are looking to quit smoking in a safe way, you can have an online chat with our Doctors to find out the best way to do so.
This is possible because glycerin and propylene glycerol can convert to aldehydes which are known to cause cancers. So, we would say in the long term, these could lead to cancers or some other long term damage.
Let us look at the other point. How safe is it for non-smokers? Well it is completely not good for non-smokers because they were completely safe initially and now are at a risk which is as of now unknown. Another issue is that you might be encouraging a non-smoker to start smoking. A person on a vape pen can easily want to try smoking to see if it’s the same and then want to start smoking.
The bottom line
We understand that the above article is a bit verbose. But here are a few points to summarize this:
- E-cigarettes can help you kick the habit of smoking.
- E-cigarettes can cause non-smokers to start smoking.
- E-cigarettes can have long term side effects which have not been studied.
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