I bought a vape instead of cigarettes

[Someone here]

As I shared plenty of times here..I struggle with smoking addiction..and I'm experiencing health problems due to that like a burning sensation in my chest especially after eating food .I think my lungs are severely damaged. However I continue to smoke despite the consequences .someone suggested to me to buy a vape .so I bought one .

Is vaping less or more harmful than smoking normal cigarettes?  Since it contains less nicotine. Is it a step towards a healthy state?

Edited April 4, 2022 by Someone here

[Asayake]

I've vaped in periods of my life for the past years, with that being said I always used a dry herb vaporizer since I'm more of a weed type of person than nicotine, so it's not exactly the same thing. But I think if you get the safest vape liquid you can find it's a lot less harmful than cigarettes. Possibly even less harmful than a dry herb vaporizer.

But cheap vape liquids made in china and other places where they use cheap ingredients can potentially make it more harmful. So make sure you got your hands on good quality vape liquid if you can. For a period I used to smoke a lot of joints, now that actually seem to have a slight negative effect on my cardio training. With the dry herb vape it doesn't seem to cause the same issues. Although it can still make me cough and cause throat irritation sometimes so I assume even vaping is not completely safe. Make sure to clean your equipment occasionally so that it doesn't collect a lot of gunk over time, that would make the vapor more harsh and unhealthy I think.

Edit: Forgot to say, don't expect the kick to be exactly the same in the beginning. Vaping definitely has a bit of a more heady and functional high and also taking hits from a vape has a different technique than smoking a cigarette. But you'll grow to enjoy it as much as smoking cigarettes over time.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Asayake

[Osaid]

I read a comment, someone said they quit smoking by slowly lowering the nicotine dosage in a vape over time until 0

[mojsterr]

1 hour ago, Osaid said:

I read a comment, someone said they quit smoking by slowly lowering the nicotine dosage in a vape over time until 0

Damn. It was the opposite for me.

I never smoked cigarettes and then at 35 I bought a vape because I LOOOOOOVED the feeling of it when I tried someone else's (I did smoke joints).

I loved that thick vapor coming out of my mouth, I just had to have my own one.

 

Then I started adding nicotine because I wanted that nicotine rush, and soon after that I started smoking cigarettes . Well actually, I smoked tobacco more, because it was cheaper and I had way more tobacco that lasted me longer than cigarettes for the same price. And the high was totally different than cigarettes. Also you can find some pure tobacco that doesn't have all the additives as cigarettes. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would smoke cigaterres. Everything in tobacco is way better. Except that you have to roll it. But that is a ritual in itself and I liked it.

 

This all lasted for about 2 years and then I quit. I didn't want to be a smoker now at this point in my life. And also I am highly addictive person. I'd smoke all the time. When the cigarette was coming to an end, I was already thinking I want another one. I don't know how people do it.

I still miss it though. I just like to inhale and exhale smoke. Too bad it chains you to itself that you constantlu think about it and that it gives you bad breath.

Edited April 5, 2022 by mojsterr

[Michael569]

12 hours ago, Someone here said:

Is vaping less or more harmful than smoking normal cigarettes?  Since it contains less nicotine. Is it a step towards a healthy state

It's probably better but we don't have enough data yet because these things haven't been around for as long so epidemiology hasn't caught yet. 

With vapes it is important to get good quality clean fillers and not some rubbish from china. If you can inhale some natural essential oils that's preferable. 

Also consider how much time you spend per session. The potential issue with vapes is that cigarettes are limited by their size 2-4 mins per smoke where a lot of people will vape up to 45 mins per session simply because there is no physical end. So I would time the vape session to the max time it would usually take you to smoke cigarette and then put a hard stop to it. 

Still, it is a good progress towards stopping altogether, good job @Someone here

Btw the issue with cigarettes isn't nicotine per se. In fact, nicotine as a herb has some therapeutic effects. It is the combustion, the chemicals used to hold the thing together, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, cadmium contamination, tar formation and all the other hydrocarbons that deplete antioxidants and cause oxidative havoc in the respiratory system and also cause microdamage to the systemic vasculature. All the mucous and coughing that smokers experience is just body's attempt to heal the damage this causes. 

It may even be worth trying some sort of nicotine tincture or figuring a way to get just nicotine naturally in small doses without having to burn anything and gradually wean that off if you wanna take a more Gabor Matte sort of approach to it. 

[ndm678]

I don't think we can engage in the 'safer' discussion as of yet. 

Your pattern will definitely change, it's important to be aware of that.

Nicotine from cigs seems to 'hit' harder and quicker. Vapes will deliver the same amount of Nicotine, but you really don't get that initial rush.

When I started transition from cigs to vape I found myself sucking on the vape for long periods of time, and sometimes over doing the Nicotine dose. I could get between 15-18 drags off a cig, so I started keeping my vape sessions to around that.

Good luck in your journey!!!!

 

[Kksd74628]

@Someone here

How hard it is not to smoke for 3 - 7 days and the biggest suffering is gone and you can start enjoying smoke free life. I never understood that people can't just accept couple days ultimate suffering and that's it. I have said it many times, but if you can't stop smoking, you don't appreciate your health enough. If all the time you go to smoke one your family member or friend would die, I guess you would stop to that point. Ask from yourself how you or/and your health is not enough motivation, but your family members are? Everyone who is addicted to someting is not mature enough, if you ask me.

[Kksd74628]

@Someone here

Also the burning sensation in chest can just be heartburn which is caused by acid reflux. Therefore you should clean your diet if possible and avoid things which can trigger it for example smoking and coffee. Think about it like that, anyways at some point when your doctor says to you that you will die in couple of months if you don't stop, you would stop, so why wouldn't do that stopping which happens anyways at some point NOW so what you win is better health with no cost.

[Average Investor]

I have watched a lot of people first hand quit smoking with vaping. Now a fair amount of them just continued to vape though. If I were to personally chose one or the other it would be vaping. 

I doubt there is much regulation still on what would be inside of the contents. Most probably will not say the ingredients. 

My suggestion would be to get a high quality regulated mod. Do not buy anything unregulated. It should have a chip that regulates the power and lets you adjust it. 

You can get rebuildable atomizers (RDAs) that could help reduce some junk. Good quality kanthal with Japanese cotton is good.  If not just a good quality tank with good cotton. If you are adding cotton yourself make sure it is not bleached cotton. Organic cotton or Japanese cotton. 

The liquid should mostly be based with vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol. You do not want added sweeteners in there. A lot of brands load them up with sugars, but you do not want to be vaping that. You do not want to mess with anything that has food coloring. All of the liquids should range from a clear whitish color to about a dark brown. Some variance in the colors, but anything that is boldly colored something like blue, red, green, etc do not vape that. Just eating food coloring alone is linked to cancer. 

You can actually make your own liquid quite easily. There is high quality manufactures that use pretty high quality ingredients. That would help a lot from you getting junk quality stuff. Almost all of the main brands are likely loaded with sugars and food coloring. 

I personally vaped for 5 years. Very hardcore. I regret doing it, but I cannot really say that my lungs are in bade shape. At the end of the 5 years I could actually jog consistent miles and I still vaped. I thought it would be funny to actually vape while jogging, but never tried that. For me it just didn't make sense to do it anymore and I wanted to improve my health, so I dropped it.

Cigarettes also make up over 8,000 chemicals while combusting. There is a lot of ingredients in the cigarettes that are carcinogens. There is also other chemicals you are addicted to in cigarettes. So by switching over you would wane off the other garbage you are addicted to. It will make it that much easier to finally quit all together. 

If you made the liquid you can control the nicotine content. You can go down in 1mg increments and use that to quit, when you are ready. 

Also, part of the addiction is the actual act of smoking, or doing something with similar. So that makes vaping much more effective, than just dosing nicotine. I might be easier to vape without nicotine at the end. I didn't do that and I didn't find vaping appealing without nicotine personally. 

[Kamo]

On 4/4/2022 at 3:43 PM, Someone here said:

As I shared plenty of times here..I struggle with smoking addiction..and I'm experiencing health problems due to that like a burning sensation in my chest especially after eating food .I think my lungs are severely damaged. However I continue to smoke despite the consequences .someone suggested to me to buy a vape .so I bought one .

Is vaping less or more harmful than smoking normal cigarettes?  Since it contains less nicotine. Is it a step towards a healthy state?

Vaping is less harmful and should be used to Transition off cigs. Compared to replace them. But you can replace temporarily. So I would say yes, its a step in the right direction. Just make sure you plan to quit vaping too because there's no reason to just constantly add nicotine to your body. Your literally just paying to have an addiction. 

[The0Self]

On 4/4/2022 at 3:43 PM, Someone here said:

Is vaping less or more harmful than smoking normal cigarettes?  Since it contains less nicotine. Is it a step towards a healthy state?

It is definitely less harmful, and does sound like a step in the right direction!  However, there are a few things you seem to be unaware of:

First of all, vapes do not necessarily contain less nicotine than cigarettes, and in fact can (and often do) contain far more, especially if using mods where you build your own coils and drip the juice — even using 6mg/mL (I’ve seen people use 24mg and I’ve been close to that when I was vaping) with a dripper/mod (a powerful kind of “designer vape”) will provide far more nicotine per hit that that of cigarettes.

But here’s the thing (it’s still to this day just absolutely amazing to me that nearly everyone including many doctors and even some scientists don’t understand this)... Nicotine is only a small part of the chemically addictive profile of cigarettes. Cigarettes contain harmaline alkaloids classified as MAOI’s (monoamine oxidase inhibitor), which become active upon burning the leaf (which is why smokeless tobacco is nowhere near as addictive as cigs). If you go on vapes, quit, then go back to cigs again, and/or vice versa, you will soon become aware of this fact as well — the nicotine ain’t the thing that causes the majority of withdrawals upon cessation.

MAOIs are very effective antidepressants but they’re overpowered so they’re usually second-line, after SSRI/SNRI’s which are less powerful but have more tolerable side-effect profiles.

So when you switch to the vapes, you’ll still be able to get a nicotine buzz, but you will absolutely still experience MAOI wd. Just be aware that the vape isn’t going to quell your WD completely — not because it has less nicotine (it will likely have a lot more unless you get very low concentration juice), but because it doesn’t have any MAOI.

Now, nicotine is certainly addictive in its own right by definition — it induces CPP (conditioned place preference)... I’m not disputing that. But it’s not the primary addictive component of burnt tobacco. The primary source of the WD is MAOI, so it’s like antidepressant WD. Nicotine has its own WD as well, as you’ll find after you’ve switch exclusively to the vapes for several weeks — when you go without the vape, you’ll feel cravings for it but you’ll be able to tell it’s almost nothing like cigarette WD.

So why do they make nicotine gum for getting off cigs then? Exactly my point ? it’s amazing. Although they probably do help somewhat since nicotine does give a buzz, it just won’t help the MAOI withdrawal (the most uncomfortable part of cig WD).

tl/dr: vape has more nicotine yet is less addictive than cigs bc it lacks MAOI, which is the primary dependence-causing component of (burnt) tobacco... so it won’t really replace cigs you’ll just be quitting cigs and then taking nicotine. The mood-lifting effects of cigs are almost entirely MAOI-related (MAOI literally forces higher concentrations of dopamine and serotonin in the synaptic cleft, which nicotine doesn’t do).

Edited April 11, 2022 by The0Self

[BipolarGrowth]

Vaping is quite likely significantly healthier than smoking. Nicotine is not a carcinogen, and in many ways can be compared to caffeine as a relatively low impact stimulant. The problem with nicotine consumption is that the methods used to get it into the body are often inherently harmful. Smoking is the most obvious case. The act of burning and inhaling anything is a carcinogenic process. 
 

I smoked for about three months when I was younger and quickly felt a huge impact on my lungs. I switched to vaping at that time and the issue went away. Some vape products seem to impact my lungs. It’s mostly the disposable vapes that I’ve experienced this with. I would highly recommend vaping over smoking. 
 

I would suggest buying juice and a reusable vape if you want the healthiest vaping option. Make sure to change the coils frequently as the cotton in the coils can become burnt if used longer than they are designed for. 

Edited April 28, 2022 by BipolarGrowth

[Carl-Richard]

On 11.4.2022 at 5:23 PM, The0Self said:

The mood-lifting effects of cigs are almost entirely MAOI-related (MAOI literally forces higher concentrations of dopamine and serotonin in the synaptic cleft, which nicotine doesn’t do).

Budget pharmahuasca: chomp some oral DMT and chain smoke tobacco 

[The0Self]

16 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

Budget pharmahuasca: chomp some oral DMT and chain smoke tobacco 

In all seriousness though, for onlookers, I'm fairly certain it would not actually work (though it may potentiate psychedelics once they're already absorbed into the blood via whatever standard effective means). Concurrent oral administration of both the tryptamine and the MAOI is probably necessary (probably even better if the MAOI is consumed ahead of the tryptamine), as I'm fairly certain the MAO enzymes that degrade the DMT actually do so in the stomach... And I don't think it would work if you ate the tobacco either, as the MAO-A/B inhibitors in tobacco are active when smoked but not when used buccally or sublingually -- leads me to think they might not be orally active either. Just use Syrian Rue or something lol.

And just as an aside: In general, it's probably best to avoid potentiating psychedelic cacti with MAOI, as they contain significant tyramine -- as do many foods, and especially cheese which which can contain over 2mg tyramine per gram (and has actually been associated with documented fatalities in combination with prescription MAOI's). As little as 6mg tyramine can cause serious hypertension in the presence of MAOI, and some psychedelic cacti can contain up to 1mg/g -- so it would therefore be prudent to at least never consume anywhere near 6g of cacti with MAOI... However, psychedelic cacti contain other tyramines (not tryptamines; cacti are phenethylamine psychedelics) including dimethylTYRamine (not dimethylTRYptamine), which are not included in that "up to 1mg/g" figure... And those additional tyramines might interact with MAOI as well... So I'd just avoid that combo outright 

Edited April 29, 2022 by The0Self

[Husseinisdoingfine]

What brand of cigarettes were you smoking btw? fellow cigarette enjoyer here. I haven't smoked a pack in months, but my last pack was marlboro menthol golds.

 

[Someone here]

@Husseinisdoingfine stop it completely. It's gonna damage your lungs and give you more than 25 diseases including cancer .

[Carl-Richard]

6 hours ago, The0Self said:

In all seriousness though, for onlookers, I'm fairly certain it would not actually work (though it may potentiate psychedelics once they're already absorbed into the blood via whatever standard effective means). Concurrent oral administration of both the tryptamine and the MAOI is probably necessary (probably even better if the MAOI is consumed ahead of the tryptamine), as I'm fairly certain the MAO enzymes that degrade the DMT actually do so in the stomach...

Yeah I thought about that.

[StarStruck]

Use vape without nicotine 

[Leo Gura]

Commercial vape e-liquid is very bad for your lungs, maybe even worse than smoking.

It's not the nicotine you should be worried about, it's the vaporized e-liquid junk.

[Yarco]

Good, better, best. Do what you feel capable of. It's better to do something to mitigate the risk than nothing at all.

You know yourself better than anybody. If realistically you're not going to cut out nicotine completely, then vaping is still 10x better than smoking.

Don't cheap out, try to buy from reputable brands.  Try to find something with a 100% organic oil base. No VQ, MCT oil, PG, or alcohol and you'll greatly reduce your risk of developing popcorn lung or other complications.