Has anybody stopped smoking and turned over to vaping

[Angelsstar]

Hi 👋 everyone hope your all good today. A question has anybody stopped smoking and then went onto ecigs. How do you find them ?

Have they affected your chest anymore ?

Breathe easy take care all

[Mic67]

Yes I have to admit to vaping like a trooper. I gave up cigs around 18mths ago and have mild emphysema.

I am due my first spirometry since stopping in a couple of weeks so I will let you know.

[Whitechinchilla in reply to Mic67]

Do please post the outcome. That will be most interesting.

[hypercat54]

I didn't and used patches and the white inhalator. Why not put your question in the quit site as well? x

healthunlocked.com/quitsupport

[Hidden]

Yes. I don’t have a lung condition (my daughter does), but I can tell you that the difference in my chest between smoking and vaping was indescribable. I would go to the gym and be hacking up a lung for the rest of the day and into the next as a smoker, but within 7 months of switching exclusively to a vape (a decent one, though, with variable wattage to give me control of the ‘hit’ and increase my chances of staying stopped) the gremlins and horrendous gunk of stopping passed and I could actually breathe. I can go to the gym and not come out feeling like I need oxygen (no exaggeration, as a very heavy smoker that’s how it felt towards the end), I can charge up the massive hill we live on. Prior to vaping I was massively anti-vape (substituting addictions blah blah blah), but the longest I’d ever stopped for was 7 months and I’d tried *everything* - patches, lozenges, sprays, champix, gum, inhalators, the lot. I reached a point where I had nothing to lose by trying it and it’s now been almost 4 years since my last smoke, and whilst I do still vape, I’ve not been vaping nicotine for 9 months and can go most of the day without using it at all. My plan is to try and bin it completely when my juice runs out in the next few weeks as it’s literally just the habit left and that’s weakened massively since I went nicotine free. If you’re considering vaping as an alternative, my advice would be this:

Read up on vaping a bit so you understand the basic principles. Lots of people say that it’s rubbish and didn’t work or made them feel ill, but often they’re using the wrong kind of device for them and/or the wrong strength of nicotine - as with NRT, it’s horses for courses, you wouldn’t give a heavy smoker an inhalator and expect that to work when what they actually need is mega strong patches AND the inhalator, just as a light smoker would feel sick and horrible on a really strong lozenge. In the early days (if not longer), stick to whatever flavour of cigarette you smoked e.g. only use tobacco or menthol flavoured liquids, don’t get sucked into all the flavours because this is supposed to be a replacement for the cigs, not something you want to take up as a new hobby, and the flavour is important in using it as a quit aid. Even now, I still use menthol, albeit with a hint of raspberry, because I tended to smoke menthol cigarettes: it’s all part of the psychology in my experience. Take your time to wean down - if you cut the nicotine too quickly, the urges will hit you with a vengeance. Three years is probably a bit excessive, but I’m fortunate in that my stupidity didn’t cause me any long term health issues and I would rather vape for longer and stay off the cigs than rush and ever spark up again. Don’t be tempted to buy a cheap pen style device as many do; there are tonnes of vape shops around now, we even have two in our sleepy town in West Wales, and they’re often great places to go in and have a chat before making the decision: my nearest one was invaluable in helping me get my setup right so that I didn’t just go back to the smokes. Mixing your own e-juice at home also massively reduces the cost of vaping (vaping is still much cheaper than smoking even if you buy off the shelf, though) and is incredibly easy to do.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck and you CAN do it.

[Angelsstar in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for your help

[Dragonmum in reply to Hidden]

Great post Charlie G.

[Shaurene]

I am 77 down with bronchitis (Cronic) 2-3 times a year over the 2016/17/18 coughed my heart up. Medium Emphasima, COPD Smoking since I was 12. Went on CHANPIX MADE A DATE TO STOP 16 September 2018 it was 10 days after I started the pills. Never smoked since that date, hardly caugh any more and breath great.

[Whitechinchilla]

You were blessed Angelsstar. Champix made me want to climb the walls and kill everyone within eyesight! I’m sensitive to the patches so ended up with an e cig which I have to admit works for me and I am down to a very low dose of nicotine. Horses for courses I guess. Keep it up.

[Schmicter]

I quit almost 2 years ago. E cigs actually made me cough more than cigs, I used lozenges. Probably best to quit and not breathe other chemicals in your lungs. I know some say sucking in propylene glycol and glycerine into your lungs is innocuous...I doubt it long term.

[Hidden]

Not disagreeing in the slightest, you are absolutely right, but it’s the lesser of the two evils. My spirometry when I was at the end of my smoking was an fev1 in the 70s, I was productive daily, I got chest infections - I was lucky, it was smoking related but reversible and I count my blessings for that every day. But I tried from the day we found out my daughter was likely going to be born with cf for 7 years to stop using traditional nrt and couldn’t, so even if vaping still isn’t ideal, it’s better than the alternative. Not reducing my life expectancy at all would be the ideal, but I’d rather knock 5 years off than 10. I’ve read the research, I follow the latest news, and whilst it may not be entirely risk free, I’ll take 95% safer any day.

[Dragonmum]

I smoked my last cigarette on 28/1/2010 when I got my first (very primitive) e-cig. Forget what it saves you in cash - a fortune; the huge benefit for me has been the improvement in my COPD and asthma. I am now down to 1 inhaler twice daily and ventolin which is hardly ever needed. I tried everything including hypnosis, big fail. I was a pack-a-day smoker for 60+ years so if it worked for me..............!

[Angelsstar in reply to Dragonmum]

Brilliant thanks for all the info good luck 😉 x

[beech]

I gave up smoking after many years of enthusiastic smoking overnight, when I had flu. I used a vape for a period of time after that because I still wanted to “do” smoking, and it felt similar.

But unfortunately the chemicals irritated my airways more than smoking ever did, and make me cough and tight chested. So it had to go too. Patches were what got me stopped of all active smoking urges (not to say I don’t wish I could on occasion - once an addict, always an addict...!)

I can see how it is an appealing alternative to cigarettes, but I suspect that there is more information about the negative effects to come out over time.

Some people may not have any bad experiences, and I’m in the minority. But it still comes down to inhaling chemicals into your airways, and that can’t really be a good thing!