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Dave Dorsey
Dave Dorsey has been involved in direct sales & marketing/ creation of digital art for more than 31 years in Wichita, Kansas. In addition to his Digital Art publishing company 'Aurora Graphics’ www.auroragraphics.net , Dave is also President and Owner of EVOvapor, a full-line custom electronic cigarette brand. You may contact Dave by phone at (316) 838-2000 or by e-mail at dave@evovapor.com, or you may visit at www.evovapor.com.
Health & Wellness
2011-09-26 11:50:21
Electronic cigarettes - series
Q: I have read recently about electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes, although there was not much information available. My wife and I have smoked for more than 40-years. We have tried everything to quit. We of course know it is not good for us. Can you enlighten us on a few more things? Does it matter which one I get? How will these e-cigs be different than the patch or nicotine gum which didn’t work? Can I afford them? Won’t I just be trading one addiction for another? My wife has smoked for years and has no desire to quit. Will these e-cigarettes work for people like her?
A: These are good questions, just like last month. Let me try and get you as much information as I can in what space I have. Like most everything, electronic cigarettes are not created equal. Battery activation, battery power ratings and taste all are vastly different. Just like there are hundreds of brands of cigarettes to choose from, so is the same with electronic cigarettes. In regards to the why these will work when the patch or nicotine gum did not, let me try to explain the differences based on my own experience with all these products. While most articles in this publication do not use pronouns or personal experiences, someone’s personal experience on smoking might be most enlightening in this situation. Wanting more than anything to quit, I have done quite a bit of research too, to tell myself why I have been so addicted to smoking. I will use both in answering your question. I can’t tell you how many times I have quit tobacco cigarettes. Each time I was presented with a new reason to start back up again. Stress was typically one of the major reasons I relapsed back into smoking tobacco cigarettes. But let’s face it, everyone faces stress in their lives. So without success going “cold turkey,” I tried the patch. I didn’t fare well. The hand-to-mouth part of the habit was missing. Using the patch results in a medium level of nicotine in your system all the time. It was not like smoking. I didn’t like it and quit. I started with the nicotine gum. It was expensive. It also reminded me of chewing on a cigarette butt. It didn’t take long and I gave up on that too. But, when I tried my first electronic cigarette, I was able to quit what some call “analog” tobacco cigarettes the very next day. I think why this happens is important in answering your question. I found the following information on line. Nearly all smokers wonder if they will be satisfied with an e-cigarette. Here is why they will, only without the 4,000+ carcinogens, tar and carbon monoxide. When a smoker starts to get the urge to smoke, there are reasons why this is happening. One major reason is stress. Another is habit. Just about every habit has a trigger, like driving, or talking on the phone, or after a meal. Many people feel like they have to smoke at these times because it’s what they have always done in the past. It’s an ingrained habit. These same triggers have a root cause which is beyond the habit. That is because nicotine is addictive. Nicotine to a smoker is calming. By the same token, a lack of nicotine causes the smoker to want to replenish the blood saturation level of nicotine to a level high enough the smoker again feels relaxed and satisfied. Because the liver is always removing nicotine from your blood no matter how you go about it, a person’s nicotine blood saturation level is constantly reducing. The act of smoking a tobacco cigarette allows the smoker to get a direct dose of nicotine straight to the blood system and brain by inhaling smoke containing nicotine. The nicotine is what the smoker’s body craves, not the 4,000+ carcinogens, tar and carbon monoxide. It’s the nicotine. Nicotine blood level saturation absolutely spikes when a smoker inhales tobacco smoke. The spike is nearly immediate and the blood level of nicotine surges. This spike and surge is what a smoker is used to and it satisfies the smoker. A smoker’s body is trained to get nicotine this way to achieve satisfaction. The reason the patch, gum or any other nicotine replacement products fall short of a good nicotine replacement product is five fold. 1. Gum and patches both do not offer the immediate spike in nicotine a smoker is used to. Rather, it’s a gradual increase of nicotine that doesn’t rise as high or as quickly as smoking does. Once the level of nicotine in a patch or gum reaches its peak, it begins to fade as the nicotine is consumed. Once the blood level of nicotine drops below one’s individual comfort zone, the urge to smoke (ingest more nicotine) comes back. 2. Patch and gum offer no “throat hit” and no smoke. This is big with smokers. They miss the tobacco flavor. They miss the blowing out of smoke and the hand to mouth routine of actual smoking. The patch and gum don’t offer these things. 3. Patch and gum offer no spike in nicotine. The e-cigarette allows the user to injest nicotine in the exact same way an analog cigarette delivers it. E-cigarettes supply the throat hit and also the nicotine spike. 4. The patch and gum offer no tobacco flavor. The patch and the gum do not satisfy the taste portion of smoking tobacco cigarettes. This is an equally important aspect of the smoking addiction. In fact, the overwhelming majority of smokers who stop and start e-cigarettes say that after the switch, it’s very difficult to go back to tobacco because it tastes and smells so bad. E-cigarettes can have an excellent tobacco or menthol flavor that is rich and satisfying. There are other flavors available too such as pineapple, strawberry, pina colada, coffee, vanilla and more. 5. The patch and gum offer no hand to mouth action to replicate the real tobacco habit. With e-cigarettes the hand to mouth habit is satisfied and the user can blow out “smoke” which is really nicotine water vapor. It has no smell. So all of the key points of smoking are re-created with an e-cigarette, only it accomplishes this feat without the 4,000 plus carcinogens, tar and carbon monoxide associated with all tobacco cigarettes. In regards to the cost, electronic cigarettes are much less expensive than “analog” or traditional cigarettes. This is a true statement, but considering how hard it has been for me to quit smoking in the past, I personally wasn’t looking for an alternative to analogs because of saving money. I would have gladly paid twice the price of what they were costing me just to able to quit. The patch and the gum are more expensive than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes. Insofar as trading addictions, some of the better e-cigarettes come in different cartomizer nicotine strengths…all the way from what is called “full flavor” to “zero” nicotine. So when you do want to wean yourself off any kind of nicotine, habit, you can do so at your own pace. Lastly, do a search on the Internet for e-cigarettes versus the patch and gum. Nothing has been more effective in getting people off cigarettes.
 
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