On 2014 May 21, David Keller commented:

Your wish may have come true!

The latest study concludes "Among smokers who have attempted to stop without professional support, those who use e-cigarettes are more likely to report continued abstinence than those who used a licensed NRT product bought over-the-counter or no aid to cessation. This difference persists after adjusting for a range of smoker characteristics such as nicotine dependence."(1)

Would you please write an editorial entitled "If only there were a cure for Parkinson's disease"? I would personally appreciate that, and although it seems unscientific, your editorials seem to get results in a remarkably quick fashion ;-)

Reference

1: Brown J, et al. Real-world effectiveness of e-cigarettes when used to aid smoking cessation: a cross-sectional population study. Addiction. Pre-publication online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.12623/abstract

On 2014 May 09, David Keller commented:

Let the bad be the enemy of the truly horrendous

It has been estimated that “up to 98% of tobacco-related deaths are attributable to combustible products"(1). E-cigarettes deliver nicotine to the lungs as a cooler vapor, without tobacco combustion, or its byproducts such as carbon monoxide, carcinogenic tars and hot smoke. While nicotine is an addictive drug known to increase the risk of heart attacks, the argument for making e-cigarettes available to smokers is that e-cigarettes are predicted to cause fewer lung cancers, due to the absence of hot tobacco combustion products in their vapors. In addition, e-cigarette users are not inhaling the carbon monoxide found in cigarette smoke, which contributes to coronary ischemia among other ill effects. Even if the use of e-cigarettes does not cut down the number of cigarettes smoked, at least we know that when a chain-smoker is inhaling from an e-cigarette at a given moment, he is not also smoking a regular cigarette at that same time. Smoking causes lung cancer and heart attacks, while e-cigarettes cause "only" the latter. Using e-cigarettes is a bad choice, but this is a case of letting the bad be the enemy of the truly horrendous. I advise my patients neither to smoke nor to e-smoke, but if I had to pick which vice is more harmful, I would say the former. For nicotine addicts who prefer the inhaled route of delivery, the FDA has approved the use of Nicotrol, a nicotine inhaler which does not have the flavorings and other questionable ingredients included in e-cigarettes, and which is probably the least bad choice.

Reference

1: Fiore MC, Schroeder SA, Baker TB. Smoke, the chief killer--strategies for targeting combustible tobacco use. N Engl J Med. 2014 Jan 23;370(4):297-9. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1314942 PubMed PMID: 24450888

On 2014 May 09, David Keller commented:

Let the bad be the enemy of the truly horrendous

It has been estimated that “up to 98% of tobacco-related deaths are attributable to combustible products"(1). E-cigarettes deliver nicotine to the lungs as a cooler vapor, without tobacco combustion, or its byproducts such as carbon monoxide, carcinogenic tars and hot smoke. While nicotine is an addictive drug known to increase the risk of heart attacks, the argument for making e-cigarettes available to smokers is that e-cigarettes are predicted to cause fewer lung cancers, due to the absence of hot tobacco combustion products in their vapors. In addition, e-cigarette users are not inhaling the carbon monoxide found in cigarette smoke, which contributes to coronary ischemia among other ill effects. Even if the use of e-cigarettes does not cut down the number of cigarettes smoked, at least we know that when a chain-smoker is inhaling from an e-cigarette at a given moment, he is not also smoking a regular cigarette at that same time. Smoking causes lung cancer and heart attacks, while e-cigarettes cause "only" the latter. Using e-cigarettes is a bad choice, but this is a case of letting the bad be the enemy of the truly horrendous. I advise my patients neither to smoke nor to e-smoke, but if I had to pick which vice is more harmful, I would say the former. For nicotine addicts who prefer the inhaled route of delivery, the FDA has approved the use of Nicotrol, a nicotine inhaler which does not have the flavorings and other questionable ingredients included in e-cigarettes, and which is probably the least bad choice.

Reference

1: Fiore MC, Schroeder SA, Baker TB. Smoke, the chief killer--strategies for targeting combustible tobacco use. N Engl J Med. 2014 Jan 23;370(4):297-9. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1314942 PubMed PMID: 24450888

On 2014 May 21, David Keller commented:

Your wish may have come true!

The latest study concludes "Among smokers who have attempted to stop without professional support, those who use e-cigarettes are more likely to report continued abstinence than those who used a licensed NRT product bought over-the-counter or no aid to cessation. This difference persists after adjusting for a range of smoker characteristics such as nicotine dependence."(1)

Would you please write an editorial entitled "If only there were a cure for Parkinson's disease"? I would personally appreciate that, and although it seems unscientific, your editorials seem to get results in a remarkably quick fashion ;-)

Reference

1: Brown J, et al. Real-world effectiveness of e-cigarettes when used to aid smoking cessation: a cross-sectional population study. Addiction. Pre-publication online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.12623/abstract