Originally posted by Merinda
Albeigt e cigs dont mess up your lungs as bad as smoke, it is still nicotine, it is still bad for you. Less bad, yes.
Is it still really that bad for you? Is it worse than caffeine?
Nicotine has been the headline drug for the demon that is tobacco, so much so that there are a lot of us that accept the 'fact' that nicotine is the
highly addictive cancer-causing agent that makes the rest of tobacco so bad.
But it isn't. Low-dose nicotine, by itself, does not have the dangers and addictive properties of the entire package of tobacco, with the combination
of whole tobacco alkoloids, monoamineoxide inhibitors , and a myraid of chemicals, in combination with the particulates of burning leafy matter that
make the addiction and the dangers.
Nicotine by itself is not a carcinogen (but it is listed as known to the state of CA to cause birth defects in rats if given mega-doses of it). It can
be a pulmonary restrictor and can affect pulmonary health, but once again in higher dosages.
There is some beneficial effects of nicotine - from helping cope with intestinal inflammation to even helping prevent the onset of Alzhiemers (of
course combined with tobacco its kinda a moot point if you don't make it to old age). It's not solely the nicotine that causes the danger, in fact
its more of the 'package' of tobacco that makes it addictive and dangerous. Remove that...and it can be argued its no more dangerous or addictive
than coffee or a good soda. And without the sugar, maybe not even as much. It is, paradoxically, a stimulant that also calms the nerves, making
complex stressful tasks easier for some people. That is probably the root of where tobacco usage began, when this property of nicotine was recognized
eons ago.
I posted some about this in my two posts about e-cigs a few months ago.
Benefits of Nicotine
My personal testimony - I have been on blood-pressure meds for almost 10 years, and on cholesterol meds for almost that long. A 1 1/2-pack a day
smoker for almost 30 years. I tried the e-cig in mid-April (with no intention of quitting) and haven't looked back since. Within one day I threw away
my remaining packs of Marboro Reds (the full-strength cowboy killers), and not one since. And don't want it.
The first of July I went in for my physical and bloodwork.
ONE - my resting pulserate has went down, noted for two visits in a row since I switched... and I was removed from half of my blood pressure
medication, and instructed that if my pressure and heart rate stay acceptable, I can drop the rest of it on my next visit.
TWO - this is the FIRST time in 10 years that my cholesterol (good and bad) are all within their acceptable ranges.
THREE - with the e-cig, I did NOT gain weight.
And I have yet to get the praise from my dentist, as there will probably be more to add to the measurable effects.
Those are three measurable effects of the e-cig vs. the tobacco cig. The rest I can add to it, as I now walk faster, and exert myself more, without
breathlessness. And no more stinky.
If the e-cig is less dangerous than the tobacco cig, it is not "a little less', it is a helluva lot less - more a degree of the tobacco being 100%,
and the e-cig being less than 1%.
Big Tobacco wants to control it - and that means kill it's market by banning e-liquids and making it where you cna only buy it in the 'cig-a-like'
types that just don't do it for a lot of heavy smokers. So people will try them and return to the more profitable tobacco.
Big Pharma wants to kill it - the e-cigs work TOO WELL in getting people off tobacco, and kill their market of nicotine-replacement therapies, and the
market for the Chantix suicide pills. If Big Pharma cannot have all the profits of cancer, they at least want a piece of the market for the few that
can succeed in leaving the tobacco. A product that does this successfully, and keeps it as a recreational activity rather than an out-patient
treatment, just cannot be ALLOWED.
For those on the fence, still smoking, but thinking about e-cigs, do NOT be mislead by some of the MSM information parroting the FDA and Big Pharma.
There is a huge amount of disinformation being piled on, and some MSM are buying it. I believe the e-cig is finally exposing the true motivations
behind a lot of the anti-smoking zealots and their backers. The governments are not interested in saving lives, but only in taxation. Otherwise, they
would not only be removing all barriers to e-cigs, but would be subsidizing them as a way to save millions of lives. Of course THAT won't happen.