Before we go any further, let us start off by saying that electronic cigarettes have NOT been approved as smoking cessation aids by the FDA. It’s debatable if one can be considered to have stopped smoking when he is vaping E-Cigs. While some people argue that vaping is not smoking because you don’t ‘consume’ any tobacco, others argue otherwise.
Electronic cigarettes have not been approved as a ‘quit smoking device/drug’ or as a ‘Nicotine Replacement Therapy/NRT’ by the FDA in the USA. However, users of electric cigarettes and independent parties argue that it can help you quit smoking and even scientific articles have been published describing cases of smoking cessation thanks to vapor cigarettes (Successful smoking cessation with electronic cigarettes in smokers with a documented history of recurring relapses: a case series).
For someone that is relatively new to the topic ‘how to quit smoking’, the whole idea about using electronic cigarettes to quit smoking may sound silly. But there is a scientific basis to that. For people that have smoked for years and have got addicted to nicotine, quitting smoking is probably the most difficult thing to do in life. This is because their brains have got addicted to the nicotine’s heavenly effects and depriving the brain of nicotine would give rise to many adverse reactions from the body.
How to quit smoking with Nicotine Replacement Therapies
Rarely there are people who decide that they’re going to stop smoking tomorrow and successfully do it. But more often than not, those ‘smoking cessations’ will be failures. This is because of the brain’s addiction to nicotine as described earlier. So the best way (also the scientifically recommended way) to stop smoking is to gradually reduce the amount of nicotine your body gets over time instead of abruptly calling it a day.
This is known as Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT). The most popular NRTs are listed below.
- Nicotine patches
- Nicotine gums
- Nicotine lozenges
Are electronic cigarettes better than the traditional NRTs for quitting smoking?
Nicotine addiction is the ‘official’ chemical addiction among smokers. But most people are also addicted to all the social aspects and habits that come with smoking. People are used to and enjoy inhaling, exhaling, holding the cigarette between the fingers, having a chat with buddies over a cigarette etc. etc. Switching to nicotine patches, gums or lozenges are going to take all these habits and social aspects of smoking away. This is considered one of the main reasons for failures associated with NRTs for stopping smoking.
This is why some people are of the opinion that electronic cigarettes do a better job as a ‘stop smoking aid’. Not only do they provide nicotine at a controlled rate without the harmful effects of tobacco, but they don’t take away the habits and social life that they have got used to over the years. This is why some individuals consider electronic cigarettes more successful in helping people quit smoking compared to the popular NRTs mentioned earlier.
Electronic Cigarettes Help Quit Smoking? Is it FDA approved?
What matters is not what people say, what matters is what the FDA says – not everyone may agree with that statement, but the FDA is the authorized body in these kinds of matters. The FDA has NOT approved e-cigarettes as quit smoking/smoking cessation aids. Therefore, E-cigs are not yet approved or marketed as Nicotine Replacement Therapies or as a method to help quit smoking. However, if you look around the internet, you will find more than a few success stories!
