For a decade now, since the invention and rise in popularity of the electronic cigarette, medical authorities, doctors, scientists and the average user asked themselves the same question over and over again: are e-cigs valid scientifically proven alternative methods for quitting smoking? Although we do have the nicotine gums and patches, focus groups studies and anecdotic reference tells us that smoking is not only nicotine addiction but a complex behavior which can’t be mimicked only by the traditional approved treatments, and this is why electronic cigarettes users invoke vaping as the closest thing to smoking, nicotine and poisonous substances free. If you check out of curiosity here www.bluaccessories.com, one can find a real community building around the perceived benefits of e-cigarette usage.
What do researchers say about e-cigarettes?
Well, they say that nicotine addiction is a hard one to break. A study published in 2012 in The American Journal of Psychiatry found not only that there are nicotine addiction genes that sustain addiction, but also that these genes are responsible for quitting easier or harder, based on individual differences. Everybody also talks about gesture addiction and the pleasure of the “throwing hit” that smokers face, all leading to intensifying long-term research on electronic cigarettes as replacement methods.
Is there any hope?
An article from the Scientific American published May this year confirms that some of the smokers’ hopes, dreams and expectations might be met once two extended research studies will finally end and show their results. Ricardo Polosa, from the University of Catania, Italy, conducted a 300 trial subjects study in order to correlate nicotine addiction to tobacco smoking and electronic cigarette smoking. The preliminary findings are said to be consistent with some older one, released in 2011, that concluded that “The use of e-Cigarette substantially decreased cigarette consumption without causing significant side effects in smokers not intending to quit.”(BMC Public Health 2011)
Another study that is prone to shake up things a bit in the world of scientific research on smoking cessation is undergoing in New Zeeland, with a focus group of 657 tobacco smokers. The goal is to compare e-cigs and nicotine patches and see what comes first in terms of efficiency. It’s not much time left until September, when the randomized controlled trial will report the findings.
What does the future hold?
The bright fate of electronic cigarettes as medical devices and therapeutic alternatives is still in the shades. With research going almost everywhere in the world, there are still involved parties and even governments that don’t consider it not even a safe device to use in public, let alone a quit-smoking approved alternative. While in some countries the e-cig is under strict policies and banning regulations, others are open minded enough to see the matters from multiple points of view. This is Britain’s case, which will meet the people from CN Creative, a company that fights for getting official approval for a product they consider a valid prescription nicotine replacement device. If it passes the approval committee, next trip will be taken directly to the FDA.
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