Better still, don't smoke either.
Smoking is awesome. If only we could find a way to do it without the health problems.
(FWIW it took till age 32 to permanently shake the rotten habit.)
There's some weird to-and-fro stuff happening that they haven't worked out yet.
EG: People with schizophrenia smoke a lot. And the hydrocarbons in cigarette smoke interact with anti-psychotic medication, which means people need to take more.
Mouth and lung cancers and cardiovascular disease get all the headlines due to their mortality rates and hideous pictures.
But there's a whole spectrum of harm that exists well before you get to those extremes, and the evidence is easily found if you care to search for it.
See this 1993 study "Influence of cigarette smoking on human autonomic function" [1]
In habitual smokers, smoking acutely reduces baseline levels of vagal-cardiac nerve activity and completely resets vagally mediated arterial baroreceptor-cardiac reflex responses. Smoking also reduces muscle sympathetic nerve activity but augments increases of sympathetic activity triggered by brief arterial pressure reductions. This pattern of autonomic changes is likely to influence smokers' responses to acute arterial pressure reductions importantly.
Also, "Endocrine Effects of Tobacco Smoking" [2]
Over many years a large number of studies have demonstrated that exposure to cigarette smoke produces marked neuroendocrine changes. The effects of nicotine on the hypothalamicpituitary axis (HPA) were first studied by Balfour (1989), who showed that nicotine was a potent activator of the HPA. The basic mechanism of action of nicotine on these systems appears to be contingent on its ability to mimic the effects of acetylcholine at selected central nicotinic acetylcholinergic receptors (Rosecransland & Karin, 1998). There are at least three types of nicotine binding sites in the hypothalamus (Fuxe et al., 1989). Nicotine stimulates neuronal firing directly by acting at the binding sites or indirectly by causing the release of acetylcholine or monoaminergic neurotransmitters (such as dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin) (Pickworth & Fant, 1998). Nicotine can thus affect HPA function through a variety of paths (Rosecransland & Karin, 1998).
FYI it's often been observed that dysfunction of the HPA axis is a factor in depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, hypothyroidism and other debilitating illnesses. Eg...
One of the most enduring and replicated findings in biological psychiatry is activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in a subset of patients with major depressive disorder. This review will discuss some of these findings and their pertinence to the assessment and treatment of depressed patients. [3]
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/8339419/
That's a hell of a confounder to be observing any effect beneath whatsoever.
To illustrate:
"Cocaine-coated axes are shown to cause increased adrenaline response when administered to the subject's ribcage at a high rate of speed. This makes sense, because we postulate cocaine to be a stimulant. [uncoated axes not tested]"
Not really, but I get what you're saying.
I can accept that e-cigs are likely vastly less harmful than smoked tobacco cigarettes.
It will take a lot of time and rigorous research to establish what the difference really is, but I would expect it to be profound.
But my point stands that there is likely not any way to get all the "benefits" of smoking without any of the harms.
If it were just about nicotine, I'd expect to see everyone stop smoking and switch to nicotine patches or gum. Clearly that hasn't happened. So it's not just about finding a safer way to deliver nicotine.
Of the thousands of chemicals inhaled in cigarettes, I know of at least one - cadmium, which is both a known adrenal stimulant ("benefit") and a known carcinogen ("harm").
And sure enough, cadmium is right there among the components of e-cig vapors, though not in dangerous amounts, according to the lobbyists. [1]
We'll see.
[1] http://www.ecigarette-research.org/research/index.php/resear...
I smoked as a teenager because for some time I was stupid in order to fit with stupid friends.
I always found that a brainless bad habit, but it was interesting experience in the sense that I learned that to body could adapt to anything and even get to need it.
At first it is the worst thing in the world, it makes you cough but you force yourself into it(showing you "are a man" or whatever stupid reason) and you get to tolerate it, then you need it.
You probably could get used to eat shit or suck from a car exhaust pipe too. You can get used even to eat poison, like Rasputin.
It's called acquired taste and not all of them are bad.
One good thing is the ritual. I never thought of it as "brainless" before but that's a great way of putting it. Smoking is relaxing because you turn off your brain and go through the prescribed motions. When you finish the last motion you go back to life. It's not really relaxing in the chemically induced way (in fact smoking increases anxiety), it's more like meditation. You're allowing yourself to take a break from life for a few minutes. In fact, you're really being /given permission/ to take a break by the external mandate of addiction cravings. You can use this time to reflect, strike up a conversation, examine your surroundings, whatever you want.
Another good thing is bonding with smokers. It's a shared activity. The act of smoking serves as either punctuation for a conversation, or the background noise that substitutes conversation. A cigarette can be a prop used for emphasis. Bumming a cigarette is a sort of friendly offering. Most importantly, misery loves company. All smokers know they're addicted. When you smoke with someone else, you're acknowledging each other's weakness and demonstrating acceptance. That's one of the main reasons being a smoker is like being in a big, secret club. It's very romantic.
I haven't smoked in a very long time, and I realize now that it was a really stupid and damaging habit, but I do miss parts of it. I've promised myself that I can take up pipe-smoking as a reward for surviving into elderly age.
I think something about smoking cigarettes is intimately linked to control of time, particularly in regimented industrial environments / crap jobs where you have to clock out to take a shit. When I smoked at work, it was like I was free for the duration of each cigarette.
I know pipes and cigars have lower risks of most health issues (mainly due to much lower frequency of use for many people, and because most people don't actually inhale), but I would be elated if that risk could be eliminated entirely. The experience is extremely useful for my mental health.
Btw even if you don't inhale I understand that nicotine gets in your system anyway. Probably in smaller quantities, which is offset by the high amount of nicotine in cigar/pipe tobacco.
Whilst nicotine is undoubtedly addictive, there are other things in tobacco / cigarettes that seem far more addictive. There's also the additional crap added, like chemicals to ensure the cigarette doesn't go out like hand rolled and cigars do, etc.
The part I missed most whilst quitting, with the aid of vaping (nicotine replacement gums, patches and inhalers were a waste of time and money for me) was something present in tobacco, but not in ecigs. Vaping never quite replaced that, or felt as nice. The occasional cig I had when out drinking with friends made it quite tempting to relapse - though I didn't.
The nicotine withdrawal when I quit vaping was so minor compared to the withdrawal from stopping tobacco that I actually wonder if the various quitting aids are replacing the wrong chemical(s).
I am, of course, just an anecdotal data point of one.
The short version is cigarette smoke is inhaled pipe and cigar more or less just in the mouth. The nicotine in the smoke in the lungs is rapidly absorbed into the blood which goes to the brain in seconds.
And smoking cigars is still pretty harmful, with heavily increased risk of some cancers of the mouth and throat.