# Ex-smokers who take up vaping are more prone to relapse



## Hooked (19/6/20)

https://www.health24.com/medical/st...-up-vaping-are-more-prone-to-relapse-20200615
16 June 2020

"Far from helping them avoid cigarettes, longtime ex-smokers who try vaping are taking a big risk that they'll relapse, a new study finds.

People who've spent a year off smokes are nearly four times more likely to start lighting up again if they experiment with vaping, compared with those who don't, according to findings published on 5 June in *JAMA Network Open*.

"Even sampling nicotine can prime the brain for wanting more," said lead researcher Dr Wilson Compton, deputy director of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland. "Once you're off of nicotine completely, the safest approach is to stay off of it 100%."

But another study using the same source of data found that flavoured e-cigarettes might actually make it easier for adult smokers to kick the habit.

*Vaping a mixed bag*

Adult smokers using e-cigs with candy or fruit flavours were more than twice as likely to quit compared to smokers vaping tobacco flavours, researchers report.

"It's possible that the taste of the e-cigarette will have a stronger link to smoking if people are tasting the same tobacco-like flavour," said lead researcher Abigail Friedman, offering one possible explanation for her findings. Friedman is an assistant professor of public health at Yale School of Medicine.

Together, the studies "suggest that vaping is probably a mixed bag" for current and former smokers, said Timothy Baker, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison. Baker co-authored an editorial that accompanied the two studies.

For the first, Compton's team analysed data on nearly 2 300 former smokers collected between 2013 and 2018 by the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH), an ongoing study of tobacco use in the United States.

Successful quitters were all found to be at risk of relapse if they sampled an e-cigarette, researchers found.

The risk was greatest for long-term ex-smokers, who were 3.8 times as likely to relapse if they experimented with an e-cigarette. Smokers who quit within the last year were 63% more likely to pick up the habit if they tried vaping.

*Reactivated memory trace*

Use of other tobacco products produced similar relapse risks, researchers added.

The data appear to show that smokers' brains are "primed" to respond to any future exposure to nicotine, Compton and Baker said.

"You can almost think of addiction as having a memory trace that can be reactivated if you give a person the drug they were addicted to," Baker said. "If you have a human who hasn't used an addictive drug like nicotine for a long period of time, then you give them a dose of that drug, it primes their addiction. It rekindles the memory and thrusts them back into the state where they want to use again."

The second study also relied on the PATH data, using it to analyse whether flavoured e-cigarettes contribute to smoking initiation or cessation among teens or young adults.

Researchers compared nearly 12 000 young nonsmokers to nearly 6 000 teens and young adult smokers, to see how flavoured e-cigarettes affected their smoking behaviour.

Vaping increased the odds of smoking by 6.7 times among teens and 3.2 times among young adults.

*Associations with drugs*

But the results found that non-tobacco flavours were no more strongly associated with the start of youth smoking than tobacco flavours, researchers said.

The study also found that adults who began vaping flavoured e-cigarettes were nearly 2.3 times more likely to quit smoking than those who used e-cigs flavoured like traditional tobacco.

One possible reason might be that tobacco-flavoured e-cigarettes "cue" a person's nicotine addiction, Friedman said.

"What we know about substance abuse generally is if people who are trying to quit go back to a context or person or situation that they associate with that drug, it's much harder to quit. You see more relapse," she said.

Friedman said it's possible that flavoured e-cigarettes don't cue conventional smoking as much as tobacco cigarettes. "In that case, the habits are less intertwined, and it may be easier for smokers to quit," she added.

Other potential explanations could be that people who are more motivated to quit will try flavoured e-cigarettes, or young adults experimenting with both may simply decide that they prefer flavoured vaping and toss away their smokes, Friedman added.

*Nicotine replacement therapy*

Her team concluded that efforts to ban flavoured e-cigarettes could increase smoking, since flavours might help adults quit but don't appear to be associated with smoking uptake among teens.

The authors of both papers stressed that their results were based on observation, and cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship between e-cigarettes and smoking behaviour.

More research is needed to show whether e-cigarettes can serve as a reliable smoking-cessation tool, Baker said.


In the meantime, he recommends federally approved nicotine replacement therapy – some combination of patch, gum and lozenge, along with supportive counselling.

"Those we know double or triple a smoker's chances of quitting successfully," Baker said. "That should be the first strategy a smoker should try."

Reactions: Like 3 | Informative 1


----------



## DavyH (19/6/20)

I guess the British researchers coming to the end of a 7-year project are just completely wrong, in that case.

Maybe the USA's demonisation of vaping and scaremongering around a non-existent disease in 2019 had something to do with ex-smokers going back to cigarettes. Or maybe I'm just full of it and doubt anything and everything that comes out of the USA at the moment.

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 4


----------



## takatatak (19/6/20)

If someone has been off of cigarettes for a year and then decide to try vaping then that's their own stupidity... I'd argue that a person is as likely to relapse if they had a few drags of a cigarette at a social gathering. Once you've broken the nicotine dependency then you should simply avoid nicotine to prevent relapsing. It's like saying an ex-heroin addict is likely to relapse from smoking opium. Duh!!

Reactions: Like 5 | Agree 1 | Funny 1


----------



## zadiac (19/6/20)

It just bothers me that people who do these "studies" are always people who never smoked and never vaped. They have no idea what they're talking about. I pity them.

Reactions: Like 4 | Agree 3


----------



## Rob Fisher (19/6/20)

What a load of stuff that comes out of a horses bum!

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 7 | Winner 1 | Funny 3


----------



## CJB85 (19/6/20)

What idiots... If you have already been off cigarettes for a year, then you have already quit... Of course sampling nicotine after that period will likely get you hooked again. Pity that most people will read this as "Vaping is the new gateway to cigarettes and lung cancer".

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 5


----------



## Stranger (19/6/20)

Vaping is my new addiction, far safer than smoking and unlikely to hurt anyone else. I have yet to go on a murder spree or abuse anyone or crash a vehicle.

I own my addiction...... no one else.

Reactions: Like 6 | Winner 2


----------



## CJB85 (19/6/20)

Stranger said:


> Vaping is my new addiction, far safer than smoking and unlikely to hurt anyone else. I have yet to go on a murder spree or abuse anyone or crash a vehicle.
> 
> I own my addiction...... no one else.


Same here, I made peace with the fact that I will always be one hiccup away from relapsing to smoking (after many 9 month+ stretches of not smoking) and simply chose the less harmful option to carry on with.

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 1 | Thanks 1 | Can relate 2


----------



## YeOldeOke (19/6/20)

CJB85 said:


> Same here, I made peace with the fact that I will always be one hiccup away from relapsing to smoking (after many 9 month+ stretches of not smoking) and simply chose the less harmful option to carry on with.


Yup. I once quit for about 7 years, first real crisis saw me right back on cigs. Had vaping been around at the time I'd simply have gone back to vaping.

I personally am very sceptical of patches and gum. IMHO the nic addiction is relatively easy to break - nic leaves your system pretty fast and is no hard drug) , it is the ritual (if you will) that is far more powerful. The inhalation, the exhalation, the use of your hands in the ritual. It is calming, satisfying.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 9


----------



## CJB85 (19/6/20)

YeOldeOke said:


> Yup. I once quit for about 7 years, first real crisis saw me right back on cigs. Had vaping been around at the time I'd simply have gone back to vaping.
> 
> I personally am very sceptical of patches and gum. IMHO the nic addiction is relatively easy to break - nic leaves your system pretty fast and is no hard drug) , it is the ritual (if you will) that is far more powerful. The inhalation, the exhalation, the use of your hands in the ritual. It is calming, satisfying.


Exactly that, that fidgety feeling that smokers get...

Reactions: Like 4 | Agree 3


----------



## YeOldeOke (19/6/20)

CJB85 said:


> Exactly that, that fidgety feeling that smokers get...


100% and with vaping you can fidget and fiddle to your hearts content

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2 | Winner 2 | Funny 1 | Can relate 1


----------



## Christos (19/6/20)

Rob Fisher said:


> What a load of stuff that comes out of a horses bum!


Hay! 
Well more precisely, half chewed hay!

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 4


----------



## Wimmas (19/6/20)

I quit 3 years ago and started vaping, never even thought of putting a cigarette in my mouth again. Maybe the study was done on braindead monkeys? 

Sent from my MAR-LX1M using Tapatalk

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2 | Funny 1


----------



## DavyH (20/6/20)

Wimmas said:


> I quit 3 years ago and started vaping, never even thought of putting a cigarette in my mouth again. Maybe the study was done on braindead monkeys?
> 
> Sent from my MAR-LX1M using Tapatalk



There’s certainly an agenda. Where is the corresponding study detailing what percentage of former smokers who start smoking again take up smoking? It should be self evident that an ex-smoker who takes up vaping after an extended break really wants to be a smoker.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 2


----------



## Timwis (20/6/20)

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ's wake me up when there is something of real substance to read! Referring to OP to thread not peoples comments!

Reactions: Funny 6


----------



## Timwis (20/6/20)

*"Ex-smokers who take up vaping are more prone to" Being Skint! *

Reactions: Funny 5


----------



## Room Fogger (20/6/20)

Ps, K, didn’t expect I would do a rant this long and trying to not be too funny, lockdown may be contributing a bit, but this is a big issue, and looking at this from my experience and perspective does not all compute. Error 404 page not found. 

If you stopped cold turkey, or any other way, GREAT FOR YOU. If after a year you need something to do with your hands except eat yourself into a 6XL state or diabetes, not judging as I nearly went there a couple of times when I “ tried to quit”, total chocoholic, smoking may look good as an alternative option, as will vaping. I chose the former numerous times as I knew it before starting to vape. Longest was about 18 months, asked my long time girlfriend to marry me, got turned down and was back to smoking by the next morning after a bender of note, including a 2 day babelaas and a query from my bank regarding that rather excessive bill on my credit card.

Now for the kicker, if you try vaping and then go back to smoking I can only think of a couple of scenarios as to why this would happen:

You are too lazy too recoil/rewick, I sometimes fall into this category, but see point 4 and 5.
You did _not get the right advice, device and suitable juice to start off with_. Think this will be a good determinator of the truth and should actually be point one.
You though it was going to be really cheap.
You love smelling like a old diesel bakkie on Fire.
You love donating a lung in the morning, cough, cough, cough.
You though it would “feel” exactly like smoking, and was disappointed and not satisfied. Thankfully this was properly explained to me by Carlos and Ollie when I went to find out about this whole thing called vaping and I ended up quitting smoking by accident. Don’t think anyone would mind if I say Vape King Fourways became my second home. A big shout out to the “ family” there and wherever they are now, including the young bunch.
I eventually quit on a Menthol only juice, just saying. 
As for other so called tested and approved suggested methods, Yep, I think I tried it all, 6 nicotine patches at a time, red skin irritation and nearly poisoned myself, Zyban, 3 months on cortisone for allergic reaction, just missed out on hospital food, Nicorette gum, nearly dislocated a jaw chewing so much and you can’t blow bubbles with it, Champix, Conan the Barbarian, on tik, with a sore tooth, while riding a roller coaster without a safety belt. Sure there were some others I didn’t try and after the last one never would. And some people advise this is the best way to do it, who’s paying their salaries and do they actually care? But if it works for you please feel free.

I have long ago started to doubt the integrity of a lot of so called expert researchers and research when it comes to these studies, especially depending on where it comes from, as with everything a lot of it is open to interpretation, and I’m by no means a medical professional, but raises a lot of questions regarding the agendas especially when 2 studies using the same data come to complete opposite conclusions! And if it does not tie in with my experience, I have to interrogate and decide for myself. The amount of time I had to explain popcorn lung, Vit E acetate contaminated thc carts, water on the lungs etc in the last 3 months is frightening. At least now people were willing to ask and listen, well, they were forced to.

All I know is that I can breathe again, climb stairs, knees permitting not lungs any more, don’t do the lung donation daily any more, I can taste and smell and I’m 100% better of. For me that’s enough, I may even now be able to look forward to actually being around to enjoy playing with some grandkids hopefully, and without towing a oxygen bottle, time will tell. And I’ll be vaping into perpetuity it would seem, my choice, keeps me busy, and I enjoy it and the fellowship of the community. Nic has been cut to 2 mg and I even do 0 mg ever so often, without going bull in a china shop. Biggest thing is, I made my choice, and it seems to me to have been a good one.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Winner 7


----------



## YeOldeOke (20/6/20)

Room Fogger said:


> asked my long time girlfriend to marry me, got turned down


See, good things do happen once in a while  Wish my 4-odd exes turned me down, woulda saved me so much. 

After the first couple you stop bothering with getting divorced, what's the point of doing it legally

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1 | Can relate 1


----------



## Room Fogger (20/6/20)

YeOldeOke said:


> See, good things do happen once in a while  Wish my 4-odd exes turned me down, woulda saved me so much.
> 
> After the first couple you stop bothering with getting divorced, what's the point of doing it legally


You know what they say, a wedding is 10 grand, a divorce is a 100 grand, but worth every cent!

Reactions: Like 1 | Winner 1 | Funny 1


----------



## DavyH (20/6/20)

YeOldeOke said:


> See, good things do happen once in a while  Wish my 4-odd exes turned me down, woulda saved me so much.
> 
> After the first couple you stop bothering with getting divorced, what's the point of doing it legally



*“Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house."--Rod Stewart*
*
*

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 3


----------



## Raindance (20/6/20)

An addict is an addict and will always be an addict. That has been proven to the point where it is common knowledge. No further studies needed and those that waste grant money on it should pay it back. Any addiction, even when “kicked” remains with the patient and when exposed to the drug again a relapse is almost certain. There is no such thing as an ex alcoholic or ex smoker, only recovering alcoholics, smokers, and “junkies”. Sorry, I do not mean to be derogative.
A smoker relapsing on a nicotine dependency by vaping is not the same thing as a smoker relapsing back to using cancer sticks. Therefore, having vaping available as a safer method of relapsing should be celebrated rather than condoned.

Seems anybody can get a doctors degree these days, intelligence, nay, common sense, not required.

Best regards and stay safe

Reactions: Like 4 | Can relate 1


----------

