Is Vaping Worse Than Smoking Cigarettes?

Post Reply New Topic

I just can't see how anything that you inhale into your lungs can be good for you.

Even breathing oxygen is a double-edged sword, the thing that keeps us alive also damages us (reactive oxygen species).

I used to be a regular cigarette smoker, and switching to vaping was initially quite a shock to my system. The first few times I tried vaping, I found myself coughing more than I ever did with cigarettes, which was quite surprising. I had always assumed vaping would be smoother on the throat. Over time, I realized a lot depended on the type of vape and the e-liquid I was using.

Exactly this.

I don't think vaping is worse than real cigarettes, but I don't think it's good for you either. Vaping has been proven to lead to addiction and lung diseases, and there have been a number of deaths linked to vaping. So yes, vaping is not good for you.

I had the impression that vaping was just a different way of ingesting tobacco (or weed).

Electric coils vaporize it, and then refrigeration coils cool the vapor. So its smoother than burning leaves with an open flame in front of your face.

So...smoking a cigarette is like shooting yourself in the head.

And vaping tobacco is like putting a silencer on the pistol, before you shoot yourself in the head.

Its the same poison. It just goes down smoother.

So why would it make a difference?

Smoking most likely is far worse for your health due to the various carcinogens that are produced when tobacco is combusted, but nicotine, which is also present in vaporizers, isn't simply addictive and can lead to cardiovascular issues and can raise your risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke and erectile dysfunction. An additional problem with vaporizers is that eJuice is often made in China. I try to avoid putting stuff made in China in my body as lead and other heavy metals and toxins often find their way into Chinese-made products.

Quite a few vaporizers I've tried have felt harsher on the lungs than cigarettes, but that generally only happens with very sweet eJuices found in disposable vapes. Generally the sweeter an eJuice is, the harder it'll be on the coil and your lungs. That's why when I choose to vape I tend to stick with vapes that are on the less sweet side.

Like Goblin Candy said, combustion makes the difference.

When you vaporize the desired chemical out, only other things that boil at that temperature or lower come along for the ride. With THC concentrates, that means practically nothing else. With dry plant matter (like a Volcano vape, or a light bulb vape) there's more stuff, but none of it has been produced as combustion byproducts. I'm less familiar with vape juice and what exactly is in it.

When vaporizing dry plant matter, a significant amount of material that would otherwise be turned into vapour is left behind as used dry plant matter, compared to the tiny fraction left behind as ash when smoking.

As the temperature rises that energy is able to cause reactions within the chemicals that make-up what's being smoked. Some of them decompose, others oxidize, etc. This produces additional negative compounds on top of ones that are already naturally occurring within the plant matter.

Switched to vape before Covid.My sense of smell , taste and breathing function improved.Its also cheaper if you fill your own.I have a Voopoo now and it costs me less than ten dollars to vape all month in combo with nicotine pouches like Zyn or Velo.If I was to buy ready made it would be Vuse, but it’s expensive.Used it before I switched to filling my own device.
It’s not a good idea to start a bad habit but I do believe it’s better than smoking.

Vaping, if it's done right, is very likely a lot less dangerous than smoking tobacco. The only ingredients in good vaping liquid are nicotine, water, and a propellant such as glycerol or propylene glycol - they've been used in asthma inhalers for decades without any noticeable harm. Nicotine isn't very toxic. Tobacco on the other hand contains tons of carcinogens and tobacco smoke contains carbon monoxide. As long as the vaping liquid is pure and the vaping equipment is good, it's relatively safe. The dangers mostly come from badly designed or badly maintained vaping equipment and from vaping liquids that contain stuff that hasn't passed any safety checks, such as silly colourings and flavourings. Obviously vaping is a tad more dangerous than inhaling nothing but clean air, and if there's nicotine in the vaping liquid then it'll be addictive.

I performed an interesting experiment when I first started vaping. I'd read a lot of supposedly professional articles about heart disease and they nearly all said point blank that nicotine raises the blood pressure and is therefore harmful. So I took my blood pressure after I hadn't had any nicotine for several hours, and then took it again after vaping more nicotine that I usually vaped. I repeated the test several times but never once found any increase in my blood pressure.

I'm not saying nicotine is perfectly safe for everybody. I'm not even saying I'm in no danger at all from vaping nicotine. But I am saying that the received wisdom about nicotine isn't the whole story, and that in my case at least, there appears to be no increase in blood pressure from my use of nicotine. So I'd recommend anybody who is worried about a possible elevation of their blood pressure from vaping nicotine should run a few tests of their own. That's not to say that blood pressure is the only thing to be concerned about when making the decision whether or not to vape.

Everyone reacts differently, but for me, switching from cigarettes to vaping felt like a big step up. I had a constant cough and shortness of breath while smoking, and most of that cleared up within a few weeks of vaping instead. That said, vaping still has its downsides, and it’s easy to overdo it since you don’t always feel it hitting your lungs the same way. Coughing from vaping could be from the device, the nicotine strength, or even the type of juice. Some setups are definitely harsher than others. I had the same issue until I tried the ske crystal cl6000, which gave a smoother draw and didn’t hit as rough as the ones I started with.

I was watching Caleb Hammer and this one guest had a collapsed lung from vaping.

I wonder what he'd been vaping, and what equipment he'd been using?

Vaping or cigarettes; it's not what nature intended! I can't see the attraction myself, though I'm not usuially averse to trying anything new..

There was no particular attraction for me except the fact that it's a safer alternative to tobacco. I'd tried nicotine gum but that wasn't helping much at the time, because it doesn't reproduce the spike of nicotine in the blood like vaping does.

Sure, it's not natural, but there's not much that is these days.