The debate surrounding the health
benefits versus risks of electronic cigarettes continues and as a smoking
cessation therapist I have very strong views about e-cigs.
Anne Penman Laser Therapy and many other smoking cessation
services are working hard to help smokers overcome not just a physical
addiction but also a habit that controls smoker’s behaviour and I feel
e-cigarettes make this even more challenging for the many smokers who want to
be free of the addiction and the habit.
Increasingly I’m finding people coming to me who are actually
using both conventional cigarettes and e-cigs so it was with
interest that I read this week, in Medical News Today, that researchers have
warned that the dual use of both regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes is a
"cause for concern".
Lead study author Dr. Andrew Nickels - of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Mayo Clinic and a fellow of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology - and his colleagues point out that people who use e-cigarettes in public and smoke regular cigarettes at home continue to expose children and asthma sufferers to second hand smoke.
"Despite the
apparent optimism surrounding e-cigarettes and their purported therapeutic role
in smoking cessation, there just simply is not enough evidence to suggest that
consumers should use e-cigarettes for this purpose," says Dr. Nickels.
What smokers must never forget, it’s the habit they need to
beat...........their brain sees something that looks like a cigarette/feels
like a cigarette and is smoked like a cigarette so it believes it IS a
cigarette and for most smokers as soon as they feel stressed they are reaching
for the “real fix”. 
Cut it out!
