Stop smoking with a steam cane

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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E-cigarettes are controversial. Nobody knows yet how vaping will affect health in the long term. On the other hand, they offer millions of smokers the chance to get rid of the smokers - even those who would otherwise probably not make it. An experience report.

Katharina * smokes her first cigarette when she is twelve. A camel, right on lungs. After all, it's about being cool. It makes her feel sick and dizzy. “But I also felt that kick straight away,” said the petite blonde from Hamburg in an interview with

Such a first kick is often the start of an addiction career. When inhaled, nicotine reaches the brain in seconds, where it triggers an immediate sense of wellbeing. The addictive substance calms you down, at the same time it makes you awake and focused.

School trip into addiction

Things really start on a class trip. Katharina, now 15, will soon be smoking a box a day. It's the 80s. A packet of cigarettes costs three marks suitable for pocket money. In the disco, in the pubs, in the restaurant - blue haze wafts everywhere. The Marlboro cowboy has not yet died of lung cancer. Parents smoke their children full of smoke while driving. Teachers smoke in the staff room. “You already knew that smoking was harmful - somehow,” says the now 50-year-old. "But it has been suppressed."

Highly dependent on nicotine

While she is working on her master's thesis in literature, Katharina's ration increases to two boxes a day. Your first act of the day is picking up a cigarette. This makes her one of those smokers who are particularly heavily dependent. Little by little, more and more receptors have formed in their brain to which nicotine can dock. The dose required for the effect increases. And the earlier a person starts smoking, the more firmly the addiction becomes anchored in the nervous system.

"The thought of doing without cigarettes was inconceivable for me," reports Katharina. Nevertheless, she tries again and again - and fails every time. Even when she is pregnant, she still smokes five a day - “with a terribly guilty conscience”. But the addiction is stronger. Then comes March 1st, 2015. At this point in time, the mother of two had been hanging on for 35 years. Then she gives up the cigarettes. From today to tomorrow.

Stop smoking aid from the Middle Kingdom

"Quitting smoking means suffering," said the Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik in an interview with the online edition of the British newspaper "The Spectator". Like Katharina, he too smoked two boxes a day for a long time. His father dies of lung cancer. Hon is trying to stop. First he goes for cold withdrawal, then he tries nicotine patches. He too fails. Again and again. “It was simply missing the nicotine flash and the feeling when inhaling!” Says Hon.

Then an idea occurs to him: "A vapor that contains nicotine like cigarette smoke, but is not as harmful to the organism." In 2001 he developed the first e-cigarette. The model no.1 is still a monstrous device.

14 years later and almost 8,000 kilometers as the crow flies, Katharina finally gets rid of cigarettes with the help of Hon's invention. E-cigarettes are now available everywhere in Germany as well. The restrictive smoking bans prepared the ground for them. Smoking is now considered uncool, and smokers are increasingly viewed with pity and disgust. “You feel really poor,” says the ex-smoker.

With the oxygen bottle to the bakery

The unwillingness to own consumption grows in her too. There are also health problems. Bad bronchitis that just won't go away terrifies them. “I was afraid that this would be the beginning of COPD,” she reports. What this lung disease means, she has in mind with her own mother: After decades of smoking, she barely manages to climb stairs because of shortness of breath, and in the morning she coughs until she vomits. "What comes next, I see here in our neighborhood, where people drag themselves to the bakery with oxygen bottles." Despite all the frightening examples and health warning shots, Katharina says today: "Without the e-cigarettes, I would not have made it."

Pacifiers for adults

Because it's not the physical addiction to nicotine that is the biggest problem. Even if it remains stored in the brain, physical withdrawal is over after a few days. “It's the ritual that you lack,” says Katharina. Today, in her stressful job as a freelance editor, reaching for the e-cigarette calms her down, just as the simmering glow sticks once did. This works even though she has long since switched to pure glycerine - without any nicotine or flavorings. "It's oral satisfaction that matters, like a pacifier for a child."

Experts in conflict

Experts, however, have mixed feelings about e-cigarettes. Because vaping is not healthy either. There is of course the addictive and highly toxic nicotine. But even nicotine-free products are not harmless: They contain propylene glycol, among other things, which can irritate the respiratory tract. The added flavors are all approved for food production. But it makes a difference whether you ingest something with food or inhale constantly. And then there are the carcinogenic substances that have been found in some liquids. How harmful e-cigarettes actually are can only be clarified on the basis of long-term observations.

Still climb 70 stairs

Despite all concerns, there is consensus on one thing: e-cigarettes are many times less harmful than tobacco products. Katharina experienced this firsthand: "I am sick much less often than before," she says. Not only does it catch respiratory infections less often - and then get better again more quickly. The irritable bowel syndrome from which she suffers has also improved significantly. Her greatest gift: “The happiness of being away from cigarettes. No more stinking of smoke. To be fit. So I have a good chance of getting up the stairs at 70 and playing with my grandchildren. "

However, the Federal Office for Risk Assessment (BFR) does not recommend e-cigarettes as a smoke-stopping aid: "There are no clinical studies that prove its effectiveness," it says. But also in the next sentence: "The BfR does not rule out that tobacco-dependent smokers could in some cases benefit from e-cigarettes."

The two sides of the coin

In fact, the steaming sticks could be a real alternative for smokers who can't say goodbye to the glowing stick in any other way. Researchers at University College London recently calculated that more than 20,000 British people would have managed to quit smoking with their help - in addition to those who managed to quit without this help.

Of course, the concern remains that the vapers will make nicotine consumption socially acceptable again. That the flavored liquids attract young people in particular and harm them. That in the worst case they will switch from steam to tobacco smoke at some point. But this contrasts with the health and life of currently 20 million smokers in Germany alone.

"If you can't do it any other way, then try it", Katharina's doctor said to her - even if e-cigarettes are perhaps just the lesser of two evils. Katharina is at least convinced today: “E-cigarettes are a good cane. I've never missed tobacco again. "

* Name changed by the editor

Sources:

Questions and answers about e-cigarettes, www.bfr.bund.de, accessed April 01, 2016

West R. et al .: Estimating the population impact of e-cigarettes on smoking cessation in England Addiction. 2016 Feb 26. doi: 10.1111 / add.13343.

German Cancer Research Center, www.dkfz.de; Accessed April 1st, 2016

‘Quitting is suffering’: Hon Lik, inventor of the e-cigarette, on why he did it, The Spectator, July 20, 2015

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