Is the E-Cigarette Really A Better Replacement Or Not?

You've seen them all over town. People who have their fingers around an e-cigarette, instead of puffing on a conventional cigarette.

But Is the E-Cigarette Really A Better Option?

Public health experts continue to debate whether e-cigarettes are a better option than smoking tobacco, or just an alternative way for smokers to inhale nicotine. And only adding fuel to that debate is a new study suggesting that e-cigarettes do not help smokers quit nor do they reduce a smokers' use of conventional cigarettes.Published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, the study looked at self-reports from 949 smokers-88 who used e-cigarettes at the start of the study and sought to determine whether e-cigarette use was linked to successfully quitting regular cigarettes. Or at least linked to lessening consumption at the end of a year. The researchers found that this was not the case. They concluded that their data adds to the current body of evidence that e-cigarettes do not help people quit smoking.

Does the E-Cigarette Really Help People To Quit Smoking?

"Regulations should prohibit advertising claiming or suggesting that e-cigarettes are effective smoking cessation devices until claims are supported by scientific evidence," study authors wrote. E-cigarettes do not contain tobacco which encourages some to argue that they are the lesser of two evils. Encouraging people to use nicotine products on the less dangerous side of the spectrum, some say, is ultimately better for them, and could even help them wean them off actual cigarettes. However, the issue is that e-cigarettes have not been around long enough for accurate research on their dangers or benefits.Another study earlier this month revealed that adolescents who use cigarettes are more likely to smoke other tobacco products and cigarettes. While the study could not confirm whether smoking e-cigarettes made teens more likely to smoke in general, it showed that it was not a deterrent.Unfortunately, the evidence on whether e-cigarette helps smokers to quit is contradictory and inconclusive. The researchers increase the weight of evidence indicating that e-cigarettes are not associated with higher rates of smoking cessation, said Dr. Mitchell Katz, deputy editor of JAMA Internal Medicine.