Over 10 months ago I wrote a review of the Ego-T e-cigarette and 10 months later the article is still getting on average of around 100 hits per day. Is this a sign perhaps that e-cigarettes are becoming more and more popular? For me it’s now over 12 months of vaping. Am I still using the Ego-T? Did I go back to the evil smokes? Read on.
Disclaimers
I am not a medical professional
I have written this article without trying to make it an anti/pro smoking , anti/pro tobacco company or anti/pro government article. 
The information supplied here based purely on my own personal experience.
12 months down the track and having previously tried Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) in the form of patches and gum e-cigarettes, cold turkey, hypnotism and even Zyban, vaping has done the job the other two couldn’t do. Why? It’s still my belief that e-cigarettes hit three different trigger points of smoking:
Nicotine
The hand to mouth motion
The inhale/exhale motion
While the nicotine is the most addictive part of smoking, it’s actually the easiest part to give up and all nicotine is in theory out of your system within about 3 days. By using the e-cigarette I’ve managed to drop my nicotine content from 18mg/ml (1.8%) to 2mg/ml (0.2%) and I’m just about to drop it to 0%. I think in some ways it’s actually the psychological part that makes it hard to give up.
What hints would I give you for someone that wants to consider using e-cigarettes?
Keep It Simple Silly (KISS)
You can see above that while I’ve still got my original Ego batteries, I’ve also got mechanical mods and rebuildable atomisers. If I’d started with rebuilding a coil and wick and getting the number of wraps and resistance right, I never would have got to where I am. I’d have given up long ago. Start with something simple like an Ego Kit and some sort of clearomiser like a Stardust or Vivi Nova. Nothing is going to put you off more than having to muck around too much. You just want to get in there and vape as easily and as simply as possible.
E-Juice
Start simply with some pre-made juice. If you’re in the US, you can just buy juice of various strengths outright. If you’re in AUS either buy some flavoured nicotine juice from overseas or buy some unflavoured nicotine juice from overseas and buy some doublers from one of many of the many Australian Juices suppliers. Start with around 18mg/ml nicotine juice and go from there, different ex-smokers find they need higher or lower nicotine levels.
Don’t expect that your juice will taste anything like a cigarette (that’s a good thing) and start by buying small amounts of flavours to see what you do or don’t like. Will you like coffee, strawberry or pinot noir? Try as many as you can to find something that works for you.
Mixing it up
So you’ve started vaping and find you’re still smoking. Don’t worry too much, even if you alternate between smoking and vaping you’ve still just reduced the number of cigarettes and chemicals you’ve inhale by half already. When you feel like a smoke, reach for your e-cig instead. Most find that eventually they stop smoking all together.
Embarrassed to be a non smoker?
At first I was too embarrassed to be seen smoking an ecig. I’d go outside to vape but I’d stay away from the smokers and hide in a corner. That’s fine, just get comfortable with vaping. After a while you won’t mind vaping with the smokers, in fact if you’re like me you’ll even manage to convert a few of the smokers. I know I get some strange looks from people as I walk around the streets vaping one of my larger mods, but then again I’ve actually had some strangers come up to me and comment about it .
Never too old
I recently ran into an “older” lady outside the local Fish and Chip shop (by older I mean at least 10 years older than my youthful (almost) 50 years ) and started up a conversation with her. She’d been a heavy smoker and after 4 months she was vaping nicotine free, it was only the hand/mouth action that kept her vaping.
It’s vapor, not smoke!
Find a support group
If you need help, find a support forum close to you. They’re all over the internet and you’ll find like-minded people who have or are trying to give up smoking using e-cigarettes. Of course like any enthusiast forum you’ll get those who reckon you’ve got to buy that gold-plated, $400+ e-cig, but you’ll get fantastic support from most forums.
Misinformation
Over the last year I’ve noticed a much higher media around vaping. Much of it is accurate and much of it is completely and utterly wrong. Vaping is NOT smoking, it’s vaping. What you are inhaling and seeing is water vapour not any sort of smoke (the product of burning something).
While I’ll admit there are no long term studies on health effects, in my mind it can’t be as bad as inhaling those 4000+ chemicals from a cigarette.
Reap the benefits
So what are some of the benefits I’ve found since vaping?
Much healthier, I’ve been much more active walking and bicycle riding
More money in my pocket
No smelly
No holes in clothes
No tobacco flakes all over the place.
Once I get to 0%, will I give up vaping or keep vaping with no nicotine? Not sure yet, watch this space
Filed in categories: Articles, Health, Fitness, Sports
Tagged: Smoking
E-cigarette review – One year later originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 25, 2013 at 8:00 am.