Massive Study Says Vaping Really Is The Most Effective Way to Quit Smoking – But There's a Catch - ScienceAlert
A new study from the University of Oxford suggests that regulated nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective for smoking cessation than traditional methods like patches or counseling. However, researchers emphasize that these findings apply only to regulated products and note that vaping is not entirely risk-free.
Why it matters
Smoking remains a leading cause of preventable death, and identifying effective cessation tools is a critical public health priority.
Add ScienceAlert on Google (chanakon laorob/Getty Images) Nicotine e-cigarettes may be the most effective option for people trying to quit smoking, when compared to nicotine gums, patches, and behavioral support like counseling, according to a new review.
There are many, many caveats to these findings, which we'll get into. But the current evidence suggests that for people who are already smoking on a regular basis, switching to vaping can result in a higher quit rate than other methods.
Whether that quit rate is worth the possible long-term, harmful effects of vaping remains to be seen.
We know tobacco use kills more than 7 million people each year , with more than 1.6 million of those deaths being non-smokers who were exposed to secondhand smoke.
If doctors can offer people reliable methods to stop smoking, we could bring those numbers down, though obviously, this is easier said than done.
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