Do E-Cigarettes Help People Quit Regular Cigarettes?

Millions of people who want to quit smoking have tried to quit by using nicotine patches, nicotine lozenges, and nicotine gum. Only a small fraction of would-be former smokers, however, actually manage to kick the habit with the help of patches, lozenges, and gum.

Other Nicotine Products No Better Than Quitting Cold Turkey

When researchers took a hard look at the efficacy of these common--and expensive--nicotine products, however, they found that six months after people used them, they were no more likely to have managed to quit smoking for good than people who quit cold turkey, simply deciding one day they were not going to smoke again.

In the short term, use of patches, lozenges, and gum will help many would-be quitters rocket into success. The patches prevent the worst symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, but the addiction of smoking is not just the nicotine in the tobacco. It's also having something in your hand, something in your mouth, and the feel of smoke. Lozenges, patches, and gum don't help with those "addictions," and when people find they are gaining weight, they often have problems finding something to do that gives them the same feeling as holding and tasting and feeling the smoke from a cigarette.

But Do E-Cigarettes Help Anyone Quit Smoking?

The truth is, it's really hard to quit smoking for very long, but e-cigarettes help more people quit than other methods. Doctorss at the National Institute for Health Innovation in New Zealand, who published their findings in the prestigious medical journal Lancet, conducted a randomized, controlled, clinical trial to see which of the popular methods for assisting smoking cessation really worked. At the end of six months, the researchers noted:

• 4.1% of users of placebo e-cigarettes (which provided smoke without nicotine) were able to quit and stay tobacco-free.
• 5.8% of users of nicotine patches were able to quit and stay tobacco-free.
• 7.3% of users of real e-cigarettes, with the nicotine, the feel of holding a cigarette, the look of holding a cigarette, and the smoke, were able to stay tobacco-free.

The New Zealand study showed that it isn't just the feel of holding a cigarette and inhaling smoke, or just getting enough nicotine, that helps smokers quit. It's the combination of the hit of nicotine and smoking-like experience that enables at least a few smokers to give up their habit. Because the study only recruited 657 smokers (expecting many more to have success in giving up smoking), the differences between patches and e-cigarettes were not statistically significant, but they do point out a trend.

Read More: E-Cigarettes And Smoking Cessation

Is There Any Hope for Smokers?

There just may be hope for better health for smokers in e-cigarettes, but it's important to realize that if you are hooked on smoking regular cigarettes, about the best you may accomplish is to get hooked on smoking e-cigarettes. You probably won't be able to kick your need to smoke with e-cigarettes, but you probably can kick your addiction to tobacco, save your family and your friends second-hand exposure to the worst chemicals in tobacco, and lower your risks of heart disease and lung cancer. With future studies, we will know.