Smokers worry about gaining weight after quitting. A team of researchers think vaping could provide the answer.
Are you worried about gaining weight after quitting smoking? Many people do, for one reason or another. People who quit smoking gain an average of 11 pounds in the first year after their last cigarette.
But a theoretical paper by an international team of medical researchers suggests that vaping could help smokers avoid this problem. The commentary, titled “Could vaping be a new weapon in the fight against obesity?”, was published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
How can e-liquids and nicotine help?
As smoking rates in Western countries have fallen, obesity rates have risen. This has brought with it a host of other health problems. “Obesity is poised to overtake smoking in developing countries as a major risk factor for diabetes, cancer, and heart disease,” they write. “Obesity is a complex disease that is challenging public health efforts.”
The author explains that nicotine prevents weight gain by reducing appetite and increasing the body's metabolic rate. That's why smoking cessation products like Chantix and Zyban don't help smokers avoid gaining weight after they quit.
They suggest that while nicotine replacement therapy can help former smokers achieve this, e-cigarettes also have advantages over other NRT products. Nicotine in vaping products is easier to regulate than in pharmaceuticals such as gum and patches. Many vapers have reduced their nicotine intake to low or no levels.
“People can vary their nicotine intake, so to quit they can start with high-dose e- liquids and then they can gradually reduce it at a faster rate than NRT which is good for weight maintenance and weight loss,” co-author Linda Bauld told The Guardian.
She also says that with the wide variety of flavors available, e-liquids can also act as a snack substitute. Vapers often say that candy and dessert flavors tend to make them less likely to crave the real thing—though I’m skeptical. But it’s likely that the more vapers can get away from traditional cigarettes, the more likely they are to develop a taste for sweets like candy and fruit, and possibly a craving for them.
Vaping could be a breath of fresh air
One of the three authors of the study, Professor Marewa Glover
Both authors – including vaping advocate Marewa Glover – are from Massey University in New Zealand. The third, Linda Bauld, is from the University of Stirling in the UK. Bauld is also the director of the UK’s Centre for Alcohol and Tobacco Research, and has been involved in some interesting research into the potential benefits of e-cigarettes.
It’s nice to have someone other than a vaper point out the good things vaping can do. The cost is that researchers will look at vaping and vapers as if they were the cause of the collapse of Western civilization. It’s refreshing to see research institutes applying the benefits of nicotine to health problems instead of running away in panic.
This article was published on Vaping360 by Jim McDonald and translated by The Vape Club
