Leaderboard

Hey Hardwired, Glad to read that you've recovered as well as you have from your stroke. It sounds like you've learned a very valuable lesson about health, so don't feel too bad about your past. We all tend to learn the hard way, it seems. In searching for answers to all these questions, each of us find many conflicting things about whats known and whats not known about nicotine, tobacco, and the e-cig. The more you look on the internet, the more confusing it gets. If the report or document came from a supplier of a product in any industry involved with nicotine, it will be worded to slant the opinion to benefit that product. Any decent skeptic knows this already. If the report or document came from an independent scientific review, it most times was funded by a manufacturer or supplier of a product, and it can also be so filled with scientific jargon that it's hard to understand it fully. One thing your never going to find is a honest statement that reads, "You will be safe if you use/don't use this product/chemical/food/car/hand cream/ad nausium"... I've read a lot of crap about nicotine. I've smoked for almost 30 years. I work in a hospital that specializes in substance abuse. I've been a nurse for 25 years. I know a gazillion doctors, pharmacists, counselors, lab technicians, respiratory therapists, and patients. Every person, EXCLUDING THE DOCTORS, that I talk to has a very different opinion about smoking and vaping. Every one of those opinions are based not only on their professional experience, but also on their personal experience. However, every one of the doctors I speak to about the e-cig has just one question. "Does that silly little thing keep you from smoking cigarettes? If yes, then use it, because tobacco is KILLING you!" When I ask a physician about nicotine, they ALL say the EXACT SAME THING!!!!!!!!!!!!! nicotine doesn't kill. In your comment, Hardwired, you wrote, "Is my addiction to nicotine, and the process of delivering it to my bloodstream by vapor inhalation, any less harmful to my neurological state? Unfortunately, no one can say with any real certainty. No long term data has been collected with respect to this. The hypothesis was presented in this thread about the stimulative effect nicotine as a vasoconstrictor has on the body's arteries...which honestly scares me." I know that you went through a very serious event when you had your stroke, and I understand how comments about vasoconstriction can sound scary. Most people, after going through things like what you went through, want to educate themselves about their illness and try to learn as much as they can. I applaud this! I respect very much your wanting to know more. It's what all health care professionals want to see. So please know that by no means do I wish to make it seem as if what you know about stroke or smoking is wrong. But the comment you wrote, that I just quoted, is what moved me to write this reply. OK look, your not going to get a complete, healthy understanding of what vasoconstriction REALLY means to YOUR health by just googling it. One needs to really study anatomy and physiology to a pretty advanced degree in order to be able to fully contemplate how it may effect you personally. Lol, I'm not saying that your incapable of grasping it, bud. I'm just saying that it's really technically advanced crap that involves not just A&P, but pharmacology, cardiology, and a whole bunch of other ologies as well. So lets just keep things simple, OK? You said nobody can say with certainty how this stuff will effect you. But your wrong. Your doctor can tell you. Your doctor has all the ologies down pat. He/she is a living, breathing, walking, talking google machine!! Your doctor is your go-to guy. With regards to certainty, nobody can predict the future. You could stop using nicotine today, jog 15 miles a day, eat carrots and celery exclusively for the rest of your life and still drop dead of a heart attack 10 years from now. The next time your at work, ask everyone if milk is good for you or bad for you. I'll bet you don't get a clear answer. Hell, I grew up before the invention of bottled water. Does that mean my life span has been shortened? Am I supposed to think that tap water can hurt me? My dog drinks from the toilet, and he seems OK. There have been COUNTLESS studies done on nicotine for years!! Science knows GOBS of crap about nicotine. Nicotine is sold over the counter in all 50 states. It can be found in a patch form, a pill form, a gum, a lozenge, inhalers(both oral and nasal), and in tobacco. Tobacco, however is the only form that has been linked to over 400,000 deaths a year. Nicotine is EXTREMELY hard to overdose on, if not impossible, as long as you use it in the manner in which it was intended to be used. If nicotine had a chance of killing you, you would need a prescription for it. Hell, Chantix has a higher chance to be more harmful than nicotine by itself. Thats why you need a doctor to prescribe it. The electronic cigarette, in the opinion of most doctors, is nothing more than another alternative form of nicotine replacement therapy. It's the same as the gum or the patch. If your doctor has suggested to you that you should use a NRT, then your doctor should have no problem with you using an e-cig. But don't take my word for it. Ask your doctor. Get on the phone right now and call his clinic. Tell the lady that you have a question for the doctor and that you want him to call you back. He'll call ya. I have some other posts that you might like to read about nicotine. Just click on my profile and check out some of the topics I've posted about it. We're all here to help in any way we can. You really have found a great place to connect with other vapers..... In the weeks to come your gonna start to feel great. As far as your fear of vasoconstriction goes, I'll leave you with this. The 400 nasty chemicals found in tobacco has wreaked havoc on your cardiovascular system. Nothing even comes close to harming you in the way that smoking has. As I'm sure your aware, stroke can happen for many different reasons, including hereditary reasons, so why YOU had a stroke, only your doctor can tell you. But probably the one best thing that YOU can personally do to lesson the chance of it happening again is to stop using tobacco. If that silly little thing keeps you from smoking analogs, then us it, cause damn...... Simple, huh?