Accentuate the positive

July 1, 2015 by B 4 Comments

It’s a blistering hot day for me here in sunny Scotland. I’m sitting in a darkened house, with fans moving the air around to give some sort of illusion of cooling. The humidity monitor in my hall has just ticked up to 87% and the air quality forecast is not that good. Once upon a time I would have been carrying my ventolin inhaler around with me and praying I didn’t get an attack; mould spores are something I react badly to and the muggy fuggy damp heat brings the little sods out to attack me. Then it dawned on me. A little simple fact that is oh so very significant.

I haven’t used my inhaler since Christmas.

My vaping set up of choice right now is a Horizon Arctic tank with an 0.5 ohm stock coil in it at 28W on the Eleaf iStick 50w with Health-E-Vape Caramelicious (30/70 PG/VG) at 6mg. I have gone through 60ml of it in a month and just got myself another 100ml of it for July. I’m less stressed and generally have a better quality of life than I did when either smoking or having given up. Even though the last 6 months of the fallout of the death of a close family member I have been less stressed, calmer, breathing better and maintaining a steady (albeit heavier than ideal) weight.

I still haven’t wanted to smoke a cigarette. Not one craving.

All three of my devices ran out of battery on a long car trip. I had no issues waiting until the next morning for a vape – some fourteen hours later. The only fallout from that were a couple of mouth ulcers, something I generally get when I cease nicotine use although I can’t be certain that’s the cause. My fingernails are also still unbitten. That’s the longest I’ve ever gone, through some really nasty health issues and the loss of a close family member and I’m still not biting them. I call that a pretty fair indicator of quality of life.

Quitting was never my best option.

For me continuing use of nicotine by means of a delivery method that is less harmful than smoking is improving both my quality and quantity of life. It really is very simple. Let’s think of the most healthy substance you can imagine. Lettuce – OK there are traces of arsenic in lettuce, but as we all know the dose makes the poison. Lettuce is reasonably healthy. It doesn’t even have nicotine in it although there is niacin, a close cousin. So we take lettuce, dry it and roll it into a cigarette. You can even add a filter if you like. Light the end and inhale (for the love of PETE, don’t actually do this, mmmkay?). I can guarantee you that you’re inhaling carbon monoxide, burning particles, and all sorts of carcinogens. The lettuce isn’t (very) toxic of itself, but setting it on fire and inhaling the results? Very bad idea. We should just eat it instead. Lots of lovely chemicals in lettuce, trust me. I’m a layman. So I’m choosing to use a recreational consumer product in a way that reduces the harm from the delivery method.

Let me sum up.

I’m happier, healthier, less stressed and smoke free. I’ve achieved this without any stress or strain. Pretty much effortlessly. Nicotine really isn’t an issue as long as I’m not setting the stuff on fire and breathing in the result. So where’s my pat on the back from the medical profession and public health? Absent. I didn’t do it by their book you see. While I was away things just started to get silly. There is so little support out there for the things that really, really matter. I know I’m a slacker – this is why I’m not employable, but really guys. The totally Wicked legal challenge, the petition against the utterly ludicrous ban in Wales, the NNA. None of these things are getting the support they need. Get off your arses, get signing, get spreading it. Do it. If you’re all right Jack, I don’t want to know you.

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