Start Vaping on National No Smoking Day 2023

National No Smoking Day is something that happens every year in the UK, and this year in 2023, it is today on Wednesday 8^th March 2023. This is the day where smokers are urged to quit smoking if they haven’t already and make the positive steps forward to enrich their health and their lives by kicking the habit of smoking to the curb and start a new smoke free life.

Sadly, it isn’t as simple as just stopping and you’re good to go, as giving up smoking is one of the hardest things that a person can do, however, it is not impossible as long as you have the right tools to help you successfully transition from being a smoker to a non smoker.

Opting to use an e-cigarette has become the most popular method of Nicotine replacement therapy used by people who are wanting to quit smoking, and for good reason too. As well as this, people are going mad for Nicotine Salts as their preferred vape juice of choice as well. In this blog, I’m going to look at why you should consider quitting smoking on National No Smoking Day and why an e-cigarette combined with nicotine salt e-liquid is the best combination to help you quit smoking!

National No Smoking Day

No Smoking Day or NSD as it’s abbreviated to, was first made a thing in 1984 where the first one was held on Ash Wednesday, and since then it always takes place on the second Wednesday in the month of March. It was originally founded and created by a charity with the same name, however due to budget cuts, there was a threaten of closure of this charity, but the British Heart Foundation stepped in to continue funding until 2017.

This day was created with the goal to create even more awareness than what was pre existing to help and encourage smokers to quit smoking. And in turn, on this day specifically a large number of traffic is driven to the NHS website where it is filled to the brim with useful information and advice on how to quit smoking, as well as links to local stop smoking services etc.

This year’s “tagline” for the campaign is a good one, and it’s one I really like;

“Never Give Up on Giving Up – Every time you try to stop smoking, you’re one step closer to success”

This is a really positive statement as it acknowledges that most smokers have likely tried to quit smoking in the past, and not quite succeeded which is understandable as like I said, it’s not an easy task to succeed at. But even if you tried and failed, you’ve still attempted to take a positive step in the right direction, and to quote the age old saying “if at first you don’t succeed, try again”

This year’s key messages

Every year on National No Smoking Day, there is always some key messages being delivered from the organisers, and this year’s key messages are really strong and direct and I like what they’ve chosen to try and get across to people.

The main focus this year comes from the backing of Alzheimer’s Society, a charity specialising in the care and support of people suffering from Dementia or Alzheimer’s. And they heavily emphasise the fact that quitting smoking will protect your brain health and also reduces the risk of developing dementia.

They also highlight the fact that the chance of successfully quitting smoking will be significantly boosted if people get help and support from the correct channels, meaning health care professionals like GPs as well as the experts who run Stop Smoking services.

And they also highlight probably my favourite key message and that is “It’s never too late to quit” and this was backed up with the results of a case study that looked at 50,000 men, all of whom were aged over 60, found that those who quit smoking were substantially less likely to develop dementia, which just proves the theory that it’s never too late to quit smoking!

How can an E-Cigarette help make quitting easier?

As I mentioned, quitting smoking is not an easy task and as well as getting support from healthcare professionals and experts, you’ll also likely need some form of Nicotine Replacement Therapy to help make this process even easier.

“Traditional” NRT options have been prescribed by GPs and used by people who are trying to quit smoking for decades. These include things like Nicotine Patches, Nicotine Gum, Lozenges and Sprays and contain a very small mg content of Nicotine which slowly is absorbed and released into the body which helps curbs cravings for Nicotine. But in recent years, a new front runner has emerged as the preferred option used by people and that is an E-Cigarette.

Whilst E-Cigarettes are not available on prescription from GPs, they are becoming something that is more recommended for people to use by GPs as well as local Stop Smoking Services, and it’s for good reason why as statistics show people who used an E-Cigarette were much more successful in quitting smoking than those who used the aforementioned “traditional” NRT options.

E-Cigarettes are the closest thing to smoking a cigarette that a person can get without actually having to smoke a cigarette. It ticks all the boxes in replicating smoking a cigarette, inhaling, the throat hit, having something in your hand to hold, and also create vapour to exhale which is in line with the smoke produced by cigarettes. All of these things are what people say they enjoy about smoking and get a fear of missing out if they stop smoking, so the fact it can be replicated by an E-Cigarette is a huge advantage.

DID YOU KNOW? There are over 7000 different chemicals that are produced and emitted in cigarette smoke, and at least 70 of these are known to cause cancer.

Vaping isn’t completely risk free though, as some of these chemicals are also present in vapour produced from an e-cigarette, but the volume in which these chemicals are found in vapour are so fractional compared to what’s in cigarette smoke, it’s not considered a massive risk, but there’s no denying that they are still present.

How Nicotine Salt E-Liquid can help make quitting smoking easier

We’ve discussed how an E-Cigarette can help you become smoke free, but you can’t use an E-Cigarette without E-Liquid, and getting the right E-Liquid is absolutely crucial and makes the big difference in being successful in your transition to not being successful.

E-Liquid comes in varying different nicotine strengths and you can pick the nicotine strength that is best suited for you depending on how much nicotine you’ve previously been used to getting from smoking cigarettes. It’s really important to pick the right nicotine strength as if you pick a strength that is too strong for you, it will be too harsh on your on throat and you won’t be able to vape it enjoyably. And if you pick a strength that is too low, you’ll still be getting nicotine cravings which could carry the risk of relapsing back to smoking.

Nicotine Salt E-Liquid is a form of e-liquid that has seen a sharp rise in popularity in recent years, and for good reason too as it comes with a lot of benefits, all of which are really helpful for someone if they’ve recently quit smoking as Nicotine Salts can make the transition a lot easier. I’ll explain why below.

Faster absorption rate – Nicotine Salts have a much faster absorption rate when they’re inhaled and the rate is similar to what it is when you smoke a cigarette so having an absorption rate similar to smoking is really helpful as this will be what people have been previously used to.

Higher Nicotine Strengths – Nicotine Salts primarily come in two different strengths, either a 10mg or 20mg Nicotine strength. With 20mg nicotine strength being the highest nicotine content allowed to be sold in the UK under the TPD laws. If you were a previous heavy smoker of say 20 cigarettes a day, using a 20mg nicotine salt e-liquid will be ideal as not only will you get a fast absorption rate, it will delivery a nicotine hit that you’ve been used to getting from smoking cigarettes.

Richer tasting flavours – The flavours of Nicotine Salt e-liquids are noticeably richer than what standard freebase nicotine vape juice, and this is because the acid used to make the nicotine salt reacts better with the flavour concentrates used, and brings them out more making them richer and fuller tasting. This means that you’ll get a pleasurable and flavoursome vape experience every time you use your vape and you’ll want to continue to vape to get these great flavours.

If you’re considering quitting smoking and starting on your vaping journey, there really is no time like the present to do it! There’s plenty of support available via GPs and Stop Smoking Services to help you make the transition as seamless as possible, and also you can check out my other blogs I’ve written surrounding the topic of quitting smoking and start vaping!