Vaping Information, Vaping Health Studies and Research
Vaping without Nicotine – Good or Bad?
Dec
WHAT IS DISCUSSED IN THIS ARTICLE
When people want to quit smoking, it’s always advised they use some form of Nicotine replacement therapy to help aide the process of quitting smoking a lot easier. This is because the nicotine found in cigarettes is a highly addictive chemical that once an addiction is created, it is to overcome and simply cannot be done by simply stopping and going cold turkey.
Eventually over time, people will begin to lower their nicotine strength level in the vape juice they are using to ultimately reach the end goal of being nicotine free. Some people will then stop vaping completely, or continue to vape just with 0mg vape juice. Some people even just vape with 0mg vape juice when they have no history of smoking because they enjoy the flavours of the various vape juices available today. But is vaping zero mg nicotine a good thing or a bad thing? Let’s take a look
What are the upsides of vaping without nicotine?
There are a lot of positives, or upsides, to vaping without nicotine. It is the ultimate end goal of someone who takes up vaping as a way to quit smoking. It’s also a safer option for people to try and experiment vaping without forming an addiction to nicotine.
Vaping without nicotine is the end game of quitting smoking
As I mentioned, the ideal scenario for anyone quitting smoking would be to overcome their nicotine addiction. There are alternative forms of nicotine replacement therapy available, but recent studies have shown that vaping is the most effective form of nicotine replacement therapy for people wanting to give up smoking.
When you quit smoking and move onto vaping, you’ll want to use a vape juice that has nicotine in it that is equivalent to the amount you were getting from smoking cigarettes. So if you were smoking up to 10 cigarettes a day, you’d want to be using a 6mg freebase or 10mg nicotine salt vape juice.
If you were a heavier smoker of, say 15-20 or more cigarettes a day, you’ll want to use a higher strength vape juice like a 12/18mg freebase or 20mg Nic salt vape juice. And over time, you can begin dwindling down your nicotine strength when you feel you’re not needing as much, and this can continue until you reach the point where you feel you’re not craving or wanting nicotine as much as when you started and can then move to nicotine-free vape juice. And just like that, you have beaten your addiction to nicotine!
There is absolutely no reason why you cannot continue to vape without nicotine in your vape juice, many people will continue to do this, just because they’re used to the habit of motions that come with vaping, or simply because they enjoy the flavours.
Vaping zero nicotine carries no risk of addiction
There are people out there who vape when they haven’t ever smoked a cigarette before. There isn’t any rule to say this is the wrong thing to do, and I personally know a few people that do this just because they enjoy trying different flavours of vape juice, or blowing clouds.
It’s also been reported it can help reduce anxiety/stress in the brain as well as a psychosomatic effect.
Scientific studies have shown people who opt to experiment with vaping and using vape juice that does not contain nicotine are far less likely to eventually want to smoke or use vape juice that does contain nicotine.
The problem with nicotine is it is such a volatile chemical and so easy to form an addiction on it, when people experiment with smoking, especially youths, it can only take two or three cigarettes for the addiction to start setting in and then it’s a hard road ahead to get rid of this dependency.
Nicotine-free vaping is the right way to go when it comes to social/peer pressure
The number of adolescents vaping in the UK is currently sitting at the highest it’s ever been, and this is likely down to the introduction and massive popularity of Disposable vape bars into the industry.
There’s a rising problem with youths in the UK using these, and as it shows in survey results, it shows that many of the youths using them today are only using them “because their mates do and they want to fit in and not be left out”
Peer pressure has been around for the longest times, and youths always want to try something, or feel pressured into trying something because their mates are doing it.
This can range from anything from drinking, to smoking, and now recently trying a disposable vape for the first time. This can lead to unwanted and unnecessary addiction to nicotine though as most of the vape bars today will contain the highest mg nicotine being 20mg nicotine salt and an addiction can form quite quickly.
However, there are more and more manufacturers now bringing out 0mg disposables which are ideal for youths who want to vape to fit in with the crowd.
This doesn’t only apply to youths though, as it happens with adults as well. People have been known to start smoking or vaping simply because others around them do. It reminds me of the scene from Friends where Rachel begins smoking so she doesn’t miss out on the gossip in the smoking area of her office.
Also this can apply to people who go out to the pub or anywhere social with their friends who are vapers/smokers and they want to join them when they go outside.
This is why it’s crucial there are 0mg nicotine products continuing to enter the market, so it stubs out any risk of people forming an unnecessary addiction.
What are the downsides to vaping without nicotine?
There are always going to be upsides and downsides when it comes to vaping, whether it be with or without nicotine. We’ve gone through the positives, so lets look at the potential downsides of vaping without nicotine and what risks it could bring with it.
You could find yourself vaping more
Whilst there aren’t really any risks to vaping a lot, it will definitely put a dent in your bank balance if you’re going through vape juice at a quick rate, and an even bigger dent if you’re using disposable vapes.
I personally use 20mg Nic Salt vape juice (2X Vape of course) as I find using a high mg nicotine vape juice will lower my urges to vape more and therefore I won’t go through vape juice as quick. Whereas if I used 0mg nicotine, I’d likely find I vape more just through habit more than anything, and this could apply to others who use a 0mg. Disposable vapes are not an affordable way to vape, with each device costing approx. £5 per device, and can sometimes only last for one day, so the totals will soon add up!
There’s always the risk of relapse
The risk of relapse when it comes to quitting smoking is very high, especially if you have smoked for a while as it is a hard habit to break, and sometimes vaping doesn’t hit the spot like what a cigarette does, but it’s important to persevere and not give into temptation of going back.
When people are taking down their nicotine levels in their vape juice, doing it too quick can likely lead to a relapse and going back to smoking. This is because you will be craving the nicotine you were used to, and your brain will tell you that vaping doesn’t quite cut the mustard and before you know it, you’ll have a lit cigarette in your hand. It’s absolutely essential to take your time and not rush anything when it comes to quitting smoking.
Conclusion
I hope this article has been helpful to you and cleared up any questions or concerns you may have had regarding vaping without nicotine, especially if it’s something you are currently doing or considering doing.
Vaping without nicotine does have its upsides, especially for people wanting to overcome their addiction or dependency on nicotine. But people must be aware of the downsides of it too, especially making the jump to cut down nicotine too quickly as this could have the opposite effects to what vaping is supposed to have on people.
