This is so true. At least get a damn vape 😭
If my bf could do it, so can you. Plus, your dick (if you have one) will get bigger! Not joking, it’s true!

  • Miisha@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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    11 days ago

    I’m sorry in advance for arguing with you, but this is a pet peeve of mine.

    I’ve been living my life with a man who went from nearly a pack a day to 4-6 cigars a day to vaping. Honestly world of difference. Every aspect of him has improved: cough is gone, his skin is a healthy color, he doesn’t sound like he’s suffocating, he’s not cold all the time, he doesn’t keep running away mid-sex for a smoking break AND on top of that, his dick literally got bigger (blood flow, I’m assuming).
    Our sex life and sexual satisfaction and life in general has improved so much, that I literally cannot stop myself from arguing with people who pull out stuff like this.

    YES, nicotine is bad. Don’t start. Yes, vaping makes it more attractive to non-smokers. But honestly? I believe vaping saved my boyfriend’s life or at least didn’t massively shorten it, like cigarettes. I’m grateful for vaping and I’m reminded of that every single day, looking into his now healthy-looking as he smiles as me. This was the right call.

    Also, do you have a source for nicotine specifically causing cancer? Cause it’s a neurotoxin, a vasoconstrictor, a stimulant and extremely addictive…but I’m not sure about it being a carcinogen.

    Again, I’m really sorry. It’s just that the improvement from switching to vaping has been so drastic for him that I will literally die on this hill, gladly, with a smile on my face.

    • Kindness is Punk@lemmy.ca
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      10 days ago

      Not the original person but while vaping is healthier than smoking it still isn’t without its risks.

      The main area of concern is that the user is inhaling vaporized volatile compounds, the effects of which over a 20 to 30 year period aren’t fully understood yet. This is an active area of study.

      The other area of concern is cheap, disposable vapes, which can catch fire, explode, and have been caught using lead solder. Not worth the risk.

      • Miisha@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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        11 days ago

        I’m not saying it’s without risks. I’m saying that compared to literally burning plant material and paper and inhaling that with all the tar and carcinogens, vaping is worlds ahead. And from my anecdotal experience, the difference it makes on a long-time smoker is massive!

        And yeah, disposables are just the worst, totally agree on that. I also have a feeling that a child or non-smoker will go for the cheap, small and discrete disposable vape instead of the more expensive, traditional pod or mod vape. Also, environment.

    • belluck@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      11 days ago

      Their main point was about what you’re exhaling. Of course they’re gonna feel healthier for you when you’re coming from cigarettes, but a lot of vapers seem to forget that they’re still polluting the air around them, and especially non-smokers will still feel awful breathing it in.

      Also, they usually smell like shit. Not much better than traditional cigarettes.

      • Miisha@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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        11 days ago

        Sorry, I respectfully disagree. I’d rather be breathing in vapor for an entire day than just smell cigarettes. The smell makes my nose curl…but this entire subject is highly subjective.

        Either way, I honestly believe that second-hand vapor is nowhere near as bad as second-hand smoke. Passive smoking is a real, damaging thing and it sucks.

        • belluck@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          11 days ago

          The only reason you disagree is because you’re used to it. Ask any person who doesn’t smoke or vape and they’ll say the same.

          • Miisha@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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            11 days ago

            That’s…the entire point of my comments. I’m comparing the transition from cigarettes to vapes. Did I…not make that clear?

            I’m sorry, I’m genuinely getting lost in this discussion. I wasn’t trying to shit on nonsmokers, obviously that’s the place to be. I’m sharing my experience with my very own smoker->vaper man. Sorry if it came across as insulting…I’m honestly stupid

            • belluck@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              11 days ago

              You made that clear enough, but the original comment as well as my reply were talking about the effects it has on bystanders, which is still bad. Your replies kind of came across as you saying that these effects are insignificant, which is exactly the kind of behavior that we were calling out

              • Miisha@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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                10 days ago

                Right. I guess…I got carried away again in my own narcissism. It happens sometimes, I apologize. Y’all are right and to be completely honest, I haven’t read much research into this topic at all. And yet I still tried to argue about it as if I knew everything, while only having anecdotal evidence.
                I’m actually really sorry.

    • FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 days ago

      I don’t mind arguing, I was told this is what the internet is about.

      And I’m glad it improved the health of your boyfriend. And your… Relationship with him.

      And for that reason I’m glad they exist. As either a harm reduction or de-nicotining pathway.

      More to the point, here is one of the latest meta-analyses on the subject: https://www.medicaldaily.com/vaping-causes-lung-oral-cancer-unsw-sydney-carcinogenesis-review-2026-475743

      Some interesting excerpts:

      On the animal side, one of the most striking findings came from a study by Tang and colleagues, cited in the review, in which mice exposed to e-cigarette aerosol for 54 weeks developed lung tumors at a dramatically higher rate than controls. Nine of 40 aerosol-exposed mice, 22.5%, developed lung adenocarcinomas; only 1 of 40 control mice developed a lung tumor. The aerosol exposure condition was designed to parallel human vaping behavior.

      On the chemical side, research published in peer-reviewed journals has found that e-cigarette aerosols contain aldehydes including formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals — all established carcinogens associated with DNA damage, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation. A 2023 study found that exclusive vapers showed levels of DNA damage in oral epithelial cells comparable to cigarette smokers, with damage increasing based on frequency of use and flavor type.

      At the human clinical level, published research has documented oxidative stress markers rising measurably after a single vaping session. The UNSW team noted the “consistency of findings across disciplines” as particularly striking, convergence across animal, mechanistic, and human clinical data that mirrors the early patterns seen in tobacco research decades before the full mortality picture emerged.

      Overall though, this shouldn’t even matter: the e-cig situation is disrespectful to non-smokers whichever way you slice it. Even if one discards the evidence (this isn’t you I hope), it would be a situation where you are exhaling untested gases at people.

      It’s not because it’s less bad for smokers to switch to it that it becomes okay for the others to breathe in toxic/untested gases. The social norm about emitting weird gases far away from others should still apply.

      And anecdotally, it makes my throat physically irate, I can’t imagine the kinds of damage it’s doing to my body 😨…

      • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        10 days ago

        Vaping is still really really really bad for you. But, is nicotine itself a carcinogen?

        Like the song goes “it’s not the nicotine that kills - it’s the smooooooke” or, rather, the inhalation.

        Edit: the song: https://youtu.be/3eooXNd0heM

          • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            10 days ago

            Well, that sucks… if it’s true. Do you have a citation or source for that? Because furrymemesaccount said they did, too, but then didn’t quote anything about nicotine specifically.

            Nothing I can find states nicotine ITSELF as a carcinogen. It’s not harmless, and is delivered by all sorts of harmful methods. But itself doesn’t seem to be cancer causing.

            I’m extremely open to dissent on that impression.

              • SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                10 days ago

                It looks like there’s a couple sections focusing on cancer. I’m not medically educated enough to decipher a lot of that or know the nuances around causation and what actually feeds or starts cancer or whatnot.

                Like this:

                LUNG CARCINOGENESIS A study relates lung carcinogenesis by nicotine due to genetic variation in CYP2B6.[44] Its simultaneous exposure with hyperoxia has been found to induce cancer in hamsters.[45] Cotinine has been found to promote lung tumorigenesis by inhibiting anti-apoptotic pathway.[46] Nuclear translocation of ARB1 gene by nicotine has found in proliferation and progression of nonsmall-cell lung cancer. Several Studies have shown that nicotine has significant role in tumor progression and metastasis via CXCR4 and increased angiogenesis.[36,47] Carriers of the lung-cancer-susceptibility loci in their DNA extract more nicotine. Smokers carrying the gene CHRNA3 and CHRNA5 were found to extract more nicotine and cells were thus exposed to a higher internal dose of carcinogenic nicotine-derived nitrosamines.[48] Additionally modulation of the mitochondrial signaling pathway leads to resistance to the chemotherapeutic agents.[49]

                I don’t know what the hell any of that stuff says. I do know that this sort of thing is generally not conclusive, partially because of tobacco lobbying, but also because proving actual direct causation is incredibly difficult for basically anything.

                I also know that this subject has a LOT of emotional tension around it on all sides. And while I think I believe technically there is no proof that nicotine is a direct human carcinogen, I’m gonna stay the hell away from it and strongly suggest others do, too. Because looking at what I think are the effects laid out in this paper, there’s nothing but bad that comes from it.

                Tldr: maybe, probably, but it’s bad juju in even more ways than I previously knew.

                (Edit: i also want to point out that this paper seems incredibly agenda focused and biased, and while i don’t discount any facts in the paper because of this, it does make me question the coherence and intent of the way details laid out, basically, the intellectual integrity of the presentation, itself)

                • toothbrush@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  10 days ago

                  Well… its a medical study. They are usually unreadable to a layperson. I didnt want to link to an article claiming it, since you wanted a source. But the claim that nicotin causes cancer is not really contested. There are lots of studies on it. Here is another one.