Subscribe To ECCR's Newsletter
2015 - News Content
News Homepage

New Study Shows A Majority Of Doctors Support E-Cigarettes

By Matt McConnell

Monday September 29, 2014
E-cig health study finds that practicing physicians recommend vaping

Whenever the media talks about the latest e-cigarette study most often the reporting is very negative.

They march a medical pundit onto the sound stage in the news studio and we get all of the canned, pre-programmed anti-e-cig rhetoric that we have become so very familiar with.

Most of the medical pundits practice in the theoretical realm. They interpret e-cigarette studies to suit their own theories.They work at a Big Pharma research lab or they stand in front of a classroom or perhaps they simply work for the media altogether.

The problem is that more than 480,000 people dying every year because of cigarettes are not theoretical statistics, it is all too real and the human cost is staggering.

Listening to the expert industry pontificate about e-cig health risks may be truly bad for your health. If it stops you or anyone you know from trying an alternative to the terrible chemicals in tobacco, a massive disservice has been done.

The recent World Health Organization attack on e-cigarettes is a case in point. The WHO insists that people stick with approved cessation methods even the the success rate of approved methods are a colossal failure. The WHO is afraid that vaping will normalize smoking for a new generation but the evidence actually shows that e-cigs may actually reduce teen smoking rates.

Many e-cigarette studies confirm the obvious, namely that e-cigs are hugely less harmful than tobacco cigarettes. Studies on vapor and second hand vapor have shown e-cigs in a favorable light, but that seldom gets reported.

E-cig health risks may be in question but there is no questioning the fact that all types of cigarettes, light extra light whatever, contain thousands of toxic chemicals. Electronic cigarettes utilize 3 ingredients none of which are carcinogenic. In fact 2 of the 3 ingredients are actually food grade. Common sense, where are you? Good news, doctors are noticing.

There appears to be a giant chasm between the doctors who draw up plays on the sidelines and the doctors who are actually on the field. Medical doctors who see human patients in real, working medical practices every day have taken a decidedly more common sense approach to electronic cigarettes.

According to s study published in ‘PloS One’, 67% of practicing physicians responding to a survey say that electronic cigarettes can help their patients stop smoking. In fact, 36% of doctors fully recommend e-cigs to their patients.

Plos One is an open access, peer reviewed journal published by the Public Library of Science. The lead author was Dr. Kelly Kandra of Benedictine University.

New E-Cigarette Study Shows That Practicing Physicians Believe That Electronic Cigarettes Can Lower Cancer Risk

Dr. Kandra received surveys submitted by 128 physicians. Of the physicians that responded, 64.7% had practiced for 10 years or more and 85.2% of these practicing doctors saw 26 patients or more every week. These are real doctors working with real patients, they don’t have time to hang around news studios and spout aimless talking points.

Most of the doctors involved in the study indicated that they believed that electronic cigarettes lower cancer risks.

Dr. Darl Rantz of Georgia maintains a family practice and is a firm believer that electronic cigarettes can help save lives. He says “Nothing’s perfect but cigarettes are causing 480,000 deaths a year. Even if it only works in 10% of the population you’ve just saved 10% of the smoking populations life. Outlawing a product because it doesn’t help everybody? Where is the logic in that?”

Dr. Rantz believes that electronic cigarettes are potentially more effective than other nicotine replacement therapies because mimicking the act of smoking makes the transition away from cigarettes easier.

More than two-thirds of practicing medical doctors surveyed are not buying the anti-e-cig rhetoric. In most cases, they personally know their patients and they want to help people find solutions that work. They leave the theory to the classroom and recommend real world solutions to their patients.

Electronic cigarettes are an option that smokers deserve to have access to. Medical practitioners are realizing this at a quickly increasing rate. Perhaps the expert industry will catch on to common sense at some point.




