Is Vaping Better Than Smoking? Which One Is Safer?

As more people try to avoid the dangers of smoking and cigarettes lose popularity, many are considering vaping as a safer alternative. But is vaping really a safer way to quit smoking? Is vaping better than smoking?

The answer is a little bit more complicated than you might think. So, let's dive in and take an in-depth look at vaping vs. smoking. Is vaping actually better than smoking?

Is Vaping Better Than Smoking For Your Health?

There's no way around it — smoking is bad news. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone anywhere with positive things to say about it. Anyone who promotes it is likely collecting a check from Big Tobacco.

The truth is that smoking starts damaging your body almost immediately. So, even in the short term, you will experience adverse effects. In the long term, it gets even worse because the consequences of smoking can completely alter the trajectory of your life.

Here's a brief overview of some of the adverse effects smoking can have on your body:

Lung Damage

Smoking is a full-on assault on your lungs. When you inhale tobacco smoke, you're inhaling over 7,000 chemicals — in addition to nicotine — many of which have been definitively identified as carcinogens. So we know they cause cancer.

This toxic load means that while the immediate impact of cigarette smoking will be symptoms like irritation and inflammation of your airways, the long-term impact can be much worse.

The cough that cigarette smokers experience from the very first time they inhale tobacco smoke is a good indication that their bodies certainly don't like what’s going on. This coughing is your lungs’ way of rejecting the poison you're inhaling.

The problem is that coughing can only do so much, and a lot of the harmful substances in cigarette smoke stick around anyway.

The longer you smoke, the more these chemicals build up in your body. This slow and growing toxification is what leads to the development of the infamous “smoker’s cough.”

Your lungs desperately try to clear out the harmful substances you keep putting into them — they simply can't keep up.

Over time, as you continue to smoke, tiny air sacs in your lungs called alveoli start to break down. Because these structures manage the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood, breathing becomes more challenging when they become damaged.

That's why smokers generally get winded more easily and have less stamina than non-smokers. As you continue to smoke, the damage gets worse and can lead to outcomes like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, which includes conditions like emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Smoking also affects tiny hair-like structures in your airways called cilia. Cilia are responsible for sweeping mucus and dirt out of your lungs.

The buildup from smoking paralyzes cilia, which means they can no longer perform their job. Mucus builds up, which makes you more susceptible to everything from pneumonia and bronchitis to the common cold.

But the most severe effect is, of course, an increased risk of lung cancer. It should come as no surprise that smoking tobacco is the leading cause of lung cancer and is thus the easiest risk factor to eliminate when trying to minimize the risk of this deadly condition.

Heart Damage

Your lungs may be the most obvious organs to take a hit from smoking, but they’re not the only ones. Your heart and cardiovascular system take a hit, too.

Smoking and nicotine cause your heart rate to spike and your blood pressure to rise. Over time, this puts extra strain on your circulatory system and can lead to long-term damage in the form of heart disease or strokes.

The nicotine from smoking also causes your blood vessels to constrict, which can restrict blood flow to your extremities, leading to tingling, numbness, and, in extreme cases, even amputations.

Other Long-Term Effects

In addition to the well-documented problems outlined above, there are many less specific — but no less dangerous — effects on your body as a whole. Essentially, smoking makes you age faster.

It can damage your skin and your teeth. Smokers have higher incidences of gum disease than non-smokers, and many heavy cigarette users quickly find that smoking can add years to your appearance.

In short, there's no aspect of your physical health that’s not made worse by smoking.

What Are The Potential Benefits Of Switching From Smoking To Vaping? Is Vaping Any Better?

The vast and growing popularity of nicotine diffusers has sparked a modern argument — the smoking vs. vaping debate.

To give you an accurate look at the potential benefits of switching from smoking to vaping, we first have to distinguish between switching to electronic cigarettes that contain nicotine and switching to nicotine-free vapes.

Let's first look at some potential benefits of replacing tobacco cigarettes with nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes:

Comparison Of Toxic Substances

Smoking delivers a chemical cocktail. As mentioned above, cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, at least 70 of which are known to cause cancer.

These chemicals include compounds like tar, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde, all of which have been linked to severe health issues.

Now, let's look at vaping. Vaping doesn't involve burning or combustion in the way smoking cigarettes does. In diffusers, a heated liquid creates a vapor that you inhale.

While this process is certainly not risk-free, such vapor generally contains far fewer harmful chemicals than cigarette smoke. This disparity remains whether the vape in question contains nicotine or is nicotine-free.

So, switching from regular smoking to electronic cigarettes with nicotine does eliminate many of those chemicals, but it does not eliminate one of the most harmful chemicals of all: nicotine.

Don't forget that nicotine is harmful all by itself, whether or not other harmful substances piggyback on its delivery medium.

Nicotine causes increased heart rate, blood-vessel distortion, and high blood pressure — all factors that lead to conditions like heart attacks and strokes. So, using a vape with nicotine does nothing to lessen the risks of that particular chemical.

In contrast, nicotine-free vapes remove more than just the nasty chemicals found in cigarette smoke; they also remove nicotine and the problems that come with it. This difference is why some experts suggest that substituting nicotine-free vapes for cigarettes is generally much healthier.

There are other benefits of vaping without nicotine, particularly if you're going to use nicotine-free vapes to help you quit smoking.

Many nicotine-free vapes, like our ARRØ, as well as MELO and HELO, can help satisfy the oral fixation and hand-to-mouth habit that goes hand in hand with many people’s smoking addiction.

Our ARRØ devices are such an effective replacement that they top our list of healthiest vape pens. Using vapes like ours — and those from other nicotine-free vape producers — can help make it easier to quit.

MELO and HELO are sister brands that replace nicotine with functional ingredients that may make it easier for your body to deal with the symptoms of cigarette withdrawal.

For example, MELO e-juice contains relaxing melatonin instead of nicotine. As one of the many symptoms of nicotine withdrawal is irritability and anxiety, switching to a vape like MELO can help you deal with those symptoms, making it easier to quit and to sleep at night without a nicotine hit.

HELO vapes replace nicotine with caffeine so that they can give you the quick energy hit you may have come to associate with the nicotine in cigarettes.

Is Vaping Safe For You?

Is vaping the healthier alternative? Answering this question in the debate on vaping vs. cigarettes requires breaking it down a bit further. What you really need to ask is, “Is vaping safer for you than whatever alternative you're either giving up or thinking about?”

Vaping of any kind — whether it's vaping with nicotine or using a nicotine-free vape — is worse for you than not vaping at all. Almost every expert would agree on that point.

So, let's break it down further. Is vaping safer for you than smoking? Again, most experts agree that it is.

Almost everyone will agree that vaping is going to be a better option than smoking cigarettes. At the very least, most will say vaping is certainly not worse than smoking.

Breaking it down even further, most experts would agree that we can make vaping even safer by removing the nicotine.

Therefore, the safest vape will be one with a nicotine-free e-juice, like ARRØ.

So what does this all mean? The short answer is, “It’s complicated.” If you're using vapes — and in particular nicotine-free vapes — to help you quit smoking, then you're probably making a safer choice than sticking with cigarettes.

But if you're thinking of picking up vaping and believe it carries absolutely no risk at all, then you’re deceiving yourself.

There haven't been any long-term studies that have looked at the long-term health effects of vaping. The practice is too new to have sufficient data to determine that definitively.

That reality means that vaping of any kind comes with some unknowns. The best you can do is to stick with products from reputable manufacturers.

Choose brands that use only the highest quality ingredients and are transparent about what’s in their products. This approach will give you the best chance of making the wisest decisions that will be best for your health.

What Are The Risks And Potential Side Effects Of Vaping?

Again, to answer this question, we need to distinguish between nicotine-free vaping and vaping with nicotine.

We've covered the risks and potential side effects of nicotine above. So, if you choose to use a vape that contains nicotine, you’re going to come face-to-face with all of those same risks.

Now, let's turn our attention to the potential risks and side effects of vaping without nicotine. Remember, everything that we're about to cover comes with the caveat that there haven't been sufficient studies into the long-term effects of vaping, including nicotine-free vaping.

With that caveat in mind, here are some of the more common side effects that you may experience when you vape:

Throat and Airway Irritation

Even though you aren’t inhaling cigarette smoke and you aren’t inhaling nicotine, you’re still inhaling something. And that something always has the potential to irritate your throat and lungs.

This irritation can happen when the base ingredients in vape juice absorb moisture in your airways. The drying can lead to symptoms like a scratchy throat or persistent cough.

Coughing and Respiratory Issues

Some people find that even nicotine-free vaping can cause either a temporary or a persistent cough. This effect is prevalent among people new to vaping or sensitive to a particular vape’s flavorings or other ingredients.

If vaping affects you in this way, and the coughing becomes chronic, it could be a sign that your lungs or airways are reacting negatively to whatever it is that you're vaping.

At that point, you may have to consider giving up vaping or switching to a vape with different ingredients. Also, remember that if you already suffer from conditions like asthma, vaping can potentially make those ailments worse.

What Are Healthier Alternatives To Vaping And Smoking?

Ultimately, healthiness is a continuum. At one end, you have smoking. It is considered the most dangerous option.

Next, you have vaping with nicotine. This practice falls in the middle of the healthiness spectrum.

Finally, there's nicotine-free vaping. Most experts agree this is the safest of the three options we’re examining here. Now, let's talk about alternatives that don't involve smoking or vaping of any kind.

Many people kicking a nicotine habit swear by nicotine replacement therapy, which includes aids like nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, and inhalers.

Nicotine replacement therapy can help wean your body off nicotine over time and reduce withdrawal symptoms like irritability and cravings.

You can also use behavioral support, like counseling, support groups, or mobile apps. These therapies can help you track your progress and stay motivated on your quitting journey.

There are also prescription medications like Chantix and Zyban, which target your brain’s nicotine receptors and may help reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

Finally, some activities can help boost your mood and reduce stress, which may have the side benefit of helping to reduce cravings.

Replacing smoking or vaping with healthier habits like exercise, taking up a new hobby, or learning a new skill can be a great way to reduce the urge to reach for a cigarette or Vape.

So What is the Verdict?

Although there's no single definitive answer, most experts agree that vaping is less risky than smoking. If you dive a little bit deeper, choosing non-nicotine vapes like ARRØ, MELO, or HELO is generally considered to be the safest vaping option.

Remember, replacing one nicotine delivery system — like cigarettes — with another, like standard vapes, may deliver less of a benefit than you might think.

But when you remove nicotine from the equation, as you do by using vapes like ARRØ, MELO, or HELO, the potential benefits increase. Give them a try, and let us know what you think!