Could Vaping be a New Weapon in the Battle of the Bulge?

Abstract

As the prevalence of tobacco smoking has been decreasing, obesity has increased.Obesity is set to overtake tobacco smoking in many developed countries as the primary preventable cause of conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Obesity is a complex condition that is challenging public health prevention efforts. Tobacco smoking mitigates weight gain through nicotine's effect on the brain and metabolism.The prospect of gaining weight upon stopping smoking acts as an inhibitor to quitting and weight gain post-cessation is a common cause of relapse. Vaping nicotine is a new and controversial phenomenon that is highly attractive to smokers, but raises fears for health among public health and tobacco control advocates. There have been some reports among vapers that vaping is helping to mitigate weight gain after stopping smoking and or vaping is helping them to control their weight. There are several potential mechanisms by which vaping, in addition to the direct effects of nicotine, could facilitate weight control, these include taste perception, physical mouth feel and sensation and behavioural replacement. Research on the potential for vaping to support weight control may be worth pursuing given the human and economic costs of the global obesity epidemic and the failure of current obesity prevention strategies.2

Vaping for weight control: A cross-sectional population study in England

“…While vaping after a meal or snack was commonly reported by e-cigarette users, the proportion who reported vaping to replace a meal or snack was low (1.9%). Although flavours might provide a direct alternative to food ( Glover et al, 2017 ), few respondents in our study who vaped to replace food rated flavour as an important motive. Rather, approximately 6 out of 10 tended to report the physical and behavioural aspects of e-cigarette use (mouth feel, hand to mouth action, and keeping hands busy) as important.…”

“…Smoking causes lower body mass index (BMI) ( Winsløw, Rode, & Nordestgaard, 2015 ) probably because of the anorexic effect of nicotine. The behavioural aspects to smoking (hand to mouth action, opening cigarettes, putting cigarettes in the mouth and time taken by smoking) fill time and provide distraction that may influence food consumption ( Glover, Breier, & Bauld, 2017 ) although evidence from low nicotine cigarettes and comparisons between inhalator and patch tend to go against this assumption ( West et al, 2001 ; West, Russell, Jarvis, & Feyerabend, 1984 ). Smokers are therefore, in general, lighter than non-smokers.…”

“…E -cigarettes are currently the most popular aid to stopping smoking in the UK, used in over one third of quit attempts in England ( West, Shahab, & Brown, 2016 ). It has been proposed, but not demonstrated, that e-cigarettes may reduce weight gain on cessation compared with routes to quit without alternative nicotine ( Glover et al, 2017 ). Randomised controlled trials of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) have shown that stopping smoking with NRT reduces weight gain compared with placebo ( Farley, Hajek, Lycett, & Aveyard, 2012 ).…”

The diverging trajectories of cannabis and tobacco policies in the United States: reasons and possible implications

“…The report argued that any such benefits were outweighed by the deadly consequences of tobacco smoking; it did not acknowledge that this argument did not apply to nicotine delivered via gum or patches. The report also did not consider possible benefits of nicotine as an appetite suppressant in obesity control . The tobacco control community is also reluctant to acknowledge that the pleasurable effects of nicotine might justify recreational nicotine use in safer forms (see ).…”

An innovative team-based weightloss competition to reduce cardiovascular and diabetes risk among Māori and Pacific people: rationale and method for the study and its evaluation

“…electronic devices), were excluded. Nicotine is a known appetite suppressant and could confound the results [40].…”