Hi my name is Neve and I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on vaping and is the

evidence suggesting that it's okay for you or if it's bad for you? Thank you.

Hi there, thank you for your question. I actually have gotten this question a lot recently

which coincides with the increased uptake in people vaping especially here in the UK.

We also have a comprehensive article on the website thefoodmedic.co.uk on this topic

by our resident GP which goes into much more detail but I'll share the major takeaways

here. So just so we're on the same page vaping refers to the use of e-cigarettes which

allows you to inhale a vapor typically containing nicotine as opposed to smoke.

Now unlike tobacco cigarettes e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco and do not produce tar or

carbon monoxide which are the two most damaging elements in tobacco smoke. There's also some

evidence to show that vaping especially combined with face-to-face support can double

an individual's chance of quitting smoking compared to using alternative nicotine replacement

therapies such as patches or gum. Now in the UK e-cigarettes are not currently available

from the NHS on prescription so you can't get one from your GP but you can buy them

from specialist vapes shops some pharmacies and other retailers. Now that said they're

not completely risk-free but they carry a very small fraction of the risk of cigarettes.

As the liquid and vapor contained potentially harmful chemicals also found in cigarette

smoke but at much lower levels. There's also risk that they may worsen lung conditions

such as asthma and COPD and also cause a newly coined condition called vaping associated

lung injury. The other point is these products have not been on the market for long enough

to truly understand the longer term dangers associated with them so the information I'm

providing here today is based on what we know so far. So to answer your question I can

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