I guess I was about nine years old when I figured out that if I swiped one of my fathers cigarettes I could make the throat ticks go away (Tourette’s). That was in 1949. So for the next 50+ years I found myself addicted to cigarette smoking, and could not find any solution to the addiction that worked. The patch created skin rashes that were unbearable, the oral NRT’s caused stomach ulcers, the mind altering drugs like Welbutrin and Chantex caused thoughts of self destruction. So none of these were a viable option to smoking, I just found the ‘cure to be worse than the problem’. At the age of 69 a friend introduced me to electronic cigarettes, and I found the transition to be completely seamless. On April 1st 2011 I was a smoker, on April 2nd 2011 I was not. In the 2+ years that I have been using electronic cigarettes instead of smoking my A1C readings have gone down. Cholesterol readings have shown like improvements. Blood pressure readings are far better than before. In the past 2+ years I have not had a single cold or flu. The chronic bronchitis is completely gone. I guess there really is a reason that they atomize PG into the ventilation systems of many hospitals and clinics to reduce airborne virus and bacteria. As a smoker I had reached that point where a simple cold was a life threatening problem often leading to hospitalization. Thanks to electronic cigarettes those days are past. I am now 72 years old, and overall my quality of life is vastly improved by not smoking. The electronic cigarette made that possible. Maybe I’ll even get to stick around for another decade or two. tj