I am full of anger right now. After trying to get my husband, to vape, 9 years of trying, he finally made the commitment. He has been cigarette free, for 3 weeks. Today he went to the pharmacy, to pick up his prescriptions for heart disease, and COPD. The pharmacist called him into a separate room, to discuss his meds, and clean up his file. While talking, he mentioned, that he is now vaping, instead of smoking. Without skipping a beat, the pharmacist told him, he might just as well be smoking. She said there was no difference! Canāt believe she could say that, with a straight face. He told her that I make our liquid, she was surprised, but continued with how vaping is bad for you. Maybe she should read some legit research. Hope she doesnāt call me in to review my file. I may be searching for a new pharmacist. She could have undone, all the hard work I did, showing my husband, the merits of vaping! He was a hard nut to crack! Rant over, heās still vaping:relaxed:
Thopfully he sticks with it and with time will feel the difference by switching. I canāt speak from experience with copd but people have reported seeing improvement and hope he goes long enough to get the benefit to prove the pharmacist wrong.
Very few people in the medical field know what they are doing, doctors and pharmacists especially.
Itās going to take a while, sadly. I went in for a general checkup about a year agoā¦ when doing the heart disease/attack likelyhood questionnaire they use to determine my risk factor, he insisted on checking the smoker box when I told him i only vape. He told me it was the same risk to the heart as smoking. . . That the tar/combustion when smoking is only bad for the lungs, but the nicotine gets the heart.
Stupid people exist in all professions, my friend had a doctor tell him that if he is gonna vape he might as well just inhale above a burning candle because itās the same thingā¦
I havenāt encountered a doctor in the Netherlands (yet?) who said something stupid like that.
So far I got very positive feedback. My sister was told that by switching to vaping she had eliminated risk factor no 1 and I remember one of my neighbours, who was under control after suffering a heart attack, was told the exact same thing.
As has been said above, you will find stupid people everywhere. Just because someone has the capability to memorise stuff long enough to cough it up at an exam, doesnāt automatically mean they have the brain capacity to think for themselves.
Go six years and not smoking just vapeā¦they are wrong I have my lungs back and feel 98% betterā¦ idiots!
I just had my yearly physical, and after 2 years smoke free (only vaping) my doc says my lungs sound like a never-smoker! AND I was a pack a day smoker for 23 years.
shows how much they think they know.
Edit: at the end of my appt, doc says to me āYour in perfect health for someone in their 20āsā, thing isā¦Iām 40 lmao
OMG, the utter and complete LACK of education here, and then her attempting to be āthe authorityā! Grargh. Iām seriously amazed you handled it with the grace you did. Iād have been screaming like a maniac.
Give her thisā¦ Head of Cardiac Surgery who explains not only WHY vaping isnāt the scary danger everyone is raving about, but also why people are being fed such disinformationā¦ It is SO worth watching.
@Jetalito donāt let otherās ignorance heat you up. Is vaping totally safe ?? NO !!! Is it better than smoking ?? YES.
Beyond that, things get into a gray area for sure. Just keep him off the cigs, and letās see how things go.
When I hit the 3 year mark of vaping after quitting tobacco. My Dr. told me āgreat, if anybody asks, you are a non-smoker.ā Some of them actually pay attention.
Albeit, that pharmacist may have a MPharm or PharmD degreeā¦ they have passed the Pharmacy Board Examination in their state and is thus licensed to practice pharmacy in that state. However, they are not a physician. Unless they, personally, have done exhaustive research on vaping and the ensuing results thereofā¦ he/she is basically just giving a personal opinion and/or spouting misguided info from ignorant sources.
Youāre probably not going to change their mind on vaping, no matter how much credible/factual info you feed them. But, if you feel like you want to fight that battleā¦ go for it. 
If it were me, Iād be shopping somewhere else.
Thank you to everyone that commented. I have calmed down a bit. I have decided to wait, see if she calls me in for review of my file. I have a sheet of paper, with lots of info on it, including my facebook page, where I post studies, and research news. As of Oct.1, 2010, I have been an avid vaper, lots of reading, converted several smokers, including my son, but my husband was the holdout. She could have destroyed his belief about ecigs. He is on the ipad looking right now lol.
that be nice to give her a list to get proper info to decide for herself. Tho being a professional she should have read proper studies on her own and at least come to conclusion that it is a safer alternative then smoking. Hopefully for the sake of her other patients it may at least open her mind a bit. Gl to u!
That seems a bit intrusive for a pharmacist. I get itās good to have a patient history, but that should really only be about a medication and an underlying health issue/allergy/medications interfering with each other.
As for vaping, they have now listed me as a āheavy smokerā according to my charts for my primary provider. 
Iād fire them.
She asked him if he was still smoking. Think she was gonna suggest NRT, but he told her, he was vaping. That is when she told him, he might just as well be smoking.
In the course of my life, Iāve made sure NOT to voluntarily give up information about any/all of my favorite vices to any physician. Some things are better left untold. 
Thereās an old joke about a tent preacher getting a congregation all worked up, to tell all their sins in public to gain forgiveness. So, everyone is yelling out all their sins, here and there. Way in the backā¦ a man starts screaming and wailing, getting everyoneās attentionā¦ he goes on to tell that heās been spending an undue amount of up close and personal time in his neighbors barn with its inhabitants. Thereās a deafening hush over the tentā¦ wherein the preacher saysā¦ āI wouldnāt have told that one, Brother!ā 