Have you heard this story about Sherlock Holmes before?

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After well-prepared meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night and went to sleep in their tent. Some hours later Holmes woke and nudged his faithful friend.
He said to Watson. “Watson look up and tell me what you see”
Watson replied “I see me then billions of stars”.
“What does that tell you Holmes enquired?” Watson pondered for a minute then replied
“Astronomically it tells me that there are millions of the galaxies and potentially billions of planets
Astrologically I observed that Saturn is in Leo.
Horologically I deduce that the time is approximately a 3:15am.
Theologically I can see that God is all powerful and we are small and insignificant.
Meteorologically I suspect it will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you Sherlock? Holmes was silent for a minute and then spoke.
“Watson you idiot , someone has stolen our tent”.

While it's obviously just a joke it does also have an interesting thought behind it. If you are so engrossed in one way of thinking then perhaps you may miss something that is right under your nose ! 

Often the solution is right before us but we just do not have our eyes open enough to see it.

So, you don't always need to think like a detective!

is everyone missing the point?

The news this morning reports that the number of people who use electronic cigarettes in the UK has tripled over the past two years to 2.1 million, according to health charity estimates.

It says just over half of current or ex-smokers have now tried electronic cigarettes, compared with 8% in 2010.

The survey was carried out by ASH the Action on Smoking and Health and it surveyed more than 12,000 adult smokers. The use of e-cigarettes among people who have never smoked remains small at 1%, Ash said. Of those now estimated to be using electronic cigarettes, around 700,000 are thought to be ex-smokers and 1.3 million to be using them alongside normal cigarettes or tobacco.

These studies often look a the alternatives to smoking being patches, gum, and now more than ever e-cigarettes. The point that they seem to continue to miss is that these things are about nicotine replacement therapy.

Surely a better thing to be looking at is ways to end smoking and stop it for good?  The way that e-cigs are talked about seems to be all about getting smokers to use them instead of cigarettes with tobacco in and then just carrying on smoking them for good.

If you exchange one things for another you are still relying on spending lots of money on something that isn’t good for you. Why not think about the idea that you could stop smoking and become a non smoker instead?

Some of the statistics from the study....

Current smokers using the cigarettes regularly have risen from 2.7% in 2010 to 17.7% in 2014.

When ex-smokers were asked why they used electronic cigarettes, 71% said they wanted help giving up smoking. Among smokers, 48% said wanted to reduce the amount of tobacco they smoked and 37% said they used e-cigarettes to save money.

Smoking rate fall

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Ash, said: "The dramatic rise in use of electronic cigarettes over the past four years suggests that smokers are increasingly turning to these devices to help them cut down or quit smoking. Significantly, usage among non-smokers remains negligible."

There was also a separate study that found that most e-cigarette users were using them to reduce smoking.

Another study, The Smoking Toolkit Study, which covers England, has found that electronic cigarettes are overtaking the use of nicotine products such as patches and gum as an aid to quitting smoking.

It also found that the proportion of smokers who gave up smoking in the past year had increased and smoking rates in England were continuing to fall.

Study leader Prof Robert West said: "Despite claims that use of electronic cigarettes risks renormalising smoking, we found no evidence to support this view.

"On the contrary, electronic cigarettes may be helping to reduce smoking as more people use them as an aid to quitting."

Ms Arnott added: "While it is important to control the advertising of electronic cigarettes to make sure children and non-smokers are not being targeted, there is no evidence from our research that e-cigarettes are acting as a gateway into smoking."

Ash's survey suggests that most electronic cigarettes users, or "vapers", use a rechargeable product with replaceable cartridges or a reservoir.

Simon Clark, director of Forest, a group that supports smokers, said it welcomed the rise of e-cigarettes and was glad people had a choice of what to smoke.

But he suggested that most smokers using e-cigarettes were experimenting with them rather than using them to give up smoking altogether.

"We haven't seen a significant fall in smokers. Most smokers still find electronic cigarettes quite basic and it will take a few more years for the technology to improve."

I think it is interesting to note that many of the manufactureres of electronic cigarettes also made ones with tobacco in them...it makes you think !

It really does seem that there is an increasing reliance on finding a substitute for cigarettes is the key to these studies. Perhaps it is time to spend more time looking at ways to help people to quit. The way that electronic cigarettes are being reported seems to show that more than anything else people are becoming hooked on vaping and spending more and more money on the products. Let's face it that would be great news for the e-cigarette industry wouldn't it?

If you would like to become a non smoker and give up cigarettes rather then replace them there are lots of tips and advice here... Help to quit smoking.

You can email me if you would like to find out about hypnotherapy to stop smoking on [email protected] or call me on 07980 233160