RYO vs. Regular Cigarettes

So I have been smoking since I was 14 (9 years ago). Before anyone goes off, yes I know how terrible it is and I should quit. About 2 years ago I switched to rolling my own. Right off the bat I noticed that I smoked less (from over a pack a day down to less than 10 cigarettes a day) and I started wondering if roll your own cigarettes have any different health consequences than regular cigarettes?

I have googled it and have found mostly just biased websites. Either sites specifically trying to get you to quit or sites trying to get you to buy their brand. I feel like....I'm cutting out over 2,000 chemicals....does that count for anything? Since I switched I haven't gotten 1 sinus infection (I got about 2-3 every year when smoking regular cigarettes) and I notice that if I try to smoke a 'real' cigarette, I can't even finish it. It hurts my throat, makes me cough and I can't even get half way through before I have to put it out. It just makes me feel terrible.

I feel like....if I physically feel better and noticeably smoke less.....there has to be some difference. But I haven't found any info that I consider credible. Has anyone else ever looked into this?

ok first off i have managed a smoke shop for several years so know quite a bit about tobaccoo. There are many different strengths of ryo just like reg cigarettes and there are still the same amount of chemicals in some ryo.

ones with no chemicals of course are going to be smoother depending on strength and brand but equally not as harsh...especially since they are fresher than your prepacked friends and the tobacco is even slightly damp/moist.
you need to factor in the papers as well bambu or rice papers or any other natural brand is the kind you should use since they as well put chemicals in the paper!

whenever you switch to a different brand or kind of tobaccoo there are many different factors of why you have the health things happening to you.
yes some company ryo are a lot smoother in texture they are easier to smoke they don't hurt your throat and a lot of times it's like you don't even know you are inhaling smoke ( i can share the brand i used to smoke if you want)
i never used filters in my ryo didn't need one. it is also nice becasue you can roll the size you want which is usually typically smaller than a prepacked one...unless you have a machine....there are also many prepacked smokes that are nust straight tobaccoo that are similair if you don't feel like rolling.
my personal beliefs i don't think there is anything wrong with straight tobaccoo, and have read many research papers and so on but we are not getting into that.
i personally don't smoke anymore but i do cigars
if you want to talk more or explain things you can massage me don't want to start any cravings up in these smoking cessastion rooms for people

I found a study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19523045

Here's the "English": http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk....rous-are-they/

Hi salukigirl, I tried roll your own but it did not work out for me. Yes, I know smoking is bad and I should quit too. I hope there is a day when we are both non-smokers. Good luck.

Perna - I tried to read the actual article....then I said "thank god she put the 'english' version on here!"

Thanks for the responses. I guess I'm struggling with feeling like a social pariah and kind of feeling like "I'm 23....in college....not married and not pregnant....I'm going to enjoy this while I can!" and I'm a little tired for feeling bad that I'm enjoying myself being young, in college and not tied down. Is that wrong?

Perna - I also just noticed that it says "Jess" at the end of the article haha They wrote it just for me!!!

I'm disappointed in you; I put the "actual" science article up there thinking you could read it/would enjoy it with your science background