Zigmars Dzerve
Founder of Burnout
I built Burnout — an app that times nicotine leaving your blood from your own last cigarette and marks the recovery milestones after it — and I research and write everything published on this site: 81 guides across 9 topics, plus 14 free calculators.
I am not a doctor, nurse or researcher, and I do not pretend to be. I am a developer who had to read the actual literature to build a quit-smoking app that models recovery honestly — nicotine and cotinine clearance, the withdrawal curve, what a milestone at two weeks is really based on. Most of what I found online was either clinical and unreadable, or confident and sourced to nothing. So I write the version I wanted: the documents in plain language, with the links, so you can check me.
In practice that means every health claim here points at a primary source — WHO, the NHS, the CDC, the 2020 Surgeon General’s report, or the paper itself — and keeps that source’s own hedges and windows. It also means nothing here is clinically reviewed, because there is no clinician on staff to review it. I would rather say that plainly than imply a credential I do not have.
How I work
- Primary documents, opened. Health claims come from public-health bodies and peer-reviewed papers, not from other blogs. No URL is cited that was not read.
- The hedge stays on. These bodies publish windows, not instants. Where a source says “up to” or gives a range of months, so does the page.
- Where they disagree, I print the disagreement. Four bodies give four answers for when heart risk halves. Picking the friendliest one is how a timeline stops being true.
- My numbers are labelled mine. The phase boundaries, the absorption factors, the withdrawal curve — nobody publishes those. Where a figure is ours the page says so and cites nobody for it.
- No diagnosis, no prescriptions. These are guides. Anything involving medication or a diagnosis belongs with a clinician.
- Corrections welcome. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell me and I will fix it and move the update date.
The full detail is in the editorial policy.
What Burnout is
A quit-smoking, quit-vaping and quit-pouches tracker. It counts from your own last cigarette, times the nicotine clearing your blood, and marks each recovery milestone with the body that published it and the window that body actually gives. There is no account and no sign-in — everything you track stays on your own device.
Recently updated
- Best Quit Smoking Apps 2026: An Honest Comparison The quit smoking apps worth knowing about: NHS Quit Smoking, quitSTART, Smoke Free, Kwit, QuitNow and EasyQuit — with what the published evidence shows. Last updated Aug 21, 2026 · 13 min read
- Stoptober 2026 Rules: What the Challenge Asks Stoptober 2026 runs 1–31 October. The rules in plain words: what counts, what does not, where the 28-day target comes from, and what happens if you slip. Last updated Aug 21, 2026 · 9 min read
- Does Stoptober Work? What the Evidence Shows Two published evaluations measured Stoptober's effect on quit attempts in England. What they found, what they could not measure, and what it means for you. Last updated Aug 16, 2026 · 6 min read
- Is Stoptober for Smoking or Drinking? Stoptober is the stop-smoking month, not the drinking one. The difference between Stoptober, Sober October, Dry January and Movember, in one page. Last updated Aug 16, 2026 · 5 min read
- Stoptober 2026: Dates, How It Works, Free Support Stoptober 2026 runs 1–31 October. What the campaign is, who runs it, where the 28-day challenge comes from, and free tools for getting through the month. Last updated Aug 16, 2026 · 7 min read
- How Much Nicotine Is in a Vape? Juul, Elf Bar & More Compared Compare nicotine content in Juul pods, Elf Bar, Lost Mary, and other vapes. See cigarette equivalencies, mg/mL breakdowns, and why comparisons are imprecise. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 7 min read
- How to Quit Vaping: A Complete Guide A practical, science-backed guide to quitting vaping. Step-by-step strategies, tapering methods, NRT options, and behavioral changes that actually work. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 5 min read
- Is Vaping Bad for You? What the Research Actually Shows What science actually says about vaping health risks — respiratory, cardiovascular, and oral effects, what's in vape aerosol, and what we still don't know. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 5 min read
- Nicotine Salts vs Freebase: Why Vapes Hit Different Nicotine salts vs freebase nicotine: the chemistry, the absorption differences, and why nic salts make quitting harder. What every vaper should understand. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 8 min read
- Popcorn Lung and Vaping: Separating Fact from Fear Can vaping cause popcorn lung? The real science on diacetyl, bronchiolitis obliterans, and vaping. No hype, no dismissal — just what the evidence shows. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 7 min read
- How to Quit Vaping Cold Turkey: Does It Work? Can you quit vaping cold turkey? Success rates, what the first 72 hours feel like, who it works best for, and a practical survival guide for the first week. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 8 min read
- Quit Vaping Timeline: What Happens to Your Body What actually happens to your body when you quit vaping — from 20 minutes to 1 year. A science-backed recovery timeline for nicotine vape users. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 7 min read
- Vaping and Anxiety: Why Nicotine Makes It Worse Vaping feels like it reduces anxiety, but nicotine actually raises your baseline. Learn the withdrawal-relief cycle and what happens to anxiety after quitting. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 7 min read
- Vaping Side Effects: What the Science Shows Documented vaping side effects — respiratory, cardiovascular, oral, and neurological. What the science shows, what reverses after quitting, and what may not. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 7 min read
- Vaping vs Smoking: Which Is Actually Worse? An evidence-based comparison of vaping vs smoking — chemical exposure, cancer risk, cardiovascular effects, addiction potential, and the 95% safer claim. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 5 min read
- Vaping Withdrawal Symptoms: What to Expect and When A day-by-day vaping withdrawal timeline. What symptoms to expect, when they peak, why they happen neurochemically, and when they end. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 5 min read
- What Vaping Does to Your Lungs: The Science Explained What science actually shows about vaping and lung damage — ultrafine particles, flavoring chemicals, heavy metals, EVALI, and what imaging studies reveal. Last updated Apr 15, 2026 · 7 min read
- How Breathing Improves After Quitting Smoking Breathing starts improving within 24 hours of quitting smoking. Here's the timeline for lung recovery — from blood oxygen to lung function to exercise capacity. Last updated Apr 13, 2026 · 5 min read
- Carbon Monoxide and Smoking: What It Does to Your Blood Every cigarette fills your blood with carbon monoxide, which blocks oxygen delivery to your organs. Here's exactly how it works and how fast it clears after quitting. Last updated Apr 13, 2026 · 5 min read
- Carbon Monoxide and Smoking: The Invisible Harm in Every Cigarette How carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke harms your body: the mechanism of hemoglobin displacement, chronic hypoxia effects, and how fast CO clears after quitting. Last updated Apr 13, 2026 · 4 min read
- What's in a Cigarette: 70+ Chemicals You're Actually Inhaling Cigarette smoke contains 7,000+ chemicals, including 70 known carcinogens. Here's what's actually in cigarettes — and what each chemical does to your body. Last updated Apr 13, 2026 · 5 min read
- What Is Cotinine? The Nicotine Test Explained Cotinine is what nicotine tests actually detect. Learn what cotinine is, how long it stays in your system, and what levels mean for blood, urine, and saliva tests. Last updated Apr 13, 2026 · 5 min read
- Dopamine and Nicotine Addiction: Why Quitting Is Hard Nicotine addiction is fundamentally a dopamine system disorder. Here's how nicotine hijacks the reward pathway, why quitting feels awful, and what actually changes in your brain. Last updated Apr 13, 2026 · 6 min read
- Energy Levels After Quitting Smoking: What to Expect Energy dips in the first weeks after quitting smoking before recovering strongly. Here's why — and when most ex-smokers feel more energetic than they did as smokers. Last updated Apr 13, 2026 · 5 min read