(ThyBlackMan.com) Vaping devices, also known as vape kits, vape pens, vape pod/mod system and e-hookahs among other terms, come in various shapes and sizes. Some look like traditional cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. Maybe you’ve heard a number of lung diseases even deaths that vaping may cause. But about the reasons and results, there are many uncertainties remained to be testified.
Health issues that vaping may cause must be an important point for not only vapers but also public to consider. While the safety and long-term health effects of using e-cigarettes or other vaping products still aren’t well known. In September 2019, federal and state health authorities began investigating an outbreak of a severe lung disease associated with e-cigarettes and other vaping products. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Governmental authority said “We’re closely monitoring the situation and will update our content as soon as more information is available.”
So what actual and potential health risks that vaping may bring to our body? Now let’s take a look.
Damage to Your Brain
Nicotine has been shown to be more addictive than most drugs, only less addictive than cocaine and heroin. Repeated use of nicotine can alter the body’s hemodynamics and cause insulin resistance, promoting the development of cancer.
Your brain continues to grow until age 25. Before then, it’s highly sensitive to the effects of e-cigarette chemicals, especially nicotine. It can disrupt your brain growth, with lasting effects on your learning and thinking skills. It’s also linked to depression and schizophrenia.
Children and adolescents are sensitive to nicotine, which affects brain functions such as attention distraction, learning and impulse control, increases the risk of addiction in the future, impedes the development of brain and can be life-threatening if consumed in excess.
Therefore CDC (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention) suggests that:
“Youths, young adults, and pregnant women shouldn’t vape.
If you don’t vape, don’t start.
If you vape, don’t buy devices or liquids off the street.
Don’t change a vaping device or add anything to it that the maker didn’t intend.”
Damage to Immune System
A comparison of immune cells in the noses of e-cigarette users and traditional cigarette smokers, found that 358 immune genes were suppressed in the nose as a result of vaping, compared with 53 in regular smokers. In this aspect, e-cigarettes are 7 times more dangerous than cigarettes at suppressing immune genes in the body.
Damage to Mouth and Throat
“Vaping causes inflammation of the mouth and throat which may lead to other health problems,” says Dr. Magid. These can include everything from periodontal diseases to bone death, cellular death, and bad breath. Sometime it causes your mouth tasteless which is also known as “vaper’s tongue”, but how does it happen? According to Vaping360, “We have anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 taste buds in our mouth and fortunately they regenerate every ten days. Your sense of taste, called your gustatory sense, requires saliva to keep your taste buds working properly. Vaping can sometimes cause a fatigued tongue, leading to dry mouth which will be devoid of adequate saliva. When we don’t have enough saliva, the ability to taste is almost non-existent.”
Risk of Heart Attack
As mentioned above, nicotine is the primary agent in both regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and it is highly addictive. It causes you to crave a smoke and suffer withdrawal symptoms if you ignore the craving. Studies show vaping may make heart disease more likely. Nicotine boosts plaque buildup in your arteries, which makes it harder for blood to reach your vital organs. This can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Nicotine is also a toxic substance. It raises your blood pressure and stimulate the secretion of your adrenaline, which increases your heart beat rate and the likelihood of having a heart attack.
Risk of Lung Diseases
You might cough and wheeze. If you have asthma, vaping can make it worse. Scientists think the chemicals often found in e-juice can cause other serious lung problems. Found in unqualified vape juice, a chemical called acrolein, for example, is mainly used to kill weeds. It can cause sudden lung injury and trigger serious respiratory illnesses like COPD and lung cancer.
Data from a large federal government telephone survey of adults, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report evidence that inhaling heated tobacco vapor through e-cigarettes was linked to increased odds of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), conditions long demonstrated to be caused by smoking traditional, combustible cigarettes. According to the data, the researchers say, also suggest that odds of developing COPD may be as much as six times greater when people report they both vape and smoke tobacco regularly, compared with those who don’t use any tobacco products at all. The results suggest possible e-cigarette–related pulmonary toxicity across all the categories of combustible cigarette smoking status, including those who had never smoked combustible cigarettes.
It Ages You Faster
Alike to regular smoking, vaping can age you 10 years or more. “Vaping can age your skin similar to cigarettes,” board-certified dermatologist Nazanin Saedi MD, explains. “We know that people who smoke age prematurely, especially their skin.” How does this happen? She explains that nicotine lowers the oxygen supply, and also increases the breakdown of collagen. “People who smoke or vape also form lines around their mouths—smokers lines—from the breakdown of collagen,” she points out.
If I smoke or vape, am I at risk for complications from COVID-19?
In this long lasting particular contagion period, many smokers and vapers may concern the risk of inhaling and exhaling. E-cigarette use can expose the lungs to toxic chemicals, but whether those exposures increase the risk of COVID-19 or the severity of COVID-19 outcomes is not known. However, many e-cigarette users are current or former smokers, and cigarette smoking increases the risk of respiratory infections, including pneumonia.
Conclusion
If you are going through this article carefully, you can find that most of vaping health risks are relating to one chemical element: nicotine. It mainly damages your lung and heart and brings highpertension, respiratory disease and even heart attack. However, nicotine in the vape juice is optional which means you can choose the nicotine strength or content in the e-liquids. To avoid the harm that nicotine may lead, we can choose zero nicotine vape juice like shortfill, or the lowest nicotine strength of e-juice(3mg or 6mg).
Staff Writer; George Barker
