Vaping is a modern type of smoking through e-cigarettes. While it seems less harmful, it can cause acute lung injury and brain ailments. Read more at Meri Sehat.

The Truth Behind Vaping

Vaping is increasingly growing popular around the world. What is vaping? And how does it affect your body?

Juul pods do not contain any calories as they are designed for vaping and do not contain any food substances. Juul pods typically contain nicotine, flavorings, and other chemicals, but they do not contribute to calorie intake. It is important to note that while Juul pods may not have calories, the act of vaping itself can have other potential health impacts, and it is advisable to consider the overall effects on health and well-being.

Overview

A quick google search will tell you about the abundance of vaping lounges and cafes all across the country. There are tons of resources from where you can buy vaping salts, oils, cartridges etc. An e-cigarette here, a juul pod there can be easily located at most social gatherings. This makes one wonder what this new craze is about. Is it just a novel trend or is there more behind this phenomenon? 
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Truth Behind Vaping

The process of consuming a regular cigarette is called smoking since you&rsquo;re inhaling smoke. In that vein, the term vaping is based on the inhalation of vapor. Where does this vapor come from?&nbsp;

The answer lies in the intricate mechanics of an e-cigarette. It has a tank which you fill with a liquid solution (e-liquid/vape-oil/vape juice, etc.) and a rechargeable battery that powers the atomizer. The atomizer heats the liquid and turns it into vapor. This vapor delivers nicotine (and so much more!) into your system.&nbsp;

In most countries, especially the third world, the manufacture of e-cigarettes is not regulated. This means almost any substance can be added to the vape oil. Nicotine and humectants such as propylene glycol and glycerin are usually the main components. Scents, flavours, psychoactive substances, such as THC, and sometimes even trace amounts of alcohol may be present.&nbsp; 
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We all know smoking is a vice. The widespread scorn for smoking is rightfully backed by a ton of peer-reviewed medical literature. But there was a time when it was actually cool to have a cigarette dangling from your lips. The downfall of smoking came once several major medical reports found a strong association of smoking with <a href="https://merisehat.pk/disease/lung-cancer-67" target="_blank">lung cancer</a>.&nbsp;

Ever since then, people who want to quit smoking have been looking for alternate ways to satiate their nicotine cravings. Nicotine patches, gums or medicines (Bupropion, Veranicline, Wellbutrin) are commonly used for this purpose. One of the most exciting prospects on this front was the introduction of e-cigarettes back in 2002. Slowly gaining popularity, we saw a sudden surge in e-cigarette users between 2011 and 2021 when number of users went from a mere seven million to a whopping 68 million. Most of these users were women and young adults.&nbsp;

Several studies have demonstrated that vaping can not only be helpful for kicking the smoking habit, but also people who used this method to quit also showed fewer withdrawal symptoms. 
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There is widespread consensus in the medical community that vaping still fares better than smoking when it comes to its side-effects profile. This is mostly because of it being a newer phenomenon. We haven&rsquo;t been able to collect enough data to fairly make this judgment.&nbsp;

What we do know so far already makes it sound like something you should either stay far away from or at least employ some discretion with. In 2019, many American officials were already calling it a national health crisis when several teens were rushed to the hospital for life-threatening conditions linked to vaping.&nbsp;

The market leader for e-cigarettes, Juul, was banned by the FDA when they failed to back up their claims that their products lead to smoking cessation. They were also charged with encouraging teenagers, and some of their vape pods were found to have a whole pack worth of nicotine in them.&nbsp;

Now, some of the major side-effects of vaping are:&nbsp; 
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Acute Lung Injury: With the rise of its popularity, vaping has managed to increase hospital admission due to a disease called EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping-product use associated lung injury). These patients usually present with pneumonia and leave doctors baffled at the lack of association with the usual causes of pneumonia.&nbsp;

Symptoms like fever, chills, cough, where some blood might also come up, are usually noted. A little digging usually leads to a history of vaping. Upon further investigations, the damage was linked to a thickening substance used in THC vaping products called Vitamin C acetate. Our lung cells are not designed to process this thick oily substance, so an inflammatory reaction is the next best thing they can do.&nbsp;

This is the current working hypothesis we have. Researchers are still looking into more reasons for why this might be happening. Outbreaks of EVALI have mostly been limited to the North American region. Isolated cases in countries like Canada, Japan, UK and Mexico failed to establish a correlation between disease presentation and vaping while some also predated the outbreak.&nbsp; 
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Nicotine Addictions: Increased blood pressure and heart rate, spikes in adrenaline, narrowing of blood vessels are all effects of nicotine that add to the likelihood of a heart attack. However, not all e-cigarettes contain nicotine. 
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Harmful Chemicals: Diacetyl is a compound used to formulate flavors for vape oils. It has been linked to popcorn lung (bronchiolitis obliterans) in factory workers. Now imagine putting that directly into your lungs! Heavy metals such as nickel, tin, lead and ultra-fine particles also cause irritation.&nbsp; 
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Detrimental For Brain Development: Nicotine is not just addictive, but hinders normal brain development. The part of our brain known for processing learning, memory, and attention and impulse control suffers as a result. This eventually leads to a long-term sequela of disordered cognition. 
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It&rsquo;s Not Just The Lungs: Owing to how the human body is designed and functions, inhaling anything means delivering it to each and every cell and organ. It causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach aches. Sore throats, bad breath, ulcers, dry mouth, bleeding gums are also common. 
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Bottom Line

Traditional cigarettes have cadmium, arsenic and hydrogen cyanide with the potential to kill half the people who smoke them. E-cigarettes have roughly the same number of toxic substances. Research has shown that 90% of smokers couldn&rsquo;t quit smoking by replacing it with vaping, and a meta-analysis published in The Lancet established that adults who vape were 28% less likely to stop.&nbsp; 
 
Although branded as an alternative to cigarette smoking, most people, especially teens, are stumbling upon vaping at the start of their smoking journey. Much of the marketing around vaping is similar to what tobacco companies were telling the general public back in the day.&nbsp; 
 
The crackdown by American authorities on vaping and related products also means that promotional efforts have been doubled in developing nations such as Asia and Africa. If you are an adult trying to quit smoking,&nbsp;then this might be a good option for you but there are far healthier ones as well. Be vigilant about THC vaping products, buy from legitimate resources, avoid exposing yourself to products there&rsquo;s not much evidence for or against and in the best-case&nbsp;scenario just don&rsquo;t do it.

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