What You Don't Know About Vaping (E-Cigarettes) 

By D.L. Marshall

Several youths, adults, adolescents, and pre-teens have adopted vaping as a fashion-like lifestyle without understanding its long-term effects on the body.

Today, many have succumbed to it due to peer pressure and the perception that it is enjoyable.

An e-cigarette, vape pen, or other electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) works by heating a liquid containing nicotine, flavoring, propylene glycol, and other ingredients to make an aerosol inhaled through a mouthpiece.

Vaping involves heating liquid in a tiny device so that it may be inhaled. The liquid in the e-cigarette, vape pen, or other vaping device is heated to form an aerosol. This is not vaporized water. The mist from electronic cigarettes contains suspended nicotine, flavor, and other chemicals. Through the mouthpiece, you breathe these particles into your mouth, where they go down your throat and into your lungs.

While vaping and smoking involve breathing nicotine and other substances into the lungs, vaping is not sure to be less harmful than smoking. Electronic cigarettes heat the liquid to create an aerosol, whereas traditional cigarettes burn tobacco to produce smoke.

Vaping is a common phrase used to describe the use of electronic cigarettes. E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that heat a liquid solution — typically, but not always, containing nicotine — transforming it into an inhalable vapor. If the underlying nicotine mixture is unappealing, various flavors, such as mint, apple, and others, can make vaping appealing, particularly among adolescents.

Regrettably, teens and even pre-teens of today are more knowledgeable about vaping than their parents, and many parents are unaware of their children's heavy vaping habits. Vaping and electronic cigarettes are part of a movement that dates back at least nine years in the United States, Europe, South Africa, and other countries. Vaping gained popularity because it lacks the toxins and tars inherent in most tobacco products. In addition, vaping was expected to reduce the hazards of secondhand smoke for individuals nearby.

Everything sounded relatively harmless in theory. However, these theories were all false and mostly suppressed from the public for a considerable time. Vaping can cause breathing difficulties, organ damage, addiction, and other disorders. Several of the chemicals found in e-liquids are hazardous to the body. A 2012 laboratory investigation determined that these effects were not caused by nicotine but by the compounds used to flavor e-liquids. Moreover, this also held true for e-liquids made with food-grade components.

THE IMPACT AND RISKS According to studies, nicotine addiction may be more challenging to overcome than heroin addiction. Most discussions about helping adolescents quit vaping ignore the possibility that they are already addicted. Adolescents in this phase may often require replacement therapy or medications, such as bupropion, to control their overwhelming cravings.

To learn more about the facts and effects of vaping on the body, one need only turn on the national news to learn about the increasing number of cases in which teens who vape suffer severely — sometimes irreversible — lung damage and, in extreme cases, death.

Teenagers frequently believe that bad things only happen to other people, but the risks associated with vaping are real and harmful to the body. In addition, many adolescents are making matters worse by adding cannabis, CBD oils, and other toxic substances to vaping devices. When patients present to the emergency room with respiratory distress due to vaping, it is difficult for doctors to treat them. It is due to the difficulties in correctly recognizing the inhaled substance, particularly when the patient is intubated or asleep.

On the other hand, "Both cigarettes and e-cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals that, when breathed and exhaled, cause damage and inflammation to the skin's layers," explains Dr. Parisha Acharya, an aesthetic physician at London's Waterhouse Young Clinic. "All sorts of toxic pollutants will target the skin once the barrier is compromised. However, we know that these chemicals are especially harmful in terms of pigmentation, premature aging, deep wrinkles, and worsening existing skin conditions, such as eczema."

In addition, Dr. Emma Wedgeworth, consultant dermatologist and spokesperson for the British Skin Foundation, warns that burns have been reported due to the heat generated by the lithium batteries in vapes. She continues, "One of the most common causes of contact dermatitis is found in the heating coils of vaporizers and has been observed to produce rashes and itching on the hands."

Lynda Amos, a resident of Dalton, stated that her son, 13-year-old "straight-A" student Zach Corona, has suffered brain damage due to alleged bullying at school that reportedly forced him to smoke the laced vape. The Whitfield County, Georgia, Sheriff's Office issued an incident/investigation report on January 2 that designated the occurrence a "Juvenile Trouble" and validated numerous facts of her son's experience. A department spokeswoman who talked to The Post said the case is "still ongoing."

Amos, 45, stated that fentanyl was added to the vape, concealed in her son's underwear, causing him to suffer a stroke due to the 50 times more potent fentanyl than heroin. Katie, Corona's 12-year-old sister, thought at first that he was "playing," but when she tried to tickle him, she saw that he wasn't moving." Zach sometimes plays a prank on his sister by pretending to be asleep; when she reaches out to tickle him, he jumps up and scares her," the mother of five told Kennedy News and Media. "She believed he was joking. She began tickling him but received no response.

Additional risks associated with vaping include lung and other organ damage, breathing difficulties, and addiction. Many believe that vaping is safer than smoking, but it is not.

Body health issues vaping causes include: 

• Asthma. Vaping can increase the likelihood of developing asthma and other lung diseases. It can exacerbate asthma symptoms. 
• Lung scarring. The flavoring ingredient diacetyl can cause bronchiolitis obliterans (also known as "popcorn lung"). Bronchiolitis obliterans causes irreversible lung scarring. 
• Organ damage. In addition to your lungs, nicotine and other compounds in e-liquid can harm your heart and brain. Nicotine hinders brain growth, increases blood pressure, and constricts arteries. 
• EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury). EVALI is a severe lung ailment caused by vaping. It causes extensive lung damage and symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, and chest pain. EVALI can cause death. 
• Addictive disorder. Nicotine is highly habit-forming. It induces brain alterations that increase your need for nicotine. You may not be able to quit vaping even if you want to or if it begins to cause health issues. Even e-liquids labeled as nicotine-free contain trace levels of nicotine. 
• Cigarette smoking. Many vapers transition to cigarette smoking, which contains more harmful chemicals. 
• Explosions. There have been reports of batteries in vaping devices bursting and causing significant injuries and burns.
• Malignancy. Certain substances in e-liquids are known to cause cancer.

TO QUIT VAPING

Stopping vaping is comparable to quitting smoking, dieting, or changing other behaviour. That won't happen overnight, but you can devise a strategy to aid you along the way: • Set goals, even if they entail a gradual reduction in vaping.
• Pick a stop date. Make sure it is not too distant or coincides with a stressful occasion. • Discuss quitting with a healthcare professional, therapist, or school counselor. They can assist you in formulating an effective plan and provide support throughout the process. 
• Ask your provider, therapist, or school counselor about free tools, like, messaging, and phone services or applications, that can assist you with quitting. 
• Inform your friends and family of your intention to quit smoking. They can encourage and hold you responsible for your strategy. 
• Compile a list of your motivations for quitting vaping. Consider it or keep it in mind during the quitting process. 
• Steer clear of temptations and triggers. Replace situations where you would typically vape with alternative activities. 
• Get exercise. Exercise not only distracts you from the desire to vape, but it also improves your mood. 
• Know that you could have cravings and side effects like headaches or anxiety. Nicotine gum, patches, and other drugs can help reduce nicotine cravings. 
• Learn to relax through reading, meditation, and deep or rhythmic breathing.

If nothing is done, the vast majority of parents, youths, and teenagers vaping will have serious health problems in a few years.

The rise in the popularity of vaping has been phenomenal, particularly among adolescents. These incidences of severe lung illness in vapers raise serious concerns about the safety of vaping. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that people who vape may develop lung problems; our lungs were designed to inhale only clean air. It took several years to realize the dangers of smoking, and vaping could follow a similar trajectory.

Do not always hesitate to take good care of your health, and let no friend, colleague, or family intimidate you into endangering your health; if you do, you alone will suffer the aftermath consequences.