Vaping Plus COPD has become very controversial. We at FLASS are particularly concerned with a very special sector of our patients, our COPD patients. Many have begun vaping as a way to cease smoking. Thus, our topic today is an investigation of Vaping Plus COPD. Is it a bad romance? (And by the way, we must thank Lady GaGa for the term, bad romance, from her hit song by that name. The term can certainly describe a lot of bad health habits that are sometimes adopted by patients and healthy people alike.)
We know they have heard the propaganda or word-on-the-street that e-cigs don’t hurt your lungs. And we know many of our COPD have realized “cigarettes and COPD are a bad combination.”
However, they might not realize that Vaping Plus COPD could be a formula that is almost as harmful, due to their lung condition.
However, here at FLASS, we are urging patients not to vape as a smoking alternative. Today we examine some of our reasons.
A Deep Dive into Basics on Vaping Plus COPD
Vaping With COPD is a Habit, Not an Alternative.
We know the link between COPD and cigarettes is clear. 90 percent of people with COPD are smokers or former smokers. However, the links between COPD and vaping are not quite as clear.
Since smoking is listed as a direct cause of COPD, it is obviously a bad thing for COPD patients. If you have COPD and continue to smoke, it exacerbates the condition. However, we cannot yet say vaping causes COPD. We only know that it exacerbates COPD.
Vaping Vs. Smoking
However, Vaping is not the same as smoking. When you vape, you do not inhale smoke.
- Instead of smoke, you inhale water vapor and a mixture of chemicals.
- Of course, the liquid in most e-cigarettes contains nicotine.
- Be aware that as you inhale the vapor, you also subjugate those around you to second-hand vaping. Don’t think that it can’t harm family and friends. They can inhale it also.
Vaping Plus COPD: The Big Question
The big question right now is Can vaping cause COPD? Frankly, we still do not have enough research about the causative effects vaping might have on your health.
Vaping is too new to the research scene. However, if you are already suffering from COPD, why would you chance anything that instigates irritation in your respiratory system?
Facts On Vaping Plus COPD
Vaping With COPD Just Gives You Another Bad Habit to Break.
Manufacturers fill e-cigs with the highly addictive drug nicotine or the equally unhealthy synthetic nicotine. Plus COPD patients who vape also unknowingly often inhale some very noxious vapors.
1. The vapors can include known carcinogens.
2. Likewise, the seemingly harmless steam can hold toxic chemicals.
3. Most manufacturers add a buttery flavoring called diacetyl to their recipe. Sadly, this delicious stuff causes scars on the air sacs and narrows your airways. “Diacetyl can also cause a serious disease called popcorn lung that has the same symptoms as COPD.”
4. Perhaps most harmful of all, many e-cigs contain tiny but cruel, toxic metal nanoparticles.
Three Uncomfortable Truths: Vaping Plus COPD Plus Smoking Cessation
Some patients vape in order to cease smoking. However, this is a slippery slope. There are very few studies as yet about vaping as an aid to smoking cessation.
One study in 2016 study found that vaping e-cigarette fluids with nicotine “triggered the effects associated with the development of COPD. Chronic electronic cigarette exposure in mice induces features of COPD in a nicotine-dependent manner. (bmj.com)
This study showed that e-cigs caused inflammation and destruction of lung tissue. The researchers “used cultured human lung cells and mice. Both were found to be nicotine-dependent by the end of the study.”
What about Vaping Laws and Lungs?
Life is About Choices. And Loving Clean Air is a Choice You Can Live With.
Thus, we can’t say at this time that vaping causes COPD. But we can say it causes the same type of inflammation and lung damage that smoking tobacco does.
Some Companies Finding Ways to By-Pass Health Regulations
The FDA cracked down on the creation of flavored e-cigs in 2020. We would be remiss if we did not mention the latest news in this regard, published about ten days ago in the New York Times. Now, “sales of disposable, flavored e-cigarettes have soared. ” In a recent New York Times article, reporter Christina Jewett revealed some rather scary facts about the loop-holes in the laws concerning the manufacture of e-cigs.
A scary Legal Loop-hole for Young Lungs as Well as COPD Patients
How are companies breaking those 2020 laws covering ingredients in e-cigs? According to the New York Times this month, “Some companies have moved just beyond the reach of the F.D.A. by swapping out one key ingredient.“ Read on to see the gaping loophole.
Vaping Synthetic Nicotine: Not Better and Maybe Worse!
As stated above In 2020, legislators who were alarmed at the vaping epidemic hitting our youth, attempted to establish laws to regulate the ingredients in e-cigarettes. Thus, obviously, “…New trends in the vaping industry are thwarting the F.D.A.’s efforts to protect a new generation from nicotine addiction.” And FLASS might add that this loophole is also leading some COPD patients and patients with other respiratory problems down a primrose path. They actually might think “synthetic” nicotine is a good thing for their already weakened lungs.
Meredith Berkman, a founder of Parents Against Vaping E-Cigs stated, “These companies…are deliberately driving their trucks of poison through this huge loophole.”
Last Tuesday, lawmakers “proposed language that they want inserted in the Congressional omnibus budget bill …” The new language would “give the F.D.A. authority to regulate synthetic nicotine, although it is unclear if the issue will be included in the final bill.”
Terrific Take-Aways from Vaping Plus COPD
If you have COPD, it’s pretty clear to the lung specialists at FLASS that you should avoid not only nicotine but especially, synthetic nicotine.
COPD Patients, Beware!
If You Have COPD, Don’t Invite Bad Romance Into Your Life By Vaping.
Some sellers of E-cigarettes might persuade you to start vaping by saying they can help you give up cigarettes for good. If you are a smoker with COPD, trying to quit, they will romance you. They will explain that you will crave nicotine less and less as time goes by if you vape.
“But so far,” as stated through WebMD, “nothing shows that these things work better than other ways to quit.” In fact, we are sorry to report, “One study found that smokers who vaped actually smoked more.”
Now, to our distress, we see COPD patients who “vape and still continue to smoke cigarettes — a double whammy.” We have concluded that Vaping Plus COPD is a bad formula for lung health. It’s a bad romance between the vape sellers and our innocent patients.
Please speak to one of our specialists or your own personal physician if you have COPD and vape or are vaping to avoid smoking. Have a talk about more time tested and appropriate ways to quit smoking if you have COPD.
Don’t invite a bad romance with Vaping and your COPD.