The Hidden Dangers of Vaping

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Vaping Is Too Good To Be True

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

Nov 19, 2024

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Education

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  1. Vaping is presented as a less harmful alternative to smoking, delivering nicotine, a popular drug that can enhance attention, concentration, memory, reaction time, and endurance. It also reduces anxiety and stress, helps with relaxation, and can suppress hunger, making it easier to maintain or lose weight.
  2. Despite its benefits, nicotine is highly addictive, and vaping is not without risks. It is significantly less harmful than smoking, which delivers hot smoke and toxic particles to the lungs, causing immediate and serious damage.
  3. Vaping has become increasingly popular, especially among teenagers, with 20% of children in the UK having tried it at least once in 2023. In the US, 8% of students vape regularly, with a quarter of them doing it daily, often using flavored vapes.
  4. The text emphasizes the need to understand the effects of vaping on the body, as it has become a growing epidemic among young people, despite being perceived as a safer alternative to smoking.

How does Vaping work?

  1. A vape device consists of a small tank filled with liquid, which is heated by a metallic coil to create vapor. The primary components of vape juice are propylene glycol and glycerol, chemicals also found in smoke machines and various products like food, cosmetics, and plastics.
  2. Nicotine salts and various flavor molecules are added to the vape juice to create the desired effects and flavors. When a user inhales from a vape, the coil heats the liquid, turning it into a mist that is inhaled.
  3. The term 'vapor' is misleading as vapes produce an aerosol mist, not true vapor. This mist is a sticky substance composed of large molecules and microscopic particles mixed with air, similar to inhaling warm body spray.
  4. Upon inhalation, billions of aerosol particles coat the mouth and tongue, providing flavor, and then travel to the lungs. In the lungs, these particles reach the alveoli, where nicotine enters the bloodstream and is transported to the brain, producing pleasurable effects.
  5. The process of vaping introduces complications due to the nature of the aerosol and its components, which are not as harmless as the term 'vapor' might suggest.

What is actually in your vape?

  1. Vape liquids contain a wide variety of substances, many of which are not listed on labels, due to the lack of regulation in the vaping industry. This makes it difficult to know exactly what is being inhaled.
  2. Some substances in vapes are considered safe for use in cosmetics, medicine, or food, but their safety when inhaled is questionable. For example, cinnamaldehyde, safe in food, can cause genetic damage when inhaled.
  3. Benzaldehyde, another common ingredient, is safe in food but can irritate the respiratory tract when inhaled as a gas. This highlights the potential dangers of inhaling substances that are otherwise safe in other forms.
  4. The heating process in vapes can alter the chemical composition of vape liquids, creating new compounds with unknown health effects. This is particularly concerning when the coil gets too hot or the liquid runs out, leading to the formation of harmful molecules.
  5. Metal particles from the heated coil, such as aluminum, lead, and nickel, can be released into the vapor. These metals can cause lung irritation, chronic bronchitis, and even cancer, posing significant health risks.
  6. The interactions between the various substances in vape liquids are not well understood, adding another layer of uncertainty to the health effects of vaping. The potential for harmful interactions is a major concern.

What Does Vaping DO in Your Body?

  1. Vaping has been around for about ten years, and its long-term health effects are still largely unknown. Most studies focus on smokers who switched to vaping, showing that while vaping is less harmful than smoking, the risks for non-smokers who start vaping are unclear.
  2. In the short term, many vapers experience respiratory issues such as coughing, increased mucus production, shortness of breath, wheezing, and chest pain. However, the long-term effects remain uncertain, with a large-scale study on non-smokers only beginning in 2024.
  3. The lungs are sensitive and not designed to handle the aerosols, chemicals, and metals found in vape products. These substances can remain in the lungs indefinitely, potentially causing inflammation and increased mucus production as the immune system attempts to clear them.
  4. Vaping may also stress the body by increasing heart rate and blood pressure, reducing blood oxygen levels, and potentially causing oxidative stress, which can harm organs and lead to various diseases over time.
  5. There is uncertainty about whether vaping increases the risk of strokes, heart diseases, lung diseases, or cancer. The current understanding is speculative, and vaping is considered a large-scale medical experiment with users as test subjects.

Too Much of the Wonder Drug

  1. Vaping introduces a significant amount of nicotine into the body, more than traditional smoking, due to its less harsh nature and lack of odor, allowing for prolonged use indoors.
  2. The high doses of nicotine from vaping make it extremely addictive, especially for teenagers whose brains are still developing and have active nicotine receptors linked to their reward systems.
  3. Nicotine exposure during teenage years can lead to cognitive deficits, hyperactivity, reduced impulse control, attention and cognition issues, and mood disorders, although causation is debated.
  4. Nicotine is not necessarily a gateway drug, but individuals prone to risk-taking are more likely to engage in various addictive behaviors, including vaping.
  5. Quitting nicotine is challenging due to its addictive nature, causing withdrawal symptoms like mood swings, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and increased appetite, but these effects are reversible over time.
  6. The psychological addiction to vaping is strong due to its habit-forming nature, but withdrawal symptoms typically subside after 72 hours, with significant improvement in a few weeks.

Conclusion

  1. Vaping is appealing because it tastes great and is pleasant, but it also enhances nicotine addiction, making it more addictive than traditional smoking.
  2. While switching from cigarettes to vapes is beneficial for global health, the advantages stop there as vaping has ensnared a large portion of the younger generation into nicotine addiction.
  3. Expecting young people to resist vaping through information about its potential harms is ineffective, as scare tactics do not work well in preventing addiction.
  4. Nicotine is often used to combat stress, and warning users about its dangers can paradoxically increase their usage as a stress response.
  5. Vaping has made nicotine, a substance that was previously declining in use, attractive to millions of teenagers by offering flavors like bubblegum.
  6. Vaping is a relatively new phenomenon, and there is still an opportunity to address and control this emerging global addiction before it becomes unmanageable.

Ground News Sponsorship

  1. Algorithms often amplify alarmist headlines over straightforward reporting, affecting the reliability of information available to the public.
  2. Ground News, a news aggregation app and website, allows users to compare news coverage from various sources to gain a broader perspective.
  3. The app was inspired by the founder's experience of reading all German newspapers during chemotherapy, which revealed significant media bias.
  4. Ground News helps users see how different perspectives are presented and how stories evolve over time, ensuring no nuance is lost.
  5. An example highlighted is the limited coverage of a study on vaping in England compared to extensive reporting on FDA's vaping product authorization.
  6. The platform offers a 50% discount on its unlimited access plan, emphasizing the importance of controlling the information that influences one's mind.

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