Health expert details when vape damage can become permanent and how to lower risk
Using a vape to stop smoking can be a great way to quit lighting up a cigarette, but for many users, this can result in putting down one vice only to pick up another.
Long term and heavy use of a vape can have worrying health effects, including causing serious and potentially permanent damage to your respiratory system like bronchiolitis obliterans – a condition that causes internal scarring known as popcorn lung.
Vaping has exploded in popularity over the past decade, with certain groups much more likely to regularly use a nicotine device than others. The largest cohort by some way are people aged 18 to 24, with the latest CDC data showing more than one in five now vape.
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We spoke to a health expert to find out what factors vapers should keep in mind to avoid causing themselves serious lung damage, who is at the highest risk, steps to minimize damage, as well as how long it can take for your system to recover if you have developed a heavy habit.
Amir Boghal, Superintendent Lead Pharmacist and Director of Pyramid Pharmacy Group, shared his insight on the increasingly common habit, based on the best current understanding of the relatively new method of consuming nicotine.
While it is important to be mindful of vaping’s impact on your health, it is still considered to be a much healthier option than smoking cigarettes which have decades of scientific studies proving their extremely damaging impact.
Pharmacist Boghal noted: “We’re still learning about long-term lung recovery from vaping because the practice hasn’t been around long enough for comprehensive longitudinal studies. What we do know from existing research is encouraging in some respects.”
Can your lungs ever fully heal from vaping?
If you would like to improve your lung function and capacity, putting the vape down is probably the best option. However, you are unlikely to see the benefit immediately.
Boghal explained: “If someone stops vaping, their lungs can show improvement over time, particularly in terms of inflammation and mucus clearance.
“However, whether complete healing occurs depends on different factors including how long someone vaped, their age when they started, their overall lung health, and whether they have underlying conditions like asthma.
“In younger people with shorter vaping histories, recovery appears more complete as the lungs experience less cumulative irritation and have greater regenerative capacity. For those with longer exposure or pre-existing lung conditions some changes, like breathing difficulties, scarring or chronic inflammation, may be permanent.
“The key point is that stopping vaping allows your lungs to begin healing immediately, even if complete restoration to pre-vaping baseline isn’t guaranteed.”
How much would you have to vape for the impact to be serious?
Not everyone is at equal risk of developing serious complications from using a vape. However, a variety of factors have the potential to turn the seemingly simple habit into a serious danger to your long term health.
Your genetics, age, lung capacity, and overall health status will all play a part in determining whether you are at a higher risk of suffering health issues as a result of vaping, Boghal detailed.
“Some people develop respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath after relatively brief vaping periods, whilst others might vape for years with fewer noticeable effects, simply because individuals vary in their airway sensitivity, baseline lung health, and how their bodies respond to irritation,” the lead pharmacist added.
He also explained who was at the highest risk, with heavy users who vape continuously through the day more likely to present with ‘lingering chest discomfort in shorter timeframes’.
Considering the growing demographic of young vape users, Boghal noted: “Young people are particularly vulnerable because their lungs are still developing, and exposure may have lasting consequences into adulthood.
“For those who vape regularly, diagnostic blood tests and free blood pressure checks can help monitor cardiovascular and metabolic health, offering reassurance or prompting early intervention if needed. Rather than waiting to see if you’ll be seriously affected, it’s safer to recognize that any regular vaping carries health risks that need to be monitored over time.”
How to minimise the impact of vaping on your health
While vapes expose you unnecessarily to a variety of chemicals, its method of heating a nicotine-infused liquid to create a vapor is still far and away healthier than toking on a cigarette – which contains around 7000 largely toxic chemicals.
The healthiest thing to do would be to quit inhaling chemicals into your lungs completely, but for the persistent, there are ways to continue using a vape in a healthier way that minimizes the long term impact on your body.
Pharmacist Boghal laid it out, stating: “First, reduce frequency and duration of use as much as possible, as lower exposure means lower risk.
“Second, be aware that different vaping devices and liquids carry different risk profiles. Devices with temperature control may reduce the formation of harmful compounds compared to unregulated devices. Third, avoid additives known to be problematic, particularly vitamin E acetate and certain flavourings like diacetyl.”
If you are looking to improve your health and recover from heavy vape use, he added: “It’s important to maintain good overall lung health through regular exercise, staying hydrated, and avoiding other respiratory irritants like high-pollution environments, as much as possible. If you have any pre-existing respiratory conditions, like asthma, vaping poses additional risks and should be avoided entirely.”
The effect of vaping on the lungs has been revealed, and when it comes to serial vapers, they might feel some type of way about the data.
Hailed as the healthy alternative to smoking, vaping became popular years ago and has exploded among the younger generations.
Prior to disposables, fruity flavors, different devices and trends, vaping used to be exclusively known as e-cigarettes, and it was a long tube either made to look like a cigarette, or it was a transparent tube with tobacco-flavoured juice.
Now, there are so many different options to choose from, and vape stores are popping up on every corner.
However, with more people vaping, there has been an increase in the number of individuals who are taken to the hospital for vape-related illnesses.
Like one man who was given a serious wakeup call after vaping every ten seconds… Or this man, who vaped for nine years before his lung collapsed.
Another issue that has been rising is the popcorn lung issue, which sees people have scarred lungs that cannot be cured.
But if you don’t have popcorn lungs, you could actually be in a position where your lungs could heal from the vaping damage.
According to Rehab 4 Addiction, ‘cells in the lung can regenerate, and studies show that the lungs demonstrate remarkable reparative capacity in response to illnesses or injury such as scarring or fibrosis’.
However, you could end up with irreversible damage depending on how severe your damage is, how much you smoked, and other factors like your genetics.
The timeline and how long it takes for lungs to heal will vary from person to person, but if you develop an e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI), you won’t be able to cure it… and the damage would be permanent.
Symptoms of EVALI include shortness of breath, pain when breathing, and a cough.
Vaping can cause irreversible damage (Peter Dazeley / Contributor/ Getty Stock)
Vaping can cause irreversible damage (Peter Dazeley / Contributor/ Getty Stock)
If you have a serious case, your blood oxygen levels may drop, and it could potentially lead to death, though those cases are rare.
According to Doctor Andrew Freeman, who spoke with the University of Utah, the total outlook of what vaping does to us has not yet been recognised.
“Our lungs are not a good organ to absorb substances for recreational use,” Freeman said.
“They are an incredible organ, providing our bodies with vital oxygen and exchanging carbon dioxide, all while protecting us from infections and other harmful elements from our environment.
“We all begin to slowly lose lung function after about our early to mid-20s, and yet they must last us a lifetime.
“If people don’t take care of their lungs, they really suffer more difficulties breathing later in life due to habits such as vaping.”
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image
Topics: Health, Vaping
While there is much talk about the dangers of weight loss drugs, a new study has highlighted one major benefit besides shedding the pounds.
Weight loss drugs have shot up in popularity in the last few years and there have been many reports and studies on the potential dangers and side effects. However, a new study has highlighted a key benefit of taking GLP-1 agonist drugs – such as Mounjaro, Wegovy, and Ozempic, which isn’t actually approved by the FDA for weight loss – even if you don’t drop any major weight.
As the name would suggest, GLP-1 agonists are a type of treatment that mimics the hormone GLP-1.
This hormone helps manage blood sugar levels and can stabilise hunger, making it ideal for the treatment of Type-2 diabetes.
In recent years, GLP-1 has been available as an injection pen that can be administered subcutaneously, typically on a weekly basis.
New research on these GLP-1 drugs, presented at the European Society of Cardiology annual conference back in August, showed that the use of these drugs could have major cardiovascular benefits.
US researchers from Mass General Brigham found that weight loss drugs could reduce the risk of people with heart conditions being hospitalized or dying early by as much as 58%.
The scientists and researchers involved in the study analyzed data from more than 90,000 heart failure patients who were obese and had Type-2 diabetes.
The results showed that the individuals who were taking semaglutide – the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy, as well as other GLP-1 drugs – were 42% less likely to end up in hospital or die prematurely.
According to a Mail Online report, British scientists have found similar results and came to the conclusion that taking these weight loss drugs could benefit a person’s heart health, regardless of how much weight they lose.
The researchers found that a loss of belly fat accounted for a third of semaglutide’s overall heart health benefits, and could ultimately have benefits for more than just obese patients.
Professor John Deanfield, an expert in cardiology at University College London and study lead author, said: “Abdominal fat is more dangerous for our cardiovascular health than overall weight.
“Therefore it is not surprising to see a link between reduction in waist size and cardiovascular benefit. However, this still leaves two thirds of the heart benefits of semaglutide unexplained. These findings reframe what we think this medication is doing.
“It is labelled as a weight loss jab but its benefits for the heart are not directly related to the amount of weight lost.
“In fact, it is a drug that directly affects heart disease and other diseases of ageing.”