What disease affects vape lovers and how to treat it

In 2019, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic,many people have suffered from the "vaper disease". Men and women who frequently smoked e-cigarettes began to cough and feel pain in the chest area - sometimes they also experienced nausea and vomiting. Between August 2019 and January 2020, 2,708 people were hospitalized in the US. Despite the severe course of the then unknown disease, up to 93% of patients were able to survive. At the moment, scientists do not know the exact cause of the "vaper disease", but they have some interesting suggestions. On top of that, they have some idea of ​​how to treat it. Vapes are still popular, so let's talk about their dangers in more detail.

Vaping harms human health - sometimes people need ventilation and lung transplants

Vaper disease symptoms

A disease that affects the respiratory systeme-cigarette enthusiasts, commonly referred to as EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury). It is also sometimes called VAPI and VALI. In Russia, it is easier to call it “the disease of vapers” – it’s clearer that way.

In just one year, more than 2.5 thousand people suffered from EVALI

Most hospital admissions for this diseasewas recorded in the USA. It is very similar in symptoms to lipoid pneumonia or chemical pneumonitis. Patients experienced cough, chest pain, difficulty breathing, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Almost all symptoms of EVALI are associated with respiratory involvement.

Computed tomography often showedpatients with a symptom of "frosted glass" - the so-called pathological change in the lung tissues, in which their transparency decreases. This indicated that the alveoli were damaged in people - these are kind of bubbles that play an important role in breathing, ensuring the exchange of gases. There are about 300 million alveoli in each human lung, and with EVALI, many of them are damaged. Also, experts said that vaping causes something like chemical burns.

As a result, it turns out that the EVALI vaper disease is when a person frequently smokes electronic cigarettes and has breathing problems.

What causes vapers to get sick

Electronic cigarettes have received greatdistribution is relatively recent - most people became interested in them just around 2019. It is believed that vapor entering the lungs is much safer than cigarette smoke, which is why many people smoke vapes to quit cigarettes. This is a very controversial decision because scientists have no evidence that vapes actually help people quit smoking. But there are a lot of reasons to believe that vapor from vapes is harmful.

It is far from the fact that vaping helps to quit smoking

At the moment, scientists are especially afraidvitamin E, which is used in vapes as thickeners. By itself, this is a harmless substance, but when inhaled in the form of an aerosol, it may well adversely affect the respiratory system. This is because when heated, it decomposes into toxic ketene, alkene and benzene. In fairness, it should be noted that this thickener is usually used only in vapes with banned substances, which are common in the United States, but they are not sold in Russia.

Vape liquids may contain substances hazardous to health

Scientists also suspect that the harmfulness of vapesmay be associated with oil additives. It is believed that when inhaled, they can lead to the accumulation of lipids in the tissues of the lungs. Vape liquids also contain glycerin, one of the decomposition products of which is formaldehyde. Finally, experts have reason to believe that some mixtures contain metals like aluminum, cobalt, chromium, copper, and so on - they also cause great harm to the body.

The effect of vaping on the human body is still not fully understood.

It is possible that vapes are also bad for the heart,the brain and many other organs of the human body. At the moment, their impact on human health has been poorly studied - if some important discovery is made, we will definitely tell about it. In order not to miss it, subscribe to our Telegram channel.

See also: The history of the "tobacco epidemic" in pictures

Treatment of vapers disease

At the moment the special treatment of the diseasevapers don't exist. Previously, doctors tried to give antibiotics to patients, but the effect turned out to be zero - the disease is not infectious. So far, the best effect has been demonstrated by corticosteroids, which attenuate inflammatory responses. In especially severe cases, patients were urgently connected to ventilators. In 2019, he even underwent a lung transplant.

There is no universal treatment for EVALI today.

There is also an assumption that the diseasevapers with a mild course can be cured by simply giving up e-cigarettes. As we have already figured out before, a person’s lungs are capable of recovery - this helps to cope with coughing and other symptoms.

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In the end it turns out that loverselectronic cigarettes are at high risk of being affected by EVALI. At the same time, people addicted to conventional cigarettes can become victims of lung cancer. But sometimes this terrible disease bypasses people - why so, we told in this material.