Just one use of e-cigarettes can cause damage to your lungs according to a new study. Non-nicotine vaping has become a growing issue, especially among teens.
Nonsmokers between the ages of 18 and 35 participated in the study. Researchers had them vape the equivalent to one cigarette. Propylene glycol, glycerol, and flavouring were the ingredients used to make the solution in the e-cigarette liquid. It contained no nicotine.
Participants also had to undergo MRI exams before and after the vaping session for the purposed of finding out whether or not it impacted their vascular systems. The results showed areduction in blood flow in the femoral artery after a single vaping session.
“If the blood flow is decreasing, so is the flow of oxygen,” Dr Lori Shah, a transplant pulmonologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told a news portal. Adding, “When blood flow to the brain is decreased, it can impact attention, focus, and the ability to learn, and that can have a variety of impacts on middle school and high school children.”
Through the study, researchers conclude e-cigarettes may pose a risk to vascular functions in healthy people who don't smoke even if the liquid they choose to vape does not have any nicotine. “With long-term use of e-cigarettes, we worry it can lead to permanent vascular disease like atherosclerosis (a hardening of the blood vessels), which is typically associated with regular cigarette use,” Dr Humberto Choi, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist at Cleveland Clinic. Adding, “We still need time to see if e-cigarette users will suffer from these long-term health problems, but this study is a possible indication that it can happen."
The findings also highlight the need for doctors to be more aware of the vaping habits of patients so they can detect the effects it has on their health. “The study raises awareness from a medical perspective that we need to be monitoring the effects of vaping,” Shah told a news portal. Adding, “A decade ago, we started asking every patient if they smoke and if they’re exposed to secondhand smoke. Now, there has to be questions from doctors to patients — both adults and children — about vaping.”
The study's findings were originally published in the journal Radiology.
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