Vaping may cause inflammation in the brain, heart, lungs and colon. A new study found that vape aerosols raised inflammatory markers (chemical signs of inflammation) in all four organs. The effects differed by flavor. Vaping can also be addictive and may raise the risk of addiction to other substances.
Summary: Vaping was promoted as a safe alternative to tobacco smoking. Experience shows that is far from true. Vaping has its own health risks. For example, it is known to cause severe effects on lungs that can be fatal. Now new studies suggest it may be addictive and may raise the risk of addiction to other substances. It may also have many other long-term harms to well-being. The new study suggests that different vape juices may boost the expression of inflammatory mediators in several organs. The organs include the brain, heart, lung, and colon. These mediators are chemical signals that drive inflammation. The study also found that the harms differ from one flavor to the next.
Treating one kind of addiction with another, less dangerous addiction is not an ideal answer to the problem. Vaping has taken off in recent years. At first, many promoted it as a way to beat tobacco addiction.
But things are changing fast. Many people who vape never used tobacco. That means vaping itself is becoming a major problem. Studies also show it is not as safe as people once thought. It may cause some unique health issues. Data on its harm to health is still coming in.
What is worrying is that vaping is a pastime of young people. Most people who vape are between the ages of 18-24. Also keep in mind that vaping has only taken off in the last few years.
So it may even become a serious health concern if steps are not taken in time. There is an urgent need to teach people about the health risks of vaping. People are taking up vaping and getting hooked on it fast. At this rate, most people may start vaping within a decade.
What does vaping do to your brain, heart, lungs and colon?
It is now known that vaping causes severe, life-threatening lung disease in some people. It is already causing a few deaths each year. Still, these findings are not enough to make people aware of the health risks of vaping addiction. That is because people see it as uncommon. Most people see vaping-related lung disease as a rare disorder that affects a few.
However, people do not realize that vaping may have many long-term ill effects on health.
Studying the harm vaping does to health is harder than studying the risk of tobacco addiction. Cigarettes use different tobacco strains with different amounts of nicotine. Vaping uses many kinds of vape juice. Their chemical makeups can be very different.
So one kind of vape liquid may have one set of side effects. Another type of vaping juice may have completely different side effects.
The new study was published in the journal eLife. It looked at the harm done by many common vape flavors from some leading vaping devices, like JUUL.
In the study, researchers were especially struck by a significant rise in certain inflammatory markers. These markers are associated with poor brain health and an even higher risk of neurodegenerative disorders (diseases that slowly destroy brain cells). Experts noted that vaping fluids changed gene expression in the brain. They found this effect was especially strong in the nucleus accumbens. This brain region plays a vital role in the reward pathway.
These findings are concerning because they suggest that vaping may also increase the dangers of mental health disorders. So it may raise the risk of anxiety, depression, and more. It may also cause behavioral changes that raise the risk of addictive behavior. This may also raise a person’s risk of substance abuse and addiction.
In the same way, the study authors noted that certain vape juices increase colon inflammation. But these changes were seen after one month of regular vaping.
Vaping also affects gene expression. It increases inflammation of the lungs and even other body tissues.
Researchers also saw that the inflammatory response of each organ differed from one vape flavor to the next. The reason is that vape juices have different chemical makeups.
These findings also matter for the covid-19 epidemic. That is because the body of a person addicted to vaping would react in a different way to the infection.
It appears that besides general immunity, every organ has its own immune environment. So these findings are disturbing, because they indicate that vaping may change the immune responses of individual organs. It may have ill effects on health that no one can predict, especially over the long term. Those are good enough reasons to quit vaping.
Frequently asked questions
What are the dangers of vaping?
Vaping can cause severe, life-threatening lung disease and already causes a few deaths each year. It can be addictive and may raise the risk of addiction to other substances. In the eLife study, vape juices raised inflammatory markers in the brain, heart, lungs and colon. Some of these markers are tied to poor brain health and neurodegenerative disorders. The damage also differed from one flavor to the next.
Is vaping bad for you?
Yes. Vaping was promoted as a safe alternative to tobacco smoking, and it is far from that. It carries its own health risks, from severe lung disease to inflammation in several organs. It also changes the immune response inside individual organs, so its long-term effects are hard to predict. Many people who vape today never used tobacco at all.
Does vaping cause anxiety?
It may. The eLife study found that vaping fluids changed gene expression in the nucleus accumbens. This brain region is at the center of the reward pathway. That suggests vaping may raise the risk of mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. It may also cause behavioral changes that make addiction and substance abuse more likely.
What are some reasons people choose to quit vaping?
The health risks keep adding up. Vaping inflames the brain, heart, lungs and colon, and some vape juices inflamed the colon after one month of regular use. It alters the immune environment of individual organs. That may change how the body responds to infections such as covid-19. Those long-term, unpredictable effects are reason enough to quit.
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Sources
- Moshensky A, Brand CS, Alhaddad H, et al. Effects of mango and mint pod-based e-cigarette aerosol inhalation on inflammatory states of the brain, lung, heart, and colon in mice. Elife. 2022;11. PMID 35411847 · DOI 10.7554/eLife.67621.