Vaping And Covid-19 Related Issues
Vaping And Covid-19, As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the globe, scientists are looking into any factors that may exacerbate the spread of the virus and the illness it causes. We know that the immunocompromised and the elderly are at higher risk, but researchers are starting to turn their attention to another potential risk factor: vaping.
The lungs, Vaping And Covid-19
Cigarettes are unequivocally bad for your lungs, but the effect of vaping on lung health is a little less clear. You may remember the prepandemic headlines about the rise in vaping-related illnesses. which ended up with more than 2,500 people in the hospital with severe lung illnesses and other health problems after vaping, and at least 64 people dead.
Researchers were unclear whether it was the vaping itself, however, or the vitamin E acetate in black-market marijuana vaping products causing the lung illnesses.
If vaping does damage the lungs, it’s likely due to contaminants that are breathed in along with the vapor. Hall says that, when vaping, “a variety of things can enter deeper into the lungs and cause irritation,” which will then “cause problems with the protective nature of the lungs.”
Dr. Tong was clearer on the adverse effects of vaping on the lungs, saying, “There is evidence that vaping also can harm lung health, from the cellular to organ level, based on studies in humans, animals and in vitro in the lab.”
Separating myth from fact about Vaping And Covid-19
There are claims circulating online that vaping might threaten COVID-19 recovery even more than smoking. If you switched to vaping to cut back on smoking, you might be wondering if it’s safer to go back to cigarettes at this point.
While research around COVID-19 is still emerging, there’s no evidence to suggest that vaping is more harmful than smoking in this context.
There’s no ‘safe’ option
Both vaping and smoking are harmful to your health, so the larger issue is determining whether one causes less harm than the other.
Both smoking and vaping affect your respiratory system and have the potential to damage your lungs. Plus, both can weaken your immune system.
This combination of effects means you may be both more likely to experience severe symptoms and less able to fight off the virus.
If vaping damages the protective lining of your lungs, it’d be even worse news in light of the corona virus pandemic. “A person with compromised lung lining would suffer a worse case of COVID-19,”. Dr. Hall says, because “if you’ve got impaired defense mechanisms in your lung tissue, the infection could spread more rapidly and the body can’t keep up.”