A UCLA study has found that vaping for a short period of time can cause harmful changes in the body, which can lead to chronic diseases.
The study found that when individuals with no history of smoking or vaping puff on a vaping device for 30 minutes, they experience significantly higher levels of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress arises when there is an imbalance between free radicals – highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules – and antioxidants in the body. The imbalance may cause free radicals to damage DNA, proteins, and fatty tissue in the body. Prolonged damage to these building blocks of the body can lead to a number of diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease.
The same increase in oxidative stress levels was not measured in chronic smokers and chronic vapers, likely because they already have a higher level of oxidative stress – demonstrating the dangers of long-term exposure.
A new study finds short-term vaping associated with an increase in oxidative stress levels, which can lead to harmful diseases.
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In recent years, the number of young individuals that have used vape devices has significantly risen. Just from 2017 to 2018, the number of adults ages 18-25 using e-cigarettes rose from 10.1% to 14.9% – in 2018, 682,000 people in this age range reported using e-cigarettes, according to a 2020 brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Vaping with e-cigarettes, e-hookah, or other devices are often seen as healthier alternatives to tobacco smoking, however, they are still neither safe nor healthy. While they are flavored with harmless tastes and seem to be just vapor, they do still include nicotine and other harmful chemicals that are associated with adverse physiological changes.
One of the study’s authors, Dr. Holly Middlekauff, said that the simplest way to decrease one’s chances of developing these negative health consequences is to never start smoking or vaping. There are many risk factors and long-term consequences of smoking or vaping that cannot be controlled. However, what can be controlled is the act of smoking or vaping itself. By not even trying these products or devices, any potential short- or long-term effects – which, as this study found, do exist and can be dangerous – will not be of concern.
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