When it comes to vaping e-cigarettes, what you see isn\u2019t necessarily what you get.<\/p>\n
Long promoted as a \u201csafer alternative\u201d to smoking by the companies that make them, e-cigs are being outed in new reports of their damaging health effects \u2014 something that\u2019s especially worrisome, considering that\u00a0one in 10 eighth graders\u00a0have now reportedly tried them.<\/p>\n
Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n The most recent\u00a0report\u00a0comes from the Food and Drug Administration, which has received \u201c127 reports of seizure[s] or other neurological symptoms\u201d from 2010 to 2019 that are believed to be linked to vaping. The news is part of an ongoing investigation the agency has been\u00a0conducting since April,\u00a0one that has reportedly tied a troubling number of the neurological effects to teen use.<\/p>\n Nicholas Chadi, MD, currently a pediatrician specializing in adolescent and addiction medicine at the University of Montr\u00e9al, spent years at the Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. He says the reports of seizures related to vaping are \u2014 at least to doctors \u2014 not shocking.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way young people are using e-cigs now, with very high doses of nicotine, can definitely induce something like a seizure, especially for people who are predisposed,\u201d Chadi tells Yahoo Lifestyle. \u201cI\u2019m not at all surprised to hear those numbers, but they’re of course very worrisome.\u201d<\/p>\n Chadi says that the seizures are likely part of a cluster of symptoms that result from \u201cnicotine toxicity\u201d \u2014 a new condition that\u2019s the equivalent of a\u00a0nicotine overdose. \u201cI\u2019ve had teens go through it dozens of times,\u201d says Chadi. \u201cThey feel very sick with nausea and migraines and then they start throwing up. They get strong abdominal pain, like a punch in the gut, and it lasts for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n \n After the acute reaction passes, Chadi says there is a period of feeling \u201climp, tired and unwell.\u201d He says the \u201cintense\u201d experience is so common among the teens he\u2019s treated that they refer to this \u201cwell-known pattern\u201d as being \u201cnic-sick.\u201d He argues that the condition is inextricably linked to the creation of certain ultra-powerful e-cigarettes like Juul, which contain exorbitantly high levels of nicotine (the CDC says that one Juul pod is the equivalent of an\u00a0entire pack of cigarettes).<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s hard to smoke an entire pack of cigarettes in 15 minutes,\u201d Chadi tells Yahoo Lifestyle. \u201cBut you can do that with a Juul pod, and it’s going to be done and gone in 15 mins. The way teens are using it has created this very new phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n And while the seizures are a newly reported health effect, they\u2019re far from the only one.<\/p>\n Just weeks ago, eight teens in Wisconsin were\u00a0reportedly hospitalized\u00a0for \u201csevere lung damage\u201d tied to use of e-cigarettes. Linda Richter, Ph.D., director of policy research and analysis at the\u00a0Center on Addiction, says that \u2014 beyond seizures \u2014 e-cigarettes can be extremely harmful.<\/p>\n \u201cNicotine and other chemicals in most vaping products have a number of dangerous health effects, including harm to the cardiovascular, respiratory and reproductive symptoms, potential links to cancer, and cognitive and mental health effects,\u201d she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. \u201cSome of these effects can be seen in the short-term while others take longer to manifest.\u201d<\/p>\n The FDA, which seems increasingly worried about incidents like these, is encouraging doctors and teens to report negative effects immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is imperative that health care professionals, consumers, parents, teachers and other concerned adults, as well as youth and young adult users, report detailed information about any past or future incidents of seizures following e-cigarette use to the FDA,\u201d reads a\u00a0statement\u00a0released Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019re committed to monitoring this issue closely and taking additional steps as necessary to protect the public, especially our nation\u2019s youth, from the dangers of e-cigarettes…\u201d<\/p>\n Chadi, like other experts, views stories like these as a wakeup call. \u201cThings like this are a good warning sign,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of parents still think e-cigs are harmless. I see a lot of parents buying them for their kids and thinking they\u2019re good. I think the messaging has to be that these are harmful, they don’t lead to smoking cessation, and they can lead to adverse health effects.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps most important for parents to note is that on top of short-term effects like vomiting and migraines, Chadi says seizures could be signaling that nicotine toxicity causes longterm effects. \u201cWe’re still in an area where the research on e-cigs is starting, but we do know that using e-cigarettes in teen years can alter your brain,\u201d he says. \u201cLongterm, it will decrease your ability to memorize and learn\u2026 I would suspect someone coming in with seizures would have longterm effects.\u201d<\/p>\n Juul sent the following statement to Yahoo Lifestyle: “We have robust safety monitoring systems in place and will vigilantly monitor for any evidence of safety issues and work cooperatively with FDA as we continue to combat youth usage and eliminate cigarettes, the number one cause of preventable death in the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n When it comes to vaping e-cigarettes, what you see isn\u2019t necessarily what you get. Long promoted as a \u201csafer alternative\u201d to smoking by the companies that make them, e-cigs are being outed in new reports of their damaging health effects \u2014 something that\u2019s especially worrisome, considering that\u00a0one in 10 eighth graders\u00a0have now reportedly tried them. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[3876],"yoast_head":"\n\r\n \t