Anna Tosun/ Edge columnist
A lot of teenagers are now vaping. Cigarettes are uncommon because everyone knows what they do to lungs but vaping isn’t much better for one’s lungs and body.
An electronic cigarette, or e-cigarette, is a device intended as an alternative to smoking., It consists of a battery and a clearomizer/ tank. There are lots of different flavours which can be used to smoke.
E-cigarettes work as a liquid gets heated in the devices until it evaporates. As a rule, the liquids contains nicotine and other additives such as flavorings. While the smoke is inhaled with conventional cigarette consumption, with e-cigarettes an aerosol enters the lungs with the vapor.
In investigations, Californian scientists were able to prove that the nicotine in e- cigarette vapor can lead to a dangerous stress reaction in neuronal stem cells. This stem cell type is important for the renewal of nerve and brain cells. When “vaping”, as the use of e-cigarettes is colloquially called, what is known as “stress- induced mitochondrial hyperfusion” (SIMH) occurs. The mitochondria, i.e. the cell power plants, fuse with each other as a protective reaction in order to protect each other from the harmful stress trigger, in this case nicotine.
The study explicitly warns young people and pregnant women against believing the marketing promises and resorting to e-cigarettes. It has been proven that nicotine disrupts embryonic development. It has already been proven that nicotine during pregnancy increases the rate of premature births and stillbirths, that babies are born with a low birth weight and that they have an increased risk of asthma.
All in all one can say that it is better for everyone but especially for the youth if there’s no vaping or smoking at all. It just damages the body on long term and has no real advantages.
Sources:
https://www.webmd.com/connect-to-care/vaping/what-is-vaping
https://www.vita34.de/magazin/e-zigaretten-schaedigen-gehirn-stammzellen/