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E-Cig Flavors Kill Blood Vessels

Captain.Heroin

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Nov 3, 2008
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https://interestingengineering.com/research-shows-e-cigarette-flavorings-can-damage-blood-vessels

Until recently, e-cigarettes were considered by many to be free from health-hazards that tobacco cigarettes possessed. But a recent study indicates some foreseeable dangers from chemical flavorings that are an essential part of e-cigarettes.

In particular, 9 chemical flavorings include eucalyptol (spicy cooling), dimethylpyrazine (strawberry), acetylpyridine (burnt flavor), eugenol (clove), cinnamaldehyde (cinnamon), isoamyl acetate (banana), diacetyl (butter), vanillin (vanilla) and menthol (mint). These flavors were tested in a lab for their effects on endothelial cells and were found to have dangerous effects on the cells that are in line with the blood vessels and inside the heart.

It was also found that these flavorings significantly impaired the production of nitric oxide in endothelial cells.

"Increased inflammation and a loss of nitric oxide are some of the first changes to occur leading up to cardiovascular disease and events like heart attacks and stroke, so they are considered early predictors of heart disease. Our findings suggest that these flavoring additives may have serious health consequences," said Jessica L. Fetterman, the lead author of the study and the assistant professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts

The study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology was the result of a series of experiments that were conducted by researchers at the Boston University.

They started with taking the endothelial cells from two distinct groups of regular tobacco smokers. One of the groups regularly used unflavored tobacco cigarettes and the other group used menthol-flavored cigarettes.

Following this, they compared the results of these two groups with the cells that were taken from non-smoking volunteers. In the end, they found that the cells from both the group of smokers had a reduced ability to produce nitric acid, which is used for dilating blood vessels.

Something similar happened to the cells of the non-smokers who had direct exposure to eugenol and menthol. To this, Fetterman said, ?We still don?t know what concentrations of the flavorings make it inside the body with tobacco product use. We know for menthol that the lower concentrations we tested are similar to the levels obtained smoking a pack of mentholated cigarettes in one day. But how much of the other flavoring additives make it into the blood following vaping is not known.?

There are mixed opinions about vaping as an alternative to traditional smoking.

On one hand, some people argue that vaping is not entirely harmless, but it is still a good way to keep people off smoking because traditional smoking is considered much more harmful. On the other, some researchers say that the research is still ongoing on vaping and its long-term effects on health are not yet known completely.

Therefore, calling it a safe alternative is probably false advertising because we are yet to know about the extent of the health hazards caused by these chemical flavorings on the human heart. However, vaping is inarguably the lesser of the two evils when smoking tobacco is brought into the picture!
 
Uh oh, better stop eating cinnamon buns and mint chocolate.
 
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I’d be curious which specific flavors they’re talking about. After they found out a certain butter flavor was carcinogenic (or something, I forget the specifics), reputable companies discontinued its use (in some places it was banned outright).

Point is, a number of different flavorings are often used to produce the vanilla/etc flavors. Some flavorings are problematic, some aren’t. Without proper regulatory framework in place we won’t really know until they’re already saturating the market.

Sigh. Thankfully nicotine gum is my current go to after quitting smoking. Not a fan of what it’s doing to my gums compared to vaping, but heaven knows it’s better than how I used to smoke up until about a month ago.
 
No worries. I'm pretty jaded about all the conflicting stories about vaporizers (they pose NO risk! they are worse than cigarettes! etc).

Pretty hard to find meaningful reporting on the subject, which is rather sad and depressing considering how much need there is for quality research as the e-cig/vape technology continues moving ahead so rapidly (especially with the propagation of "sub-ohm" vaping and "nic-salts").

Sometimes I wonder how much big tobacco is really investing in vape stuff. Seems like it would be in their distinct interest to do so. And we already know how that tends to work... :|
 
There are studies that indicate nicotine itself is carcinogenic. I don't personally buy into it. It's still a possibility to consider the drug itself is harmful (as we already all know and concede that it's thoroughly addictive).

The future will be partial agonists at the nachra7. Longer durations, less intense and less addictive.

Makes me glad I have no propensity for nicotine.
 
I love nicotine. For the short period i did vape i just used unflavored e liquid.
 
though im not really sure if this applies vaping seems to irritate my lungs much more than smoking, though it varies from cartridge to cartridge iv'e only tried 4 so far 1st no problem second would irratate my throat really bad, better but not as good as first, and 4 in between the third and 1st so ok. though i think the 2 and 3rd were made from a different process the cough triggered was similar to when i smoked wax by smoking with the cherry of a bowl
 
I just realized, what does “kill blood vessels” even mean?

the real headline was 'damages blood vessels'

I sauced it up as clickbait

there is a point where blood vessels are so damaged they essentially become non-functional so I don't feel my miscategorization was all that misleading.
 
It was apt afaik. I mean, lots of things damage blood cells. Beyond that, they are technically always dying anyways.

I’ll have to look into what they mean by “damaging blood vessels” regardless. It would be interesting to see how they quantified that.

The program I’m in has been great for learning how to “read” research articles ;)

though im not really sure if this applies vaping seems to irritate my lungs much more than smoking, though it varies from cartridge to cartridge iv'e only tried 4 so far 1st no problem second would irratate my throat really bad, better but not as good as first, and 4 in between the third and 1st so ok. though i think the 2 and 3rd were made from a different process the cough triggered was similar to when i smoked wax by smoking with the cherry of a bowl

I know what you mean. Whenever I’ve started vaping there is a very noticeable adjustment period where the vapor is not nearly as “comfortable” than cigarette smoke. Inhaling is very different from cigarettes too, it takes a little effort when transitioning not to cough from me.

That all said, I’m pretty sure the main culprit with irritation vaping is the nicotine. 18mg/mL is super harsh compared to 3mg/mL, but even at 3mg it’s still strangely harsh at first.

I’m still going back and forth between vaping at home and using nicotine gum when I’m out of the house. It’ll take a bit of effort switching just to the gum when I’m ready to stop vaping, but I’m looking forward to not having to deal with vaping.
 
i wasn't sure if it applied or not because i wasn't referring to e-cig cartridges but ones from the dispensary. im not sure if its the same but when i exale it kind of feel like the vapor is sucking out the moisture in my lungs
 
Ah, yes, the cannabis vapes. In their case it's just that concentrated cannabis oil can be super harsh. Totally agree that the vapor from that is a lot more harsh than cigs.
 
There are studies that indicate nicotine itself is carcinogenic. I don't personally buy into it. It's still a possibility to consider the drug itself is harmful (as we already all know and concede that it's thoroughly addictive).

The future will be partial agonists at the nachra7. Longer durations, less intense and less addictive.

Makes me glad I have no propensity for nicotine.

I think it's highly unlikely. I know the studies you're talking about. But lone studies that haven't been repeated can't always be relied upon.

There are two groups, big tobacco and the anti tobacco lobby who together have created a perfect environment for conflicting lies.

It simply doesn't make much obvious pharmacological sense that nicotine would be carcinogenic. But it makes total sense for a lot of people to want that to be the case. Because a lot of people have entirely forgotten that originally being against smoking was supposed to be about health. It's now very clear that's no longer the case.

Here in Australia they've even banned ecig use in public. They've released all sorts of policies and arguments that largely have little to do with health anymore. They're simply opposed to smoking because smoking is smoking and smoking is bad. And if it looks like smoking, it's also bad.

For the same reason I'm not quick to trust this article either. I've seen a lot of people ready to present a lot of evidence that ecigs, even without nicotine, causes the same problems as cigarettes.

If that were actually true, it would mean an activity that chemically and physically is entirely unrelated to smoking apart from how it appears to someone who doesn't know any better, just so happens, by complete coincidence, to have identical health problems as smoking. No, that's bullshit. That sounds way too much like people believing what they wanna believe and seeing what they wanna see.

Some additives for ecigs could well be bad for you, I'm not saying otherwise. I'm saying that the interest groups, the liars, the health nuts, big tobacco, everyone with a vested interest has made honest evaluation of ecigs extremely difficult. Because neither care about people or their health. Including the anti smoking lobby.
 
I notice that several, most in fact of those flavours were based in aldehydes. Aldehydes can quite often be pretty hard on the body.
 
I don't think the harshness of vape smoke is due to the nicotine. i also have no problem inhaling a cigarette but when i take a little hit of vape smoke i cough like a bitch. The ones i'm hitting are high in flavors but have very little to no nicotine. My friends don't vape for the nicotine so they get 0 nicotine flavors whenever possible.

I'm pretty sure the harshness is due to the strong flavorings.
 
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