What is vaping...Ignorance may be bliss on this one...
^Short for vaporizing. It's when the substance is heated to below the point of burning and forms a vapor which can be inhaled.
Harambulus:
I think part of it was because in
your other thread it sounded like you may have actually been
burning the supplements as opposed to properly
vaporizing them, plus no one really knows the risks of vaping stuff like 5-HTP or tyrosine (which would also contain binder/fillers). You said it produced "piles of black and orange gunk [...] while i was burning". If you are truly vaporizing something it doesn't burn, doesn't create smoke, it is just heating it into a vapor that you inhale.
Secondly, the poster in that thread said
pulmonary embolism, not pulmonary
edema, and they did say they were
guessing - unless you are referring to a different thread/post? Pulmonary embolism is when a blood vessel in the lung gets blocked by solid material brought through the bloodstream. It can be caused by a blood clot or by a foreign substance being introduced into the bloodstream, usually by intravenous injection of insoluble particles that come in pills, such as talc. I have also heard of it occasionally happening due to snorting or
smoking (burning) drugs, but I have never
heard of it happening due to properly done vaporizing. Pulmonary
edema on the other hand is fluid in the lungs, which can sometimes be caused by inhaling hot or toxic vapors. It is hard to find any info on the likelihood of pulmonary edema from vaping (and I'm sure it depends a lot on the substance) but the risk
is there. I think the risk of pulmonary edema would definitely be higher than pulmonary embolism.
As far as vaping stuff like 5-HTP, the truth is that we have no idea and so it's best to avoid. Not all substances
can be vaporized. Supplements are not meant to be vaped nor are they normally vaped, so no one can tell you the exact risks. Some things vaporize well and others don't. This has to do with several factors, for example things like the temperature that they burn at - if something burns at a low temperature it may burn before you can get it to turn to vapor, (and when you throw in inactive ingredients that come in pills or capsules, that adds to your risks).
*Also, in the future, if a thread of your's gets closed and you wanted to continue the discussion please PM the mod who closed it as opposed to just starting a new thread. But I left this one open for now since you are talking about a related but slightly different issue than your OP in that other thread, and are now asking about drugs in general.
