Vaping and COPD: Reversing the Harm from Smoking
If you suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) you are sure to have been told by at least one doctor that you should stop smoking. That is good advice, but it’s not that simple, is it? Lots of people that suffer from breathing problems continue to smoke, because quitting is hard, and not everyone really feels they want to quit.
Many doctors would not recommend vaping to people that have COPD. That is good advice if you are able to stop smoking some other way, but it is bad advice if it means you carry on smoking. So if you can give up with gum, lozenges, patches, willpower, or anything else, then just do it. Make sure you give up smoking completely though; just one cigarette a day can make COPD flare up, and so can other peoples’ smoke.
If you don’t think you can give up that way, there is some good news. Scientists have studied the effects of vaping on people with COPD, and there are quite a few positives that came from their research.
First off, people suffering from COPD that took up vaping had less than half the lung flare-ups five years on than when they started, and that was in a group that hadn’t all managed to stop smoking completely.
Secondly, all of the group that started using e-cigarettes either quit entirely, or massively reduced the amount they smoked, and for a long time. On average they were smoking around 90% fewer cigarettes a day five years after the beginning of the study. Of those that had been able to give up completely, less than one in ten relapsed to smoking in five years.
Finally, everyone in the group that took up vaping enjoyed better lung health than they had at the beginning of the study. This was not the case for the control group, who had been keen to carry on smoking.
In summary, taking up vaping and eliminating, or significantly reducing the amount you smoke can help reverse some of the harm caused by smoking.
