The use of E-cigarettes and vaping is at an all-time high in South Africa and around the world. The rise in popularity is due in large part to the belief that E-cigarettes and vaping aren’t as bad for you as cigarettes and other tobacco products. Unfortunately, this belief is misguided and incorrect, as E-cigarettes and vaping can be just as damaging as other forms of smoking and tobacco use.
E-cigarettes and vaping can lead to a number of chronic and life-threatening conditions. This includes popcorn lung, primary spontaneous pneumothorax, permanent lung scarring, EVALI, lung cancer, and more. As a result, it’s important to see a doctor and have them check your lungs if you currently or formerly used E-cigarettes or vaping products. If you have a medical condition that resulted from using these products, there are several treatment options you can pursue.
Many of the conditions that result from E-cigarette use and vaping are treatable with medications. The medication that your doctor prescribes will depend on which type of disease you have, but it will typically include one or more of the following.
Smoking and vaping will often lead to dangerous inflammation in your lungs. To reduce or eliminate this inflammation, you might need to take steroids or corticosteroids such as prednisone or budesonide.
In some cases, a lung condition that’s being caused by smoking or vaping can look like a bacterial infection. Therefore, if your doctor is still performing tests to find out what’s causing your lung condition, they might prescribe antibiotics such as lincosamide or clindamycin.
In the same way that lung conditions resulting from smoking and vaping can emulate a bacterial infection, it can also look like a viral infection. Therefore, your doctor might also prescribe broad antiviral medications, such as amantadine and rimantadine.
Depending on the type of lung condition you have, it can lead to bronchiole issues, which play a vital role in breathing. If your doctor is concerned about this, they will give you immunosuppressants to slow down your immune system. In so doing, they can keep your bronchioles from irreparable damage.
While antivirals, immunosuppressants, and antibiotics don’t have a lot of side effects, corticosteroids do. Because steroids and corticosteroids are the primary medication used to treat lung conditions, it’s important to know these side effects.
If you have suffered a primary spontaneous pneumothorax or collapsed lung, medications will not be able to help. Instead, you will require needle aspiration to re-inflate your collapsed lung. Needle aspiration is where your doctor inserts a needle into the air bubble that’s putting pressure on the lung and collapsing it. They then suck the air out, which gives your lung room to inflate.
In extreme situations where your lung condition is life-threatening and irreversible, you may require a lung transplant. This procedure is where a surgeon removes your lung or lungs and installs new ones in their place. Lung transplants are often needed when people have lung cancer or a bad case of popcorn lung.
Contrary to what you may have heard, vaping and the use of E-cigarettes is extremely unhealthy and can have life-threatening ramifications. While there are treatments available to help with resulting conditions, they aren’t always effective if the damage is too extensive. Additionally, even if treatment is successful, you will likely have to receive oxygen therapy and will have reduced lung capacity for the rest of your life.