What Smoking Once Does to Your Brain

eight deaths in the u.s. or postcentral mysterious deaths linked to vaping especially vaping as it pertains to innocent children what's a vaping [Music] more than 20 dead over a thousand in hospital and potential repercussions for the entire industry and that's not even getting into the apparent teen vaping epidemic wasn't vaping introduced as the safer alternative to smoking if that's the case what's going on our rapes really safe is there something else to blame for these mystery illnesses or is the vaping industry just blowing smoke well let's go on a ride and follow an ever-evolving tale of illness addiction and one of the biggest substance trades in the world as we look into what one wrong puff can do to you but first today's episode covers an ongoing and controversial topic we'll be looking at the current string of vaping related illnesses the history of vaping and the media coverage surrounding the industry we're not doctors we're not here to tell you what to do during your free time and we're certainly not here to judge you on whether you smoke or not if you have any health concerns be sure to talk to your doctor about them and with that out of the way let's get into it setting things on fire and inhaling the smoke is kind of a time-honored tradition for humanity so it shouldn't be a surprise that our topic today is just the latest century in a long history of people smoking dried plants smoking tobacco in particular has been around long enough in one form or another that it may as well have been a universal constant we can trace tobacco back as far as 6000 BC and the tobacco trade has been a historically significant force since the 16th century in fact is so historically significant that a lot of stuff has happened involving cigarettes a lot of stuff but for e-cigarettes the technical term for products like blue hanger or Jul their history is more tied to the modern day though the first known design for what would later come to know as an e-cigarette was introduced back in 1963 the 60s again groovy known as the smokeless this device was invented by one Herbert a Gilbert Gilbert stated that the smokeless had potential to prevent disease from tobacco use and even had dietary benefits according to the smithsonian magazine he claimed that anyone on a diet could smoke their favorite foods using vapor flavors like mint rum or cinnamon health benefits flavored vapor juices yeah this is already sounding familiar of course there was one big difference between Gilbert's smokeless and the e-cigarettes of today the smokeless didn't have Nick G in the end the smokeless never managed to gain attention and though different products were introduced since then with varying degrees of success electronic cigarettes wouldn't take the main stage for another 40 years who's there that's right enter 2003 the year that brought us Finding Nemo Arnold Schwarzenegger is election as Governor of California and the The Matrix Revolutions convoluted storylines and disappointing conclusion sucide 2003 also saw the electronic cigarette maker resurgence after years of devices that failed to gain a foothold specifically it was the year that a Chinese pharmacist by the name of hone lik demonstrated his first ecig arete now with a hundred percent more nicotine lik had been inspired to make the device after he lost his father to smoking and following a night of bad dreams to DES leaving a nicotine patch on but these cigarettes have faced some hurdles since their introduction in Turkey while ecig arrests were classified as a tobacco product in 2008 the Ministry of Health never gave approval for the import or sill of the devices laws are even stricter in Thailand where the sale import-export and possession of e-cigarettes carries heavy fines and even prison sentences of up to 10 years likewise attempts to bring e-cigarettes into Singapore could result in fines or as one TripAdvisor users discovered having all vaping products thrown out in September 2008 the World Health Organization released a statement clarifying their position on e-cigarettes namely they didn't like them or the fact that some vendors were apparently claiming that the w-h-o considered the devices to be safe in the words of dr. Ella Allen assistant director-general of WH OHS non communicable diseases and mental health cluster w-h-o has no scientific evidence to confirm the product safety and efficacy its marketers should immediately remove their websites and other informational materials any suggestion that w-h-o considers it to be a safe and effective smoking cessation aid but out of the many many e-cigarettes that emerged on the market there was one clear winner and if you're at all aware of the current trends or headlines you already know who I'm talking about I'm jewel all the time so we have a few of them Jules started up as plume a more cylindrical device than the USB stick looking one that we know it as today the plume brand was sold in 2015 to Japanese tobacco international or jti for short which launched two new products in Japan this year the founders then rebranded themselves as pax labs and launched the jewel in the same year since then the worldwide vaping market has grown into an industry worth more than ten billion dollars that's billion with a B also known as kind of a big deal also I'm saying which is why any health concerns that have come up are just as big of a deal September 2018 the FDA called e-cigarettes an epidemic among children and teens sending warning letters to stores that were selling the product to minors illegally December 2018 the Surgeon General issued a warning of that e-cigarette use was unsafe August 2019 the Minnesota Department of Health asked healthcare providers to be on the lookout for vaping and East cigarette related lung diseases after noting cases at a local hospital later that month the first suspected victim lost their life which brings us to great about now so what's changed and what are the issues currently facing he cigarettes well there are a few issues first there's not really much oversight on e-cigarettes at least not in the United States according to Ned Sharples acting commissioner of the FDA east cigarettes are not safe and then all these cigarette products on the market are illegal as none of them have actually been assessed by the FDA regulators have pointed out how odd it was to wait until 2019 to take this stance specifically Frank pallone a Democratic Representative from New Jersey stated that it was long past time for the FDA to act and Diane to jet a democratic representative from Colorado said that given the potential risks associated with these products it would be reasonable to assume these products had been reviewed and approved by the FDA but they haven't and of course it's not just independent startups like jewel that have entered the vaping ring plume is still run by jti and British American Tobacco unveiled their vy p cigarette in canada british american tobacco being the second largest cigarette manufacturer in the world as of 2012 by the way there are even questions regarding how effective e-cigarettes are for quitting smoking especially with the increasing trend in underage vaping the big concern is that instead of reducing smoking rates and adults vaping maybe creating more smokers overall at the forefront of this particular concern jool specifically Jools flavors in advertising campaigns right now teen vaping rates are soaring according to an article by Maclean's the vaping rate amongst teens under 16 in British Columbia is one in five for ages between 16 and 18 it's 1 and 3 and those are just the teens were telling the truth could you imagine being a teen answering that kind of question son do you vape absolutely not according to American Lung Association national president and CEO Harald Wimmer a recently released report shows that 27 point five percent of youth are now using e-cigarettes which is a problem because the most popular cigarettes contain nicotine to get into a bit of science CA science when nicotine is absorbed into your blood after smoking it gets carried to your brain once there is absorbed by the aptly named nicotine receptors on neurons and a part of the brain known as the reward pathway these neurons then release dopamine a fancy term for a feel-good chemical it's also highly addictive and creates addiction at a faster rate in young brains than an adult ones and here's a thing as you smoke vapor jul more nicotine the number of receptors in your brain increases more receptors means a higher dosage is needed to fill them and get the same response and since your body is now used to those receptors being full when they're not it's welcome to chemical addiction now here's the thing selling or even marketing products like cigarettes e-cigarettes or products containing nicotine to youngsters is at least in Canada in the United States very very illegal as in if you get caught not carting kids lose your license illegal but with flavors on the market like jewels official lemonade and mango pods or less legal third party usually berry flavored Smurfs blood some of question who the products are intended for according to pediatrician dr. Suzanne Eaton ski the appeal of flavors for children is well understood by e-cigarette manufacturers and the flavors also help mask the harsh taste of nicotine making repeated use more likely and thereby increasing the likelihood of developing addiction teen addiction concerns were further due to earlier advertising campaigns used by jool and other e-cigarette manufacturers as that make vaping look cool and hip and which bear a passing resemblance to some of the marketing used by big tobacco in the past recently Jules CEO Kevin Burns stepped down and was replaced by one Casey crosthwaite whose previous position was chief growth officer at Altria one of the largest producers of cigarettes in the world though devil's advocate for a second here that particular move does make a degree of sense in a turbulent time in the industry it would make sense to have an experienced growth officer run your business and speaking of turbulent times the situation today is certainly turbulent at least 20 dead over a thousand ill and an ongoing investigation into both illicit and mainstream vaping products in terms of what kind of health effects they have so what is going on well let's explore a few cases and give a look at the bigger picture 52 year old mother and lifelong her Mary Kerry Davis took up vaping as a way to quit smoking but given that we're talking about her now you can probably guess that things didn't go so great for her according to Mary Kerry's husband Kevin Davis she thought it was safer I certainly liked the fact that there wasn't the cigarette smell and her breath didn't smell like cigarettes I kind of thought it was better to Mary carry only vape nicotine containing a juice for several years but eventually tried a THC containing juice in California after returning home to Georgia where THC is illegal she kept purchasing and vaping it according to a report by CNN Mary Carey's health entered a steady decline while vaping THC until she developed coughing nausea vomiting and diarrhea after a hospital visit on September fourth her daughter Maggie recounts that she stated she was never smoking again by September 6th she had passed away and while Mary Kari is not counted in the CDC's official list of victims she was found with a white cloud like substance sticking to the inside of her lungs the same hallmark trait that others suffering from the vaping illness then there's the case of a 17 year old from Detroit that was admitted to Henry Ford Hospital while his name has been withheld for privacy reasons his family asked the doctors share his story when admitted doctors found that the teens chest cavity appeared almost empty on a CT scan an almost total lack of air causing his lungs to disappear from scans according to dr. Hasan Emma the damage was so bad that he quote would have faced certain death without a drastic operation namely a double lung transplant if you're unfamiliar with what double lung transplant means imagine you have no lungs and then imagine receiving someone else's lungs that's it that's how it works of course there are serious complications it's not quite as easy as take out old lungs and put any ones in people who get lung transplants need to take medication to subdue their body's immune systems so that it doesn't reject the new organs it's not an operation that has taken lightly but according to dr. Nemeth the teens lungs were stiffened scarred and severely inflamed to a point they'd never seen before in dr. NEMA's own words what I saw in his lungs is like nothing I've seen before and I've been doing lung transplants for 20 years this isn't evil I haven't faced before well that's a terrifying quote but we've still got one last case in store gregory rodriguez 22 was an avid / with a particular liking of THC containing cartridges he'd tried smoking bud previously but his parents could smell it and disapproved vaping was much more discreet then on September 18th 2019 he was admitted to the emergency room at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Hospital with what he thought was a flu he was feverish nauseous and short of breath throughout the day his condition deteriorated his blood oxygen level was dangerously low and by the afternoon he was on a ventilator by the next day he was in danger of organ failure or heart stoppage four days later he woke up in the Long Island Jewish Medical Center's main campus attached to machines that were pumping air into his blood and removing carbon dioxide Gregory's lungs had shut down and he had nearly lost his life and he wasn't the only one at that hospital according to doctor Mangala Narasimhan a lung specialist at the hospital I think he was our 19th case it's hitting us pretty hard and that's just the ones who are severe enough for us to know about and the scene in his lungs was grisly Gregory's lungs were inflamed with extensive damage to the alveoli a fancy word which here means air sacs according to doctor Narasimha Hahn the stuff coming out of his lungs looked like flan or custard it was so thick there was a lot of inflammatory cells we had to do multiple rounds of washing his lungs out every day after a few days his lungs started to heal and started working again thankfully Gregory's story has a happier ending than others after spending 12 days in the hospital he returned home though he's still on the road to recovery in Gregory's own words when I climb stairs it feels like I'm climbing a mountain when I run a couple steps it feels like I ran a marathon and the culprit well there are a few things that could be causing issues the big concern comes from lung diseases so far linked primarily to third party products containing cannabinoids and illicit brands like dank vapes however at this time the CDC isn't certain exactly what chemicals are at fault and have issued an advisory to cease vaping with any products early concerns focus on oils like vitamin E acetate which could have been used to cut or thicken cannabinoid containing juices for reference cutting a product is mixing other substances into a product to dilute it and increase quantity it's like adding water to your roommates soda to make it seem like you didn't drink any Leif was that these boils were clinging to the inside of lungs clogging them up and filling them with fluids leaving them drowning in their own lungs which is in technical terms bad but recently researchers from the Mayo Clinic examined lung tissue from the victims and found that the issue appeared to resemble chemical burns more than oil what's the culprit behind these well the vitamin E acetate is one of the suspects but there are also health concerns behind some of the flavorings while most of the flavors are considered safe for consumption that label is applied with the assumption that they'll be eaten not inhaled and speaking of taking a wrong puff not having enough ejuice can be a problem too taking a puff when an e-cigarette without juice that's heated up enough or has run too low can cause something called a dry hit dry hits happen when the device is wick isn't heated enough burning the wick and leaving the user with a lung full of unpleasant burnt wick air this is said to leave you with a mouth full of heated cotton flavor and can irritate the throat not the absolute worst but still not pleasant whether it's wicks or oils when they're in a different state applied to a different region of the body things can change news update on November 8th 2019 the CDC announced that vitamin D acetate was one very strong culprit of concern it was also found in all samples taken from those with lung illness and found at the site of whereas other chemicals weren't as present but we only get case by case results and drowning in fluids and chemical burns don't quite align so here's a little hypothesis from me and keep in mind I am NOT a medical expert okay not a doctor over here but is it possible that the oil clinging to the inner tissue of the lungs could carry chemicals with it that in turn burns them we'll have to wait until the results come back but just a thought and to complicate matters further can a safe a testing lab in California that had analyzed 12 samples of black-market vaping products found that all of the products that had inspected contained pesticides and some even had heavy metals like lead but as of my script goblin writing this the exact cause and extent still isn't known and both the CDC and FDA investigations are ongoing though on November 27th 2019 Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker outlawed any flavored tobacco except for products sold in specialty bars for on-site consumption a 75% tax and nicotine limits were also placed on non flavored ecig rets though the nicotine limit only applies to vapes used outside of specialty bars it's also important to note that ecig rets are a relatively new product it took decades or centuries really to learn the devastating health effects of cigarettes and those were marketed as healthy back in the day seriously we really don't know what long-term effects a cigarette can have on people so where does all this leave us well in something of a complicated situation the CDC has advised everyone to stop vaping while it investigates and there's talk about a federal flavored vape juice ban though jewel has already pulled all of its flavors but three from the u.s. menthol Virginia tobacco and classic tobacco some states have gone so far as to ban e-cigarettes entirely and make the sale of vaping products illegal a move that has been met with predictable ire from those who run businesses based on the industry and has seen lawsuits against the states of New York and Massachusetts Jewell has also been accused of shipping out over 1 million contaminated products and is facing not only public scrutiny but also a lawsuit in the same accusation former jewel CEO Kevin Burns was quoted as saying half of our customers are drunk and vaping like mofos who the [ __ ] is going to notice the quality of our pods and here's where I come clean on something we had a miserable time on this topic there were times where the script goblin came to me and said something along the lines of it's getting really hard to stay on biased here so sorry buddy no hard feelings thanks for doing your best while some people might be tempted to make loud opinionated videos oh so you do watch my video they have been known to show up in my out-of-place sometimes yes I'll take what I can get but to end things off make sure you're aware of the risks with anything you put in your body if you're ever unsure what's in anything you're taking look for alternative products or dig a bit deeper and try to find something that actually lists its ingredients so that you can understand what you're consuming always know what kind of habits you're getting into trust me on this ooh coffee [Music]

Channel: Brew

Views: 947,670

Rating: 4.8728313 out of 5

Keywords: unsolved, unsolved mysteries, solved mysteries, unsolved cases, mystery, unsolved mystery, theory, investigate, investigation, mysteries unsolved, mysteries solved, solved mystery, vaping dangers, vape health risks, vaping health risks, vaping health risks 2019, juul health, juul danger, juul health effects

Id: ozt4u8lt-xA

Length: 20min 12sec (1212 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 01 2019

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