Up in Vape

Vaping and Asthma

Greetings, I pray everyone is doing well this week, I was thinking…. a dangerous thing for me I know, however from time to time I do think just to keep the kidneys in my head working how they’re supposed to work.  Otherwise the kidneys will shrink up will not be able to bounce back next thing ya know I’m a prime candidate for the Alzheimer’s ward.  We don’t need that now…so I keep having these random thoughts going into and out of my head space, usually it’s enough to fill a page or two and will be enough to allow my editor Dave to do his magic and turn these random thoughts into a story my column to be exact.

If I haven’t said it before, even if I did, I’m gonna say it again.  My editor Dave is one hell of a guy.  I cannot express how much I admire this man.  He knows a lot about a lot, especially editing stories and making them presentable for the public’s eye.  Dave….you the man my friend…. you da man!  OK, I guess I will stay on the medical theme this week, my column last week hit some nerves, and I am glad that it did.

There needs to be some serious discussion, I cannot stress this enough.  There has to be some SERIOUS and continuing research as well, on medical marijuana, as there are many different strains of this stuff around, and all of the great things any one or combination of strains can have an end result that could be life changing, and they can astonish those in the medical and scientific research world. It’ll rock the world!  OK then, enough about this stuff; this week I want to delve into a disease that can and does take lives if not properly treated and/or maintained.  “Tim….what the hell are you talking about dude?”  I’m glad you asked.

I am talking about a disease that affects, according to 2008 statistics, some 25 million people of all types, kinds, colors, in the U.S. alone.  Not to mention the rest of the world, the numbers from China are staggering, plus the rest of Asia. Then there’s Europe, this disease affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide every year. Asthma.

With medical improvements the way they are and to the point that it wouldn’t surprise me any if someone in the medical field was able to produce a nebulizer treatment that one could put into a clearomizer, or even a sub tank and you could, if and when needed, take your breathing treatment via your favorite mod and tank!

There are largely anecdotal stories of those who do suffer from asthma that when they started vaping their asthma actually got better. Some who vaped had their asthma get worse, but overall, the general consensuses are that those with asthma, their asthma did improve some.  How much?  That I guess should be left to the medical experts the respiratory therapist and the like to input the numbers and see where it all comes out to.

Personally, I think that due to the nicotine that is present in our e-juice plays a part.  I read something earlier that a gentleman living with his parents in Italy at the time, some 50-60 years ago, and due to his rather severe case of asthma the doctors over in Italy had this kid, he was 5 years old at the time, I believe he was, 5 or 6 years, the doctor got the kid to start smoking cigarettes.  The doctor stated that the nicotine actually helped to open the airways.

This gentleman stated for 4 or 5 months he was the only 5 or 6-year-old on his block who had a prescription to smoke!  Evidently his parents soon found a new doctor and he was taken off cigarettes, a habit he picked back up a few years later when he was well into his teens.  Now that he is in his mid 60’s he picked up vaping to quit cigarettes and the nicotine in his ejuice help keep his airways open.

I can say that my time as an EMT when I lived in Texas, a doctor friends,’ well, as a nurse, who was a very good friend had told me that back in the day that there was some uses of nicotine with asthma patients to help keep the airways from clogging any more than they already were.  What do y’all say?  Any of y’all who have asthma have you had any information to the contrary or information that will support this anecdotal information that I have.

I’m going back 30-35 years, when I was first an EMT, and it was a hell of a lot easier to get the EMT certification back then, not that I needed it, having had military training in first aid, advance military first aid via a very good friend who could and taught a handful of us.  There was also my police academy first aid training, had some college level classes on first aid that delved more into the medical tools and their uses, how to use them.  Long ago and far away…. a life time ago.

One thing I am so thankful for, in all my years of smoking, and with everything that has befallen me medically, physically, is that I have never contracted asthma.  I do feel for those of you who do have asthma.  I have had friends and coworkers over the years that have asthma.  I know, I saw what they had to go through with their own battles with asthma.  I can remember as an EMT/ambulance driver, the nurse and I would get the call for this or that person who had breathing difficulties, chances were that he/she had asthma, and it wasn’t pretty seeing someone in throes of an asthma attack.

I will say this as far as treatment and what not go, our son Robert, when he was younger, our son always, come winter time, even here in Florida, would come down with bronchitis, without fail every year from the time he was 4 maybe 5 until he was 11 maybe 12 years old.  The one year his bronchitis turned into a deadly form of pneumonia, it damn near did take our son’s life, but the doctors at the hospital in West Palm Beach did a fantastic job with all his treatments.  I still remember having to give Robert his breathing treatments, we still have a nebulizer under the cupboard in our bathroom that we used for his breathing treatments.  I saw what our son went through, saw what different treatment we had to do, or make him do. We were fortunate…. our son no longer suffers from bronchitis, he gets a cold every once in a while, that’s about it.

For those of you who do have asthma, I pray that a cure is found in our lifetime, or as I stated earlier…. maybe they’ll figure out how to be able to market an ejuice that you can use in your favorite mod and sub tank to help get your breathing back under control.

I presume from what I have read that tens of millions of dollars are being spent on asthma research, at least. Will vaping help or hurt your asthma?  I would love to hear you side of things please, take a minute and answer in the comments section, or…. visit my forum on Spinfuel called chronic pain and vaping.  I would imagine that when it is difficult to breathe, it is probably painful as hell.

With that, I will say I pray y’all found this week’s column at least mildly interesting and hopefully somewhat informative.  I must apologize, I have been dealing with my own medical issues with my legs and back.  I will say Sayonara, it is always an honor to be able to do this column for y’all.  Be well, stay safe, God bless, and….VAPE ON!

Tim Timblin