Join Nostr
2026-07-06 16:03:32 UTC

libertas primordium on Nostr: Stupid ignorant VA doctor told me vaping was destroying my lungs. Nicotine by itself ...

Stupid ignorant VA doctor told me vaping was destroying my lungs.

Nicotine by itself is not that harmful. The negative health effects are mild and it has numerous health benefits.

Nicotine in salt form is PH neutral and doesn't burn the lung tissue.

The propylene glycol base solution has been used in medical nebulizer solutions for over 70 years so if there was anything particularly harmful in inhaling it we would know about it by now.

The scare stories about popcorn lung come from people in the early days of vaping experimenting with other base solutions. One of the things that was tried was vitamin E oil. It was assumed that a vitamin was healthy and harmless. This assumption turned out to be very wrong. Vitamin E oil is actually very damaging to the lungs.

Another early issue was using galvanized metals in the coils. This also caused lung damage. Most modern coils are ceramic coated so that they last much longer, 50,000 puffs or more.

The only unknown is the trace amounts of food safe flavor additives that are used. Most are harmless, but one of these, the artificial butter flavor, turned out to be harmful to inhale. That's why you won't find buttery dessert flavors anymore.

I enjoy nicotine. I enjoy inhaling it into my lungs and getting that quick stimulating hit of dopamine and norepinephrine in my brain. It's a way to hack your neurochemistry and give yourself a boost of focus and motivation.

I smoked a pack or more a day for about 17 years knowing it was very harmful and it was only after a scare where they said there was a concerning spot on my lung on a chest X-ray that I put the cigarettes down for good. I had a CT scan a week later and it turned out there was nothing there and the spot was a fault with the X-ray machine, but that week of wondering if I had lung cancer was enough for me to never smoke again.

Once I switched to vaping I started breathing better and better over the next couple years. My lungs used to always hurt and burn and my chest would feel tight when I would run. Now if I go for a run my lungs feel just fine and it's my legs that get tired first.