Smoking has long been portrayed as something “cool.” But that was your parents’ generation, or maybe even your grandparents’ generation. Now vaping is the thing to do. Everyone who is anyone vapes, right?
The problem is that there are big health risks with both habits. Both smoking and vaping involve nicotine, which is very addictive. Smoking has been proven to cause cancer, which can kill you. But vaping has been proven to cause serious lung illness, which can also kill you. The bottom line is: Smoking kills. Vaping kills you faster.
The Dangers of Smoking:
People smoked for a very long time before we finally figured out how bad it was for our health. In the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death. On average, smoking is responsible for nearly one in every five deaths.
It is well known that smoking causes lung cancer, but it can actually cause cancer anywhere in your body. Smoking can also cause stroke and coronary heart disease, as well as various cardiovascular diseases. If you have asthma, smoking can worsen it or cause asthma attacks. It can also cause chronic bronchitis and emphysema as well as COPD.
Lesser known side effects include reproductive harm to both men and women, let alone the fetuses of pregnant women. There are also other random health risks, everything from the health of your bones, teeth, and gums, to cataracts and rheumatoid arthritis. Smoking can impact nearly every aspect of your health, and it is proven to kill, slowly.
The Dangers of Vaping:
Vaping is a relatively new habit, and they are just beginning to learn how much it impacts your health. One of the biggest dangers is that, according to the CDC, two-thirds of JUUL users ages 15-24 do not realize that JUUL contains nicotine. In fact, JUUL specifically can contain as much nicotine as a whole pack of cigarettes. Many vape products are not labeled to disclose that they have nicotine. One of the biggest dangers of vaping is that you don’t even know what you are inhaling. But there are some best vaping shops available online and offline that can provide the best vaping products which are not dangerous.
Rather than the years that it took for people to see the effects of cigarettes on people’s health, vaping has shown a disturbing amount of health problems very quickly. There is a public health crisis involving people who have vaped. People are going to the hospital with lung injuries that require medically-induced comas and more. Their lungs show damage that is similar to chemical burns. And many have actually died. From vaping. Not from years and years of vaping, but from a very short time.
One of the other dangers of vaping is that you never know what is in the vape pen or other device. Many people are vaping marijuana. However, the THC, when vaped, is the common ingredient in nearly every patient who has died from vaping. It does not take long, and it does not discriminate.
The Dangers of Addiction:
Both cigarettes and e-cigarettes, or vaping, contain nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance. This makes it difficult for you to stop once you have started. It makes it difficult to stop once you experience negative health problems. And it makes it difficult for you to stop even when your life is at risk.
Nicotine also interferes with brain development in those who are under the age of 25. Nicotine can be harmful to the parts of the brain which control learning, mood control, attention, and impulse control. In addition to the other physical symptoms for both cigarettes and vaping, these are long-term physiological effects that nicotine can have on adolescents.
The Correlation Between Mental and Physical Health:
Your mental health is greatly impacted by your physical health. If you are suffering from any of the side effects or health problems from smoking or vaping, or if you become addicted to nicotine, it can cause greater anxiety, depression, and more. Additionally, you will need to seek treatment for addiction or medical care as well, which will create additional stressors for you and your mental health.
Which is Worse?
There is no good way to die. The effects of cigarette smoking are gradual and extensive, killing you slowly. The effects of vaping are still largely unknown, however what we do know is shocking, and will kill you very quickly or at least put you in the hospital with serious lung injury. Vaping as a way of inhaling marijuana is particularly lethal. Vaping is probably worse because of how much we don’t know about it, and specifically how much you, the targeted consumer, don’t know about it, either. There is also some data to show that vaping can lead to smoking, which is the worst possible outcome.
Asking why vaping is worse than smoking is kind of like asking why drowning is worse than suffocation. At the end of the day, both habits have the same outcome: serious physical injury or death. If you are smoking or vaping and finding it difficult to stop, seek help for your addiction today. If it is impacting your mental health, don’t hesitate to call Embark Behavioral Health. They can help you find your mental health and free yourself from addictions. Especially addictions that can kill you. Otherwise, you have two choices: death by smoking, or faster death by vaping. Choose life.
Find your mental health and free yourself from addictions by calling Embark Behavioral Health 1-855-809-0409 today. Because breathing is important.