Published on: 01/03/2023
Vape vs smoking: which is the less harmful alternative for asthmatics?
If you are asthmatic and smoke, you have probably noticed a drastic worsening of your symptoms due to this bad habit: taking the stairs makes you more and more tired, you cannot run except for short distances and even the lightest physical activities make you out of breath.
It’s normal for all of this to happen: cigarette smoke is damaging your lungs and bronchi more and more, and asthma progresses, decreasing your breathing capacity.
Perhaps you thought you could reduce the worsening of symptoms thanks to the electronic cigarette, but you are afraid of falling into an even more harmful habit.
In this case, I will try to answer your doubts in the following article.
The harms of traditional cigarettes in asthmatic patients
It shouldn’t be news to anyone that asthma and traditional cigarettes are a deadly combination: smokers who suffer from this disease, in most cases suffer a drastic worsening of symptoms. But the most serious consequence is another: asthma is a potentially reversible disease (although not in all cases) and a healthy lifestyle characterized by constant physical activity can help reduce symptoms.
In some patients it can even resolve completely, but this depends on various factors such as the age of the sufferer and the severity of the disease.
If asthma is associated with smoking, on the other hand, it is likely that over the years it will evolve into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an irreversible and progressive disease, i.e. not curable and destined to get worse over time. Patients suffering from this disease can only alleviate the symptoms by following certain drug treatments and by eliminating any habit harmful to the lungs such as, of course, smoking.
Read also: Automatic electronic cigarette: what it is, how it works and when to choose it
E-cigarette and asthma: what does research tell us on this topic?
What do we know, however, about the effects of e-cigarettes on asthmatics? Still not so much, also due to the ‘young age’ of e-cigs, introduced on the market for the first time since the early 2000s.
In essence, medical research has not yet managed to give definitive answers in this regard, but this does not mean that rather interesting and significant data have not emerged.
An example is the research conducted by a team of Italian researchers and published in English in 2016 in the journal Discovery Medicine. The survey involved 2 groups of patients with asthma: the first was made up of subjects who had quit smoking in favor of vaping. The second, on the other hand, collected so-called ‘dual-user’ patients, i.e. who used both traditional and electronic cigarettes.
Over the course of 2 years, the team of researchers constantly examined the development of symptoms in all patients and their conclusion, which we report in full in the original language, was the following: “This prospective study confirms that EC use ameliorates objective and subjective asthma outcomes and shows that these beneficial effects may persist in the long term. EC use can reverse harm from tobacco smoking in asthma patients who smoke. The evidence-based notion that substitution of conventional cigarettes with EC is unlikely to raise significant respiratory concerns, can improve counseling between physicians and their asthmatic patients who are using or intend to use ECs“.
Final considerations
First of all, a clarification should be made: those suffering from asthma should totally eliminate both traditional and electronic cigarettes. However, we know that it is not easy to break free from nicotine addiction.
If you suffer from asthma, are a smoker and think you can overcome this bad habit without any help, then do not hesitate to throw away the cigarettes and never consume any more.
If, on the other hand, you don’t think you can do it on your own, then you could try replacing traditional cigarettes with electronic ones.
As you could read in the previous paragraph, according to several studies, e-cigarettes represent a less harmful alternative to cigarettes even in the presence of asthma. For this reason, vaping could allow you to slow down the worsening of your pathology, waiting to finally free yourself from nicotine addiction and breathe only pure air.
Please note: whichever choice you decide to take, contact your doctor first and ask for his advice. Based on your medical history, he will be able to tell you if vaping can be a temporary solution or if, instead, you would be better off pursuing other avenues.
In conclusion
In this article we have compared the effects of electronic cigarettes and traditional ones on asthmatic subjects.
As you could read, those suffering from this pathology should stay away from both smoking and vaping: this is an absolute certainty. However, asthmatic smokers who cannot overcome their addiction to nicotine can hope to reduce the damage to their lungs by substituting cigarettes with the e-cigs, of course after seeking the advice of an expert doctor.