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WHO data reveals that at least 15 million young people between the ages of 13 and 15 smoke heated and electronic tobacco around the world. Despite promising to be less toxic than traditional tobacco, science shows that it is “as harmful or more” to your health.
Smokeless, odorless, less toxic, with flavor… these are some of the marketing moves that make electronic tobacco and heated tobacco increasingly attractive.
“Both products provide nicotine but only heated tobacco contains tobacco. The electronic cigarette provides nicotine in liquid form and more recently in the form of nicotine salts. There are several generations of electronic cigarettes also known as vapes, pods, etc. They currently exist in rechargeable and disposable formats”, begins by explaining to SIC Notícias Ana Raquel Marques, General and Family Medicine doctor, responsible for ACES Intensive Smoking Cessation Consultation at the Matosinhos Local Health Unit and clinical director of Health With Us.
Despite promising to be less toxic than traditional tobacco, science shows that it is “as harmful or more” to your health. The smoking cessation expert states that the “alleged reduction of some compounds by the tobacco industry is not safe.”
What are the risks associated with tobacco?
Ana Raquel Marques reveals that there are already studies that prove that these products “cause cardiovascular diseases, such as acute myocardial infarction and stroke, in younger adults in both men and women”.
According to the clinical director of Health With Us, “the nicotine and ultrafine particles in these products also increase heart rate, blood pressure and vascular inflammation”, all of which are risk factors for heart attack and stroke.
“Studies show inflammation and oxidative stress similar to traditional smoking, with a long-term risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic bronchitis, diseases for which screening begins at age 40 in smokers.”
There is also the risk of cancer.
Information about the risks of tobacco, whether traditional, heated or electronic, can be consulted in seconds with an internet search. But it is also on the internet and on billboards in the streets that appealing marketing appears that conveys “a wrong perception of security” that “masks real risks”.
“New tobacco products are devices very attractive to younger people: the color, shape, flavors. The target audience for these devices is young people”, points out the General and Family Medicine doctor.
Speaking to SIC Notícias, he denounces the social and behavioral impact of young people “increasingly vulnerable to social networks, to appearances, to the group effect”. And it emphasizes that theafter starting consumption, “the dependence is increasingly earlier and more difficult to reverse in a young brain more sensitive to nicotine”.
Passive smokers are also at risk
You don’t need to smoke to take the same risks as a smoker, just be next to one. Passive smokers “are also at risk of diseases such as respiratory, cardiovascular diseases and cancer”.
Although heated and electronic cigarettes generate less smoke, there is still a release of “aerosol composed of particles that are deposited on surfaces and in the surrounding air, causing illness in passive smokers through continued exposure“.
Withdrawal symptoms can be ‘challenging’, but it is possible to come back
“Ask for help”, is the advice that doctor Ana Raquel Marques gives to young people who smoke. For those who may be in doubt whether or not to try cigarettes, whatever type, we advise you not to do so.
“Not starting means not smoking and having a healthy life.”
The specialist assumes that withdrawal symptoms can be “challenging”, but reinforces that “there are professionals who can help”. It also says that young people should speak outopenly with the family and leaves a warning: “Every cigarette, even an electronic one, changes your brain. But it is possible to go back – and feel free again.”
What to do to stop smoking?
The market is full of drugs that were created to help people stop smoking. However, in the case of younger people, some of these medications are contraindicated.
But nicotine replacement therapy through patches, gum, lozenges and inhalers “can be used safely in young people.” Ana Raquel Marques explains that this treatment “consists of providing only nicotine in a safe way in a weaning scheme and they must stop smoking after applying the first patch”.
There are still other types of strategies that can be used and personalized to the smoker “from the use of snakcs, chewing gum, reducing cigarettes by schedule or self-registration”.
Ana Raquel Marques reinforces that the Treatment of “hand-to-mouth addiction” is, in fact, essential.
