Can vaping cause lung cancer? UAE doctors raise awareness, urge people to quit smoking - ZAWYA | Canada News Media
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Can vaping cause lung cancer? UAE doctors raise awareness, urge people to quit smoking – ZAWYA

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On World Lung Cancer Day, observed every August 1, doctors in the UAE once again emphasised the urgent need for people to quit smoking. They stress that vaping, often perceived as a less harmful alternative, is equally addictive and not a safe substitute for traditional smoking.

Doctors noted, “If regular tobacco cigarettes contain around 7,000 chemicals – many of which are toxic – there is no doubt that vaping, or the process of inhaling a vapour created by an e-cigarette (electronic cigarette) or vape pen, also contain toxic chemicals like traditional cigarettes.”

Dr Raiza Hameed KH, specialist pulmonology at Aster Clinic Bur Dubai (AJMC), explained to Khaleej Times: “In vaping, the liquid is vapourised, and organic compounds like aldehydes are released, which causes intense damage to lungs. The chemicals in the vape lead to chronic lung inflammation, eventually leading to cancer.”

Objectively speaking, Dr Hameed noted: “E-cigarettes have not been around long enough and hence more research is still needed to understand the lung cancer risks associated with vaping. It takes a while for the cancer to develop, and we need to follow study subjects over a period of time.”

“But preliminary studies have shown that nicotine and other chemicals from vape can stimulate cancer development and growth,” she underscored.

“Vaping can cause chronic lung inflammation. It can also cause other health effects like throat irritation, chronic bronchitis, asthma, head ache, anxiety, heart disease, acute lung injury, etc. Dr Hameed continued.

Highly addictive

Is vaping bad for you? Doctors noted nicotine is the primary agent found in regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and it is highly addictive. Nicotine also raises blood pressure and spikes adrenaline that can increase heart rate and the likelihood of having a heart attack.

“People need to understand that e-cigarettes are potentially dangerous to your health,” noted Dr Gopal Chawla, specialist pulmonologist at NMC Specialty Hospital – Dubai Investments Park. He added: “There are emerging data that link chronic lung disease and asthma, and the dual use of e-cigarettes and (traditional) smoking with cardiovascular disease. Those who are vaping are exposing themselves to to all various chemicals that we don’t yet understand but are probably not safe.”

Not a tool to stop smoking

Dr Mitchelle Lolly, specialist pulmonologist at Prime Hospital, said: “An e-cigarette is composed of a battery, a heating element, and a place to hold a liquid. Although it was brought into the world to help people quit smoking, it was later found in various studies that it could be equally harmful and carcinogenic due to the various substances that are inhaled.”

Dr Lolly enumerated the chemicals found in vaping. She said: “The aerosol generated contains nicotine (may not be present), ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs, flavouring agents such as diacetyl (a chemical linked to a serious lung disease), cancer-causing chemicals and heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead.”

“Due to the harmful substances that are produced by the aerosol, the US Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved of it to be used for quitting smoking cessation. In fact around 47 countries have banned its and sale due to its possibility of harmful effects. and to protect the future generation. Those who vape must understand that it is equally harmful and should not be used as smoking cessation tool,” she added.

Common substances in e-liquid:

Diacety – this additive used to enhance e-cigarette flavour can damage small passageways in the lungs

Formaldehyde – toxic chemical that can cause lung disease and contribute to heart disease.

Acrolein – most often used as a grass killer, this chemical can also damage lungs.

Quit now

Dr Noordin Wadhvaniya, specialist respiratory medicine at Canadian Specialty Hospital Dubai, said: “Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health. It can harm nearly every organ in your body, including your heart, as nearly one-third of deaths from heart disease are the result of smoking and secondhand smoke.”

Copyright © 2022 Khaleej Times. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
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Whooping cough is at a decade-high level in US

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.

The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.

Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.

Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. Thursday, it released state figures, showing that about 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin got the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. It is treated with antibiotics. Whooping cough used to be very common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations. It is in a shot along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The combo shot is recommended for adults every 10 years.

“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.

But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings, an official said. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens, said Justin Frederick, deputy director of the health department.

That includes his own teenage daughter.

“It’s a horrible disease. She still wakes up — after being treated with her antibiotics — in a panic because she’s coughing so much she can’t breathe,” he said.

It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.

“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”

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AP data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Scientists show how sperm and egg come together like a key in a lock

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How a sperm and egg fuse together has long been a mystery.

New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.

“We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.

The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell.

Scientists had previously known about two proteins, one on the surface of the sperm and another on the egg’s membrane. Working with international collaborators, Pauli’s lab used Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold — whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month — to help them identify a new protein that allows the first molecular connection between sperm and egg. They also demonstrated how it functions in living things.

It wasn’t previously known how the proteins “worked together as a team in order to allow sperm and egg to recognize each other,” Pauli said.

Scientists still don’t know how the sperm actually gets inside the egg after it attaches and hope to delve into that next.

Eventually, Pauli said, such work could help other scientists understand infertility better or develop new birth control methods.

The work provides targets for the development of male contraceptives in particular, said David Greenstein, a genetics and cell biology expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study.

The latest study “also underscores the importance of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry,” he said in an email.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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