Dr. Kevin Most: Vaping and NC Health Concerns | WGN Radio



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Dr. Kevin Most on the Steve Cochran show.

Our thoughts are with the people of North Carolina, they are far from being in the end. Millions have been displaced from their homes and will not have returned home for some time. From a health point of view, there are many concerns. People taking medications for chronic diseases will need renewals and it can be difficult to try to contact their doctor. There were hundreds of people with scheduled surgeries who have now been delayed, which could have an impact on health. People receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy for their cancer treatment have been displaced and the pursuit of these important drugs is key to their health. Women who give birth in hospitals that they have never visited are treated by doctors who have just met. Stress on home-lost patients and possible jobs will require more mental health counseling and may be rare.

http://serve.castfire.com/audio/3547104/dr-kevin-most-09-17-18_2018-09-17-082904.64kmono.mp3

We are also concerned about staffing hospitals because people are returning to flooded homes, doctors and nurses will be taking care of their families and will not be able to get to work. Hospitals in some of these small towns will be subject to staffing constraints. Donations of blood will be needed, and many will not think of donating blood while working in their flooded homes.

In the environment, moisture and heat will promote the growth of molds, which will be a problem in all flooded homes.

Our thoughts and prayers go to the citizens of North Carolina

We have already discussed the concern we have with regard to smoking and its ability to increase the number of cases of lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema. The vaping option has been in place for many years in the hope of seeing the full impact of tobacco use on health. Lung cancer causes more deaths than the colon, breast and prostate combined! We have nearly 250,000 new cases of lung cancer each year in the United States and more than 150,000 deaths. The bad thing about this cancer is that, like others, we recently discussed the fact that at the time of diagnosis, it is often advanced. We now have the ability to screen for lung cancer using a scanner looking for small tumors before they cause symptoms.

So, what are we doing about it? The industry has taken well 3 ways, one is to try to help people quit smoking. You have all seen advertisements for the drug Chantix, which helps to stop the urge to smoke and thus helps that person to quit. We all know the nicotine gums that are there too to help eliminate the need for nicotine by administering them by the gum against the cigarette. Psychotherapy is also used to help people quit smoking. The other route the industry has taken is chemotherapy and radiotherapy for lung cancer. New radiotherapy skills have made progress in treatment and chemotherapy has certainly helped to prolong the lives of people with lung cancer.

The government has also taken some steps. In 1971, they banned all advertising on cigarettes on radio and television. Again this year, tobacco companies are forced to run advertisements on television and in newspapers. The court forced them to issue corrective statements on television and on paper. The ads explain that cigarettes are addictive and cause 1,200 deaths a day. These ads were to be released for a year at a specified number of times in November of this year. This was forced because tobacco companies finally admitted in 2006 that cigarettes were actually addictive but fought for 11 years to find out what the penalty for misleading advertising would be.

Cigarettes are also heavily taxed in the hopes of slowing down usage and offsetting some of the costs associated with treating smokers. In Illinois, this tax is $ 2.42 a pack. In all of the Midwestern states, Illinois has the highest tax, which is true since 2012, when they doubled the tax. Some argue that this high tax actually hurts the state, with smokers crossing borders to buy their cigarettes in neighboring states, which causes them to lose tax revenues without significantly reducing the number of smokers.

One of those we wanted to address today, as was the case last week, was Vaping. Essentially, vaping is a battery-powered cigarette. It often looks like a cigarette. He has the promise to deliver nicotine without the carcinogens we see with cigarettes. Is it safe? Well, we have seen the occasional malfunction of the Vape battery that has caused burns and injuries and, in a few cases, death, but that's not the main concern of many. Most doctors and researchers believe that vaping is safer than smoking cigarettes for people who can not quit smoking using traditional methods. Vaping brings far fewer carcinogens to the lungs, which does not mean that it delivers NO number of carcinogens.

So, all of this sounds good, of course, we have an occasional malfunction of the vape battery, but we also have people burned by the cigarette, and many people have lit a fire while falling asleep. It seems so safer. They have fewer carcinogens than cigarettes, so that's fine.

So what is the problem? Many people believe that it is a gateway to smoking and some studies have shown that this was true. The Mayo Clinic reported that smoking is increasing for the first time in 17 years and that, according to him, vaping has led to an increase in the number of tobacco smokers. People who have never smoked cigarettes are 3 to 4 times more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future if they use electronic cigarettes. The recently completed tobacco survey shows that over 2 million college, high school and college students use vaping. 20% of high school students and 3% of college students have tried the vaping during the past year.

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