There's no cure for popcorn lung. You'll need to have life-long care to manage the symptoms, which may not always respond well to treatment.
Breathing in the harmful chemicals from vaping products can cause irreversible (cannot be cured) lung damage, lung disease and, in some cases, death.
Popcorn lung (bronchiolitis obliterans) is an uncommon type of lung disease, but it is not cancer. It's caused by a build-up of scar tissue in the lungs, which blocks the flow of air. A possible link has been suggested between the disease and a chemical called diacetyl.
The main symptoms of popcorn lung are a dry cough and shortness of breath. These show up between 2 weeks and 2 months after you've been around a toxic gas or had an illness. You're especially likely to have them when you're exercising or doing heavy labor.
Exposure for just three days was enough to incur sufficient damage to their lungs, setting the stage for long-term chronic lung damage.
1: Vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it's still not safe. E-cigarettes heat nicotine (extracted from tobacco), flavorings and other chemicals to create an aerosol that you inhale. Regular tobacco cigarettes contain 7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic.
Without treatment, it could be fatal. Popcorn lung might sound like a made-up disease, but it isn't. It's a serious lung condition that requires lifelong management.
Popcorn lung usually needs to be diagnosed using an X-ray, CT scan, or surgical lung biopsy, as the condition is often misdiagnosed as asthma, emphysema, or bronchitis. Your doctor may also want to conduct a pulmonary function test.
While this flavoring may be tasty, it was linked to deaths and hundreds of cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a serious and irreversible lung disease.
The Symptoms of Popcorn Lung
Crackles (“sounds like Velcro or Rice Crispies”) detected with a stethoscope. Cough that doesn't go away.
“We do know that smoking tobacco forces tiny particles to be deposited deep in the bronchial tree and can lead to the development of cancer. The same may be true for vaping,” says Broderick.
Most people should expect to experience some of the following vaping withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, mood swings, anxiety or irritability, to start within about 24 hours of the last vape. It's important to be mentally prepared to accept vaping withdrawal symptoms and know they'll pass in a short time.
Some vape product manufacturers claim that vaping is a completely safe alternative to smoking. However, early research into the safety of the practice suggests this is not the case. In fact, it appears that vaping, even without nicotine, can have harmful effects on the body.
Those who switch to vaping very quickly see great health benefits, including lower blood pressure, easier breathing, improved immune function, improved sense of taste and smell and improved lung function, all within the space of around a month!
While banned in India, accessing e-cigarettes and vaping is not very difficult, with young people forming a big share of users.
“Vaping exposes users to many toxic chemicals. Regardless of how they're smoked, smoking products like hookah are deadly to the user as well as those exposed to secondhand hookah smoke,” says Goldstein.
When chronically taken, nicotine may result in: (1) positive reinforcement, (2) negative reinforcement, (3) reduction of body weight, (4) enhancement of performance, and protection against; (5) Parkinson's disease (6) Tourette's disease (7) Alzheimers disease, (8) ulcerative colitis and (9) sleep apnea.
Some potentially dangerous chemicals have been found in e-cigarettes. But levels are usually low and generally far lower than in tobacco cigarettes. Exposure may be the same as people who use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as patches or gum. There is no good evidence that vaping causes cancer.