e-Cigarettes: More than just harmless water vapor

still a bad idea - "A" for effort, but still dumb

Are e-Cigarettes really the healthy alternative to smoking or just an entirely new and different set of
problems?

New research is revealing that the e-cigarettes in fact might actually impede your body's ability to defend itself from and fight off bacteria.  There is also cause to believe that the e-cigarette will actually increase the power of drug-resistant bacteria.  (HOLY pathogen Batman!)

There's a study recently put out by researchers from the VA San Diego Healthcare System and the University of California, San Diego that dug into the effect of e-cigarette vapor on live methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the MRSA virus, as well as human epthielial cells.

WIKI:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin-resistant_Staphylococcus_aureus

"The virulence of MRSA is increased by e-cigarette vapor," said lead investigator Laura E. Crotty Alexander, MD, VA researcher and assistant professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care at UCSD, in a press release.

PRESS RELEASE:  http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/05/114301/e-cigarettes-expose-people-more-%E2%80%98harmless%E2%80%99-water-vapor-and-should-be-regulated

The release tells us that exposure to e-cigarette vapor increased the virulence of the bacteria, helping MRSA escape killing by antimicrobial peptides and macrophages. The vapor, said Alexander, did not make the bacteria as aggressive as cigarette smoke exposure did in parallel studies her group conducted.

The study states that the e-cigarette vapor led to changes in the body which makes it harder to fight off infection and created a greater resistance to killing by human cells and antibiotics.

"As health care professionals, we are always being asked by patients, "Would this be better for me?" Crotty Alexander said. "In the case of smoking e-cigarettes, I hated not having an answer. While the answer isn't black and white, our study suggests a response: even if e-cigarettes may not be as bad as tobacco, they still have measurable detrimental effects on health."

The research is just the latest in a string of reports on e-cigarettes and potential harmful attributes.

Claims that e-cigarettes are not a danger to smokers and nonsmokers and offer a viable healthy way to quit a nicotine habit are not true, according to a study on the electronic smoking devices released in the past two weeks.

A UC San Francisco research team states there is no evidence to support the claims from e-cigarette makers and advocates.

Another study claims particles from inhaled vapor are being absorbed in deep lung tissue and could present health issues. Another claims the e-cigarette vapor may feature potential carcinogenic elements.

Ultimately, it's you verses nicotine and the people who continue to perpetuate the addiction at your expense.  Choose life and choose freedom.  Stop.  Don't quit.