After Lola Young's Warning, Here's Exactly When A Doctor Starts To Worry About Vaping

Recently, singer Lola Young claimed that vaping had affected her voice and made it harder for her to breathe. In a TikTok, the 25-year-old shared: “Somebody once said to me, ‘Lola, there will be a day when you wake up, you’ll be 25 or 26, from a deep sleep, and you’ll start to feel the effects of vaping’... The day has come.

“My lungs feel like they’re battery-powered, like they’re just one big battery.

“Breathing feels like a chore; it feels like hard work, it feels like I should be paid for breathing. It feels like there will be no tomorrow”. 

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Girish Desai, Chief Pharmacist at Landys Chemist, said that while “Vaping is less harmful than smoking and can be a useful way for smokers to quit cigarettes... we should not confuse less harmful with harmless”. 

Though the NHS’s site agrees that it’s a better alternative than smoking, they also say it’s “not harmless” and that we still don’t know what its long-term effects might be. They added that kids and non-smokers should “never” vape.

Meanwhile, a Nature article suggests that those who begin vaping as children might see “bigger health risks than we’d thought”, with potential lung issues “just the tip of the iceberg”.

“You are still repeatedly inhaling an aerosol directly into the lungs” 

Desai said that “One of the problems with vaping is that people can assume it is harmless because it does not involve tobacco smoke, but you are still repeatedly inhaling an aerosol directly into the lungs and across the throat and vocal cords”. 

He added that it’s also easy to keep puffing away on a vape during the day in a way that is less possible with a cigarette. 

Dr Giuseppe Aragona, a GP and medical adviser for Prescription Doctor, also told us: “Vapes can expose the lungs to nicotine and a range of other chemicals and fine particles, and some people develop symptoms such as a persistent cough, throat irritation, wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, headaches or dizziness.

“Nicotine itself can also increase heart rate and blood pressure and can contribute to dependence, meaning that people may find themselves vaping more frequently or feeling irritable, restless or unable to concentrate when they have not used it”. 

He shared that he sometimes sees people who vape present in his clinic with “respiratory symptoms such as cough, breathlessness or throat irritation, although it is important not to assume that vaping is necessarily the sole cause, as similar symptoms can have many other explanations, including asthma, infections, allergies and smoking”.

What are some signs that might mean vaping might be taking a toll on your health?

Desai said that “as a pharmacist, when a patient tells me they are vaping heavily and have developed a persistent cough, breathlessness or changes to their voice, that would be taken very seriously”. 

He thinks they shouldn’t simply keep vaping and hope symptoms go away. Significant breathing issues always warrant “proper assessment because vaping may be a significant contributing factor, but there can also be other causes that need to be ruled out”. 

As for Dr Aragona, he said: “One of the more noticeable signs that vaping may be starting to take a toll is when you begin experiencing symptoms that were not previously present, particularly a cough that keeps coming back, increased phlegm, wheezing, or becoming more breathless during activities that you would normally manage comfortably”. 

He added that some people might notice a dry throat or feeling “jittery” after using nicotine in any form.

Then, there’s the issue of nicotine dependence, which can look like “finding that you reach for your vape immediately after waking, feel unable to go for long without it, regularly vape more than you intended, or become anxious, irritable or distracted when you cannot vape”. 

In all, he ended: “If someone develops significant or worsening breathlessness, chest pain, coughing up blood, severe dizziness or feels acutely unwell, I would advise them to seek medical assessment rather than simply assuming that it is an effect of vaping”.