In clubs, sport bars and even at home, vaping is seen as a modern, socially acceptable alternative to smoking that is “cool” and “trendy”, but Cardiologist, Dr Mahendra Carpen, is warning that vaping is known for causing long-term damage to the lungs, brain and heart, and other organs of the body.

Vaping involves the use of a battery-powered device known as an e-cigarette, to heat a liquid or substance, turning it into an aerosol that is inhaled into the lungs.

The aerosol often contains nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals.

During an appearance on SOURCES on Sunday, Dr. Carpen said vaping is an increasingly worrying development here in Guyana. The habit comes with long term health implications, he warned.

“Vaping can have sometimes worse immediate side effects than tobacco smoking. Why? Because a lot of the chemicals contained in the vape can cause a couple of things. They can cause your heart to race, they can cause the blood vessels to spasm and when that happens it raises your blood pressure and it can actually cause heart attacks by causing spasms of the coronary artery,” Dr Carpen explained.

Dr. Carpen, who also serves as a Presidential Advisor, said recent data indicates that vaping causes severe health complications resulting in lung disease that is “irreversible” and “incurable.”

Warning that it also causes stroke and heart failure, Dr Carpen said Guyanese, who are using e-cigarettes must stop before it is too late.

“The other thing that it does is that on the inside of the blood vessel, it causes inflammation. Inflammation can damage the lining of the blood vessels, whether it is in the brain, in the heart, in the legs, the stomach, etc. Now when that inner lining is inflamed, and it is damaged, the body tries to repair it, it tries to repair it by form clots to cover up that damage. Unfortunately, that repair process is disorganized and it doesn’t know when to stop healing, so that cloth could keep forming and getting bigger and bigger until it blocks up the whole blood vessel,” he explained.

A blocked blood vessel, he explained, can result in stroke or heart attack.

Dr Carpen said already, there is an alarming number of young people suffering from heart issues. It was explained that in the past, the average age of people who suffered from heart disease was 50-years-old and 60-years-old.

However, there is now an increasing number of younger people in their 20s, 30s and 40s showing up at hospitals with severe heart disease.

“Some of them, especially young women, seem to not be able to tolerate smoking a vaping at all. And so, that is a particularly vulnerable group – women with smoking, women with vaping, not cool, not good for health,” the cardiologist said.

Dr Carpen said that increase in heart disease among younger people is also taking place at a time when there is growing concern about people with unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyles – two of the key risk factors for heart disease.

“One of the things people sacrifice a lot is healthy lifestyle. So, you get out of the house earlier than usual, there is not enough time to prepare home meals. You get on the road, you get fast food, you get home late because you are working long hours so you eat something unhealthy again for dinner. There is no time for exercise, there is no time for relaxation, there is no time for stress relief – that’s a major issue when we come to cardiovascular disease,” he explained.

Dr Carpen is urging people to make better lifestyle choices. In May, the Ministry of Health disclosed that here in Guyana there are more than 2,000 cardiac deaths annually. Heart disease remains the leading cause of deaths in the country

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