In this episode, CF Strong podcast co-host Sarah and Clinical Nurse Consultant Kate Johnson discuss vaping and CF.



Transcript
Voice Over : Welcome to the CF Strong Podcast. CF Strong covers the successes and challenges faced by those living with cystic fibrosis. You'll hear first person stories, conversations with health professionals, friends and partners. Just a heads up, guests may share their personal views about treatments and health management, but please remember this is not medical advice and you should always follow the advice of your clinic team regarding your health.
Sarah: Hello everybody and welcome to this quick fire one question, one answer podcast with clinical nurse consultant Kate Johnson. Today we're asking the questions that you want answered. So vaping just seems to be everywhere. What happens if I vape?
KJ: Yeah, so the studies are coming out more and more now because it's only a recent thing. And a lot of people say, oh, I quit smoking to take up vaping, because It's better for me, it's not as bad. But the studies are actually showing that there are a lot of different chemicals in there and little particles that can still get in and cause lung damage and lung disease, increasing those lung diseases, blocking the airways leads to increased risks of infection. We all know what happens there. And it's also those chemicals can also lead to that lung damage. We know that the theory is that vaping is healthier than smoking, but we know that anything like that, so vaping, smoking, and it doesn't matter if it's from a cigarette, a vape, a bong, a joint or even a hookah, you know that you smoke at a lot of those pool restaurants. It is all harmful to your lungs.
And especially those with CF. So why? It's because even people with healthy lungs, smoking and vaping and doing all of those can damage lung tissue and it actually reduces the lung function. So there's a big long explanation of how it affects the lungs, but the main thing is it actually damages the lungs. And we know that you throw in CF and smoking or vaping or whatever, and that increases the amount of damage to your lungs that even the CF disease causes. So it actually sort of multiplies the disease that can be caused. It's like a double whammy to your lungs and it can make you at a greater risk of lung infection as well and tissue damage. And we know we can't regenerate those tissues. So some studies have shown that it can actually affect and this is more smoking than vaping, but we know that can actually affect how the CFTR protein works in our body.
And that can, and it's a CFTR protein that could cause a CF disease. So we know it actually can reduce the amount that it works by as well. So there's another really big factor as well that smoking and vaping that's recently been added in can actually disqualify you from a lungs transplant as well. So it's known that you are, it actually does help disqualify you from lung transplant and puts you at a greater risk of infection, as we said. But it's something that you don't need to sit back and not tell us the truth because I'll be honest, like working in peds and adults over the years, a lot of patients, you'll talk to them and you know they've smoked or they have been vaping or whatever, and they'll come in and you'll ask them, have you been smoking? Have you been vaping? Have you been having joints? And they'll say no.
And we'll do a lung function, you see a great decrease in their lung function or just even a little bit of a decrease in lung function. And we then go through, we'll most probably do increased blood screening all the rest of it to find out the reason of that drop in your lung function. But if you're upfront and honest with us and say, "Look, I have actually been smoking or I have been vaping, or I have a few joints." That can actually answer a lot of the questions, why we see that reduction in lung function. And we can talk to you about that openly and honestly and talk abo...