Mental fog: Children who start vaping before age 14 are more likely to struggle with concentration, memory, and decision making, according to the study
- Studies show a link between vaporization and mental fog in both adults and children
- Symptoms include difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
- Those who get into the habit before the age of 14 are at greater risk
- He suggests that vaping should not be considered a safe alternative to smoking tobacco
According to new research, vaporism can be as harmful to young people’s brains as smoking tobacco.
Both teens and adults who use e-cigarettes are more likely to have trouble concentrating, remembering, or making decisions, according to U.S. scientists.
However, the risk of mental “fog” increases even more for those who get into the habit before the age of 14.
“Our studies add to the growing evidence that vaping should not be considered a safe alternative to smoking tobacco,” said the study’s author, Professor Dongmei Li, of the University of Rochester, New York.
Both teens and adults who use e-cigarettes are more likely to have trouble concentrating, remembering, or making decisions (stocks).
The analysis of more than 900,000 people in the U.S. is the first to investigate a link that had been suggested earlier during animal experiments.
He showed that those who smoked and smoked were more prone, followed by those who did one or the other.
Mental function problems were significantly higher among these groups than their non-smoking and non-smoking peers.
In addition, children who started steaming between the ages of eight and 13 were even more vulnerable than those who started at 14 or older.
Mental function problems were found to be significantly higher among people who smoked or smoked than their non-smokers and smokers.
“With the recent rise in teen vaping, this is very worrying and suggests that we need to intervene even earlier,” Professor Li said.
“Prevention programs that start in middle or high school may be too late.”
Nicotine has been dubbed a “brain poison” for young people.
Adolescence is a critical period for brain development, especially for higher-order mental function, such as attention, learning, and memory.
This means that children and adolescents may be more susceptible to nicotine-induced brain changes, Professor Li explained.
Electronic cigarettes provide as much or even more nicotine than cigarettes, although many other dangerous compounds found in tobacco are missing, he said.
Flavors like mango, mint, strawberry and vanilla masked its harsh taste.
They are known to change the activity of neurons in key regions of gray matter that mature until the mid-1920s.
Professor Li’s team obtained data on more than 18,000 participants in the National Youth Tobacco Survey and more than 886,000 adults from the telephone survey of the behavioral risk factor surveillance system.
Both were asked similar questions about smoking and smoking habits, as well as about memory, attention, and mental function issues.
An association between vaping and mental function was clearly identified, although the former is less evident.
Exposure to nicotine by vaping may cause impaired mental function, Professor Li said.
On the other hand, people who report “mental fog” may be more likely to smoke or vaporize, possibly self-medicate.
Professor Li and his colleagues argue that post-follow-up studies of children and adults over time are needed to get to the bottom of the “cause and effect”.
Previous research has shown that nicotine-induced brain changes during adolescence can be permanent.
Its harm can cause long-term effects on the ability to make decisions and can also leave a higher risk of addiction to other substances.
Last year, a study found that vaping damages the heart, lungs and blood vessels, including those supplied to the brain.
The latest findings were published in Tobacco Induced Diseases and PLOS One magazines.