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vos wrote

Ignoring the animal testing and the fact that humans might respond totally differently to vaping than the mice in this study—I wonder what it is about the vapor that changes/damages the lungs, and whether the same would be true for vaporized cannabinoids.

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anarresinfoshop wrote

various cannabinoids, particularly THC, are immunosupressant. So, almost certainly yes. Smoking cannabis when you are sick with a respiratory infection tends to make things worse, and the patient heal slower. However, sometimes it's worth it, if the ailment is more GI related. And in some cases, this is quite a good thing, for example when the patient is facing an autoimmune condition (of which, many have GI symptoms additionally helped by the cannabis).

All medicine is a give and take operation, to some extent.

breathing in smoke, or anything that isn't good clean air, is not good for your immune system and general health. It hurts your alveoli, which reduces your ability to intake oxygen, which reduces your ability to do cell respiration across all body systems. There also may be chemicals within the vapor which have an additional effect, once they get into your bloodstream.

Nicotine, for example, is neurotoxic and has a generally negative effect on the body. It is less harmful when vaporized instead of smoked, plausibly, but there is still a negative effect. This is why it was originally marketed as a smoking cessation solution, and why health authorities tend not to recommend non-smokers begin vaping because it's not "safe" as many think it is.

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