Rendez-vous #26 with Michelle Hughes
I found out about Michelle via twitter where she introduces herself that way: "Vaping saved my life after a COPD diagnosis. I'm an Author, Former Respiratory Therapist, Mother to Five, God Bless America!". You give more details about your journey to vaping on the message you posted on January 2nd on your site about the death of tobacco harm reduction. Maybe as a personal introduction you could explain how you came into vaping from a professional background as a respiratory therapist?
Michelle Hughes: I left the respiratory field in 2008 to work full-time as my career as an author. During my time in respiratory, I watched many of my patients end up on ventilators, pass away from smoking complication, and suffer from their addiction to smoking. The nurses in our hospital handled education for our patients before they left the hospital, and they talked about the different options such as prescription medications, nicotine patches and gum, and even clinical counseling. What I was seeing is these patients return after failing with these accepted means of smoking cessation. Very few succeeded in my seven years in the field. These patients would tell me that they couldn’t stop the habit and knew it was killing them.
Working in this field you would think I could have quit smoking, but that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t until 2015 when a friend introduced me to vaping after my COPD diagnosis, that I found something that worked. Vaping works for more people because it helps mimic the habit of holding something in your hand, replicates the look of smoke even though it’s vapor, and gives that nicotine that smokers are accustomed to using. For me, I started off vaping 18 mg of nicotine, and gradually stepped down.
Q1. You write: "Since my switch to vaping, my lungs have continued to heal, and I have been able to breathe like a normal person, with my oxygen levels returning to normal levels". How did you decide to try vaping? Did you see an ad, were you convinced by a friend, did your doctor suggested it? What was the reaction (if any) of your health providers to your decision to switch and to the positive impact you said it had/has on your COPD?
Michelle Hughes: Working in the respiratory field you would think I could have quit smoking, but that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t until 2015 when a friend introduced me to vaping after my COPD diagnosis, that I found something that worked. Vaping works for more people because it helps mimic the habit of holding something in your hand, replicates the look of smoke even though it’s vapor, and gives that nicotine that smokers are accustomed to using. For me, I started off vaping 18 mg of nicotine, and gradually stepped down.
My pulmonologist and personal physician weren’t informed that I was vaping. I knew from working in the field that unless it was an FDA approved method of smoking cessation, they would have discouraged me from trying vaping as a solution. As far as they knew, I’d quit smoking and my pulmonary function tests were improving each year. During every appointment with my pulmonologist, he praised me for giving up smoking and told me how remarkable my lungs were now that I’d quit. As of 2018, I no longer needed to see a specialist for my lungs because my symptoms from COPD have all but disappeared. I was diagnosed with COPD with an emphasis on Chronic Bronchitis. I haven’t had bronchitis, or pneumonia since I quit smoking.
Q2. In an explanation only for 21+ readers (PDF) you tell about the type of equipment and liquid you used to quit. Did you go to a vape shop? How did you determine the nicotine level you needed? Did flavors play a role? Did you get help from other vapers?
Michelle Hughes: I have a friend that used vaping for smoking cessation who walked me through the entire process. I wish that our medical team would encourage vaping so patients could learn from their providers, but unfortunately this isn’t the case. I believe we are so far behind in public health when it comes to vaping that people need to follow the information given by Public Health England. When I visited my local vape shop for the first time, I had her on the phone and she told the shop keeper exactly what I needed. Again, I can’t stress how this should be happening from a health care provider, but they have chosen to ignore one of the greatest smoking cessation tools on the market today. I am always available to speak via email if anyone wants to stop smoking with vaping.
Q3. You mention your family, that you had family members who died of lung cancer and emphysema, and your five children. Did you start smoking very young? How did your family feel about your smoking? Did your family support your switch to vaping? Does anyone else smoke or vape in your family?
Michelle Hughes: I was sixteen when I started smoking, back in 1985. During this time smoking was very common among all the people of my age. My uncle died of lung cancer, and my aunt from emphysema. Neither of them really knew that smoking was killing them. Again, this was a different time where smoking wasn’t seen as the deadly agent it is today. My children hated the idea that I smoked, and I truly wish I had not smoked in the house around them.
My mother made the switch to vaping with me and hasn’t touched a cigarette since 2015. My husband was one of the few who were lucky enough to quit without any assistance. I have three adult children and two minor children. None of them smoke or vape. My twins did vape for a short time after I started but they were already smoking lightly, and I encouraged them to try vaping instead. Both have given up cigarettes and vaping now. My two younger children, ages thirteen and sixteen, hate smoking after watching me unable to breathe and almost dying in the hospital with lung complications.
Q4. You mention that your daughter (23) was shocked when she learned that Bernie Sanders 'talked bad about vaping'. Can you tell us a bit more about that episode and how you feel in general about US politicians and vaping?
Michelle Hughes: One of my daughters has always supported Bernie Sanders, and when she heard what he had to say, she was very disheartened. She told me if he couldn’t understand the health benefits of vaping then he didn’t deserve to be president. She has been a strong supporter of vaping since my near-death experience. When your children watch you struggling to breathe, aspirating food into your lungs, and barely able to get off the couch to walk to the restroom, that leaves a lasting impression on them. She was eighteen at the time, so her memories are very clear of what I went through with smoking.
Any politician that does not support tobacco harm reduction, has no place in politics. We have an epidemic in this country and its cigarettes. 450,000 adults are dying each year from this killer, and to oppose the one tool, vaping, that has the highest success rate of any smoking cessation product, is idiotic. I don’t believe we should elect people into office that don’t understand the true problem in this country, smoking.
Q5. You live in Alabama. I just visited the Alabama Public Health Department webpage devoted to 'Vapes and e-cigs". They warn about the "vape related pulmonary illnesses' and at the end refer readers to the American Lung Association sites. How do you feel about such a presentation of e-cigs? I have another Alabama related question I want to ask. Alan Blum is a famous tobacco control advocate based in Tuscaloosa, I interviewed 20 years ago. How do you now assess his take on e-cigs?
Michelle Hughes: I believe that public health has been a disgrace on this matter, in general. What we have learned is that illnesses and deaths were caused by people using a vaping device for THC, better known as marijuana. Black market dealers, and some legal marijuana shops, were cutting their product with vitamin e acetate, which reacts in the lungs like oil. Lipoid pneumonia is caused by the inhalation of oil and is never used in normal nicotine e-liquid. Public health should have brought this to the public’s attention immediately, and should have labeled it for what it is, THC vaping, not nicotine. Many people that I talked with had no idea that these black-market products on the streets were killing people, and they continued to use them thinking nicotine vaping was the problem.
I’m not familiar with Alan Blum’s theories, but I will say again that any physician or researcher who is not encouraging smokers to switch to a safer product will not have my respect. I believe in tobacco harm reduction in all forms. It doesn’t matter to me how you quit smoking. The end goal for any public health official, physician, or scientist, should be the encouragement of using whatever it takes to help you quit. Vaping happened to be that solution for me. I believe that Public Health England is a decade ahead of the United States on vaping, and we in America should use that research to our advantage. Hospitals are now selling vaping products there, to help their patients quit.
Q6. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Michelle Hughes: Thank you for allowing me to speak about this subject with you. Vaping is something I strongly support, as well as any tobacco harm reduction product. I believe that our country should be the leader in innovative ways to quit smoking, and not trailing behind like we are. The goal should be to have a smoke-free America in forty years, and I believe with vaping, that could be a possibility. Our health care providers need to research as well as our scientists. We can make the epidemic of smoking disappear if we understand that patients need as many options to help them quit as possible.
Thank you Michelle for having taken the time for this rendez-vous.
After posting the interview I received this reference:
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