Your Lungs Werent Built For This Dr. Andrew Huberman ~ Chris Williamson

Chris Williamson (0:00)

How concerned do you think we should be about vaping?

Andrew Huberman (0:02)

We should be very concerned. So when it comes to smoking or vaping, there's the thing that's being consumed, the thing that people are trying to put in their bloodstream, nicotine, cannabis, et cetera. And let's just set those aside. I've done episodes on nicotine and cannabis, and they have their application, they also have their problems. Vaping is terrible because of the other chemicals that delivers to the lungs. It's also very clear, and we haven't released this episode yet, but I talked to a female hormone doc from Austin, Natalie Crawford, so OB-GYN. Vaping is associated with disruptions in egg health, and what they call egg quality can create certain mutations in the eggs, and serious endocrine issues in women.

Personally, I find it disgusting. I just find it, I don't do it, but when I see people vaping, to me... And listen, I used to, growing up, I quit smoking a long time ago, I used to smoke a bit of nicotine growing up. Remember, I was a wild one, but that's not why I did it. I just, you know, nicotine works for me as a drug, and I don't do it anymore.

But vaping is so addictive. It's a mutagen. It mutates the genes of cells. It mutates the genes of rapidly dividing cells most. So breast cancers, ovarian cancers, egg quality, you know, sperm are constantly turning over. So, you know, people always say, oh, well, I vape all the time, and I got so and so pregnant or whatever. You know, women will say, I have a perfectly healthy kid. That kid might have been much healthier. And also the kid's not grown up yet, like introducing me to the kid later. I wish for that kid, I pray for them, but that they're healthy as can be. But it is so clear that you're introducing a laundry list of toxins to the lungs, and they're getting into the bloodstream, and there are a number of them that cross the blood-brain barrier. And once they cross the blood-brain barrier, those neurons, by virtue of the fact that neurons don't turn over across the lifespan, you're born with the ones that you're going to die with. You might add a few across your lifespan, but you're mostly born with the ones that you're going to die with. Well, they're going to harbor those chemicals and those particulates. And yes, we have grandparents that smoked and lived to be 90, but those are generally the outliers. So I can't find one good reason why people should vape. If people want nicotine in their system that badly, and here I'm not recommending that, they would be much better off relying on a Trosh or a Patch.

Or even toothpicks or injectable. I know people, I'm not going to out anyone.

Chris Williamson (2:30)

Inject nicotine.

Andrew Huberman (2:31)

Oh, I'm not going to out anyone here, but I know people in our podcast community that rely on nicotine injections for mental clarity. That is so hardcore. Yeah, I don't. It causes elevation in blood pressure. It causes vasoconstriction, but it also will robustly increase focus and attention. I bet it will.

We'll tell you. Mainlining nicotine. You're starting to see some companies that offer things like NAD infusions, also offer subcutaneous or nicotine injections.

Chris Williamson (2:59)

Going back to-

Andrew Huberman (3:00)

Or patcher gum. Yeah.

Chris Williamson (3:01)

Smoking for a very long time, everyone knows, huge campaign, which I think was pretty effective, actually. It's kind of discouraging people from smoking, or at least making them aware about the-

Andrew Huberman (3:12)

Do you remember how they got kids to stop smoking? They told them for years it was bad for their health. That didn't work.

They told them that it was putting money in the pockets of these old, cackling white guys that were rubbing their hands up in the boardroom and making a ton of money, and then it became the rebellious thing to quit smoking. That was the effective campaign.

Chris Williamson (3:37)

I think about this all the time, that there was a big push to both disincentivize and make more difficult smoking. There's the smoking area. I remember I worked in clubs for one year before the smoking ban came in in the UK, and then people had to go outside, just friction, friction, friction all the way down.

And then vaping came in, and vaping is way more enjoyable of an experience than smoking ever was. You can have a higher dose of nicotine that tastes enjoyable, bubble gum flavor and raspberry unicorn dust and whatever, whatever.

Andrew Huberman (4:13)

I don't know.