I’m struggling with my son. He has been vaping for about 8 months. I 100% do not allow this and when I find them I destroy them. However it’s an epidemic at the high schools in our area and I can’t watch him all the time. I have noticed the vaping has consistently been followed with high blood sugar, I’m not sure but I believe it does cause the high blood sugars. My son has an omnipod and g6 dexcom. Our g6 kicks off and requires to start new sensor when a 500 reading happens, it’s way more sensitive than g5 sensors. So I’m curious if anyone has had any experience with t1d teen vaping and possibly its side effects or impact on general maintenance. I can’t find any research on this topic online.
My understanding is there are not a lot of studies on the side effects from vaping. Vaping is definitely directed towards teens and is a big problem today. I have not vaped but have smoked cigarettes and can testify they have contributed to my eye and nerve problems. Even though I quit smoking, the effects have been gradual and suck. I suggest he meet people who struggle with smoking complications that don’t have a chronic illness and let your son know he will suffer more because of his chronic disease. A slap in the face with reality may help him. Good luck.
@Jessssi123 hi Jessi, welcome to Type One Nation and the forum.
I used tobacco products for years. The active ingredient is the same as vaping; nicotine. Nicotine is a central nervous system depressant and in high enough concentrations can give you a buzzed, dizzy, or drunk feeling.
At least with cigarettes, you literally have to hate yourself to start because it is so irritating to your lungs and eyes.
Regardless of how you start, once your body gets used to nicotine, you will feel anxious and uncomfortable immediately unless you are feeding the monster. It’s simple - you use nicotine to “relax” or look cool, and you end up more anxious for far more of the time.
Nicotine is a well defined poison, you can look up MSDS for the major components of “vaping” including
Nicotine
https://www.caymanchem.com/msdss/16535m.pdf
Glycerin https://wizardlabs.us/image/catalog/msds/SDS_Vegetable_Glycerin_USP_Wizard_Labs.pdf
and Propylene glycol
-https://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/19870.htm
They are all straight forward poisons, with acute toxicity when inhaled. There is no genius required to connect what happens with use.
in my opinion, I started when my self esteem was very low, it was a kind of a cry for help and symbolic of the hatred I had for myself for the complete and utter failure of getting diabetes. It took years to work it out but I was very stubborn and didn’t want to go for therapy. I essentially had to let it almost kill me before I could reach for help.
I am hoping your son isn’t 1/2 as stubborn as I was. There’s no need for him to suffer the small blood vessel attack and damage that happens, for sure, with nicotine.
good luck
Once when filling out new patient info. I marked yes to Have you done any drugs? " When asked what kind, I wrote “cigarettes”. The doctor asked why I wrote cigarettes and my explanation was drugs are addictive and cigarettes are addictive and I felt they were a drug. His response was he had never thought of like that and agreed with me. Happy to hear you stopped smoking and you body has/is healing. You are strong.
Thank you for the info. I smoked cigarettes for many years but quit 7 years ago. Breathing is the going reason I continue to not smoke. Never have I vaped, not once. So this is new, my understanding is it contains chemicals that are not understood very well as far as how it will effect teens. My son was singing and dancing at 5 when we went to ER when he was diagnosed with type 1. He doesn’t fear the consequences because he never has experienced them. He doesn’t know what a coma feels like, what throwing up from ketones will do to you, or even what a low siezure entail. He has been lucky so far but as he gets older I really worry about his long term damage and his lack of experience with diabetic complications. I know his friends and girlfriend look out for him but they don’t know much else, he keeps it low key and in doing this it gets ignored by him as well. I’ve taught him how to take care of himself, I just wish he would.
I was diagnosed at 7years old and my family & doctors did as you are. I am not going to use the word unfortunately here but as soon as the honeymoon stage ended, I have encountered complications and still do today. In high school I rebelled a lot. I didn’t pay attention to what was being said about complications I could encounter later in life. That changed when at 18 yrs old I learned I was pregnant. I was told because of my age & my body still growing the baby had a 60% chance being born with some kind of physical/mental disability. I woke up after hearing that and did everything I was suppose to care for myself to beat that percentage rate. My pregnancy was not joyful but I did have a beautiful baby girl who beat the odds. I know your son cannot get pregnant (physically) but I do hope your son becomes more conscious about the complications he may encounter as he grows up. Don’t give up on him or yourself. Hugs & prayers.
That’s keeps me hopefull. Thank you for that. I hound him to constantly put dexcom on, change his omnipod and I am guilty of checking his blood sugar in middle of the night. (He sleeps on his fingers so I tickle his nose to get them to come out) More for my own peace of mind than anything else. It usually is fine. One thing about being a mother of a t1d is I have never stopped worrying, this is my only kid so maybe all mother’s do that but his blood sugar is always in back 0f my mind.