I'm Michelle Hughes and I saved my lungs by vaping after my COPD diagnosis in 2015. My story is not a special one, except for my family and friends, because I know thousands of people who've had the same experience that I have. I have been a strong supporter of vaping since the results of my health were so improved when I quit smoking and moved completely to vaping. Several people have asked me if I'm paid to support vaping, and I can tell you without any hesitation that I do not receive a single dime for promoting the healthier habit of vaping. I support this because I have seen firsthand the positive results of using vaping products.
Let's start with facts, that I can personally verify. My oxygen levels when I was diagnosed with COPD were between 68-70%. This ended with a hospitalization that was a major wake-up call. What makes this so disturbing (outside the fact that I literally couldn't breathe without coughing and gasping for breath) is that I worked as a respiratory therapist from 2001-2008 and knew what smoking could do to my lung. I failed by using nicotine patches, gums, hypnosis, and Chantix. I always went back to smoking within a few months. The healthcare professionals I knew? Not a single one recommended vaping to try and quit even while I was in the hospital fighting for my lungs.
I was told by a friend that they had used vaping to quit a few years before my COPD diagnosis, and honestly, I thought it was some hippy fad and laughed it off. When you are sitting in a hospital trying to breathe, your perception changes. I'd driven by a new vape shop in my little town located in Clanton, Alabama, and never stopped in before. When I left the hospital after my discharge, I pulled into that vape shop and thought what do I really have to lose?
That was the day that changed my life. I had the same friend that told me to give vaping a try on the phone with me and handed the phone over to the shop owner. She told him the type of mod (e-cigarette device) to give me and he showed me how to put everything together and use it. That was the last time I touched a cigarette. I began vaping and I hate to say it this way, but it really was my miracle cure. The first two weeks were really difficult, I coughed A LOT, and expelled a lot of mucus, this was how my body adjusted to getting used to the switch from smoking to vaping. Determined, and with a death sentence, if this didn't work for me, I kept vaping.
A month after I began vaping, I no longer had to sleep in a recliner to be able to breathe. Three months after vaping, I was able to sing again, something I hadn't done in years because I'd lost that ability. A year after vaping, my oxygen levels had gone back to 96-97%. My pulmonary function tests two years later showed a huge improvement in my lung capacity and the new physician was convinced I'd never smoked. I haven't had bronchitis or pneumonia since I stopped smoking and began vaping. Prior to that, I was in the physician's office every three months or so for that since my COPD diagnosis was Chronic Bronchitis.
How do I feel about the attacks against vaping from public health in America? I think they are purposefully lying to the American public and are responsible for deaths in the hundreds of thousands every single year with their refusal to accept the facts from real scientific cases like my own that prove vaping can significantly change the lives of adult smokers for the better. I feel the same way about politicians that are denying the truth to millions of smoking adults that there is a safer way for them to quit smoking and that is with vaping. I stand very strongly with Public Health England which has shown the science between vaping and smoking and that vaping is 95% safer than smoking. In my case, it was 100% safer. I encourage you to follow their scientific research that is still going on today
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review and unfortunately have to encourage you not to listen to American Public health because they have repeatedly lied to consumers.
Their lies have been proven but most people still believe that vaping is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes, and that is a deadly lie that should be called out daily until those lies stop. Below are some eye-opening facts about how they have lied and attempted to cover up the truth about vaping. I hope you take the time to read through this and educate yourself and those around you. If we don't force them to tell the truth, millions more will die from deadly cigarette smoking.
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