IN recent years, “vape culture” has become the butt of jokes and memes on social media.

The hype and attention given to vaping over the last year or so opened the door for other businesses to deliver their products through this same process. These products are much less addictive — in fact, they actually have a wellness spin. Meet vitamin vapes, real e-cigs that mist B12 or other vitamin concoctions instead of nicotine. VitaminVape, which delivers B12, and VitaStick, which contains vitamin A, B2, B6, B12, C, D, E and CoQ10, were the first two “healthy vapes” on the growing market that popped up a few years ago.

Recently, a new wellness vaping brand line launched called “breathe.” It’s a vape that mists vitamin B12 and is “scientifically” proven to increase B12 absorption into your body, according to the brand’s website. Breathe’s “e-juice” includes B12, vegetable glycerin, deionized water and organic fruit flavor extract.

While breathe’s website notes a few studies that aim to prove inhaling vitamins is more effective than ingesting, people are a bit skeptical.

B12 is the vitamin that produces red blood cells in your DNA. Our body naturally creates the vitamin but if you suffer from a deficiency you have to look for B12 alternatives in your diet (meat and eggs are high in B12) or supplement with shots and capsules. You can also add B12 to your routine if you don’t have a deficiency as it promotes bone health and studies suggest it improves mood and symptoms of depression. With all this in mind, vaping B12 sounds like a good idea.

Does this new trend have any legitimacy? Dr. Albert A. Rizzo, a senior advisor to the American Lung Association, shares his thoughts.

“The concern with anything that we vape, whether there’s nicotine or not, is that we really don’t know a whole lot about what happens when chemicals are heated up and inhaled through the device into the lungs. We can’t say that there aren’t other particles and chemicals that are getting inhaled, and there’s no answer at this point in time,” he said. While the effects of nicotine are clear, it does seem worrisome to inhale vapor of any sort directly into your lungs without knowing the long-term effects of that action.

“I don’t think there is any research that shows these are effective and unfortunately there’s no research that shows it’s definitely ineffective or harmful — which is what we need for any product that’s vaped or inhaled into the lungs.”

Rizzo made it clear that he doesn’t advise against it exactly, and pointed to inhalers for asthma as something ingested through the lungs that works. But, as a physician, he would still recommend oral B12 medication.

(SD-Agencies)