Vaping could soon be used to enhance the effectiveness of prescription drugs and their ability to give patients pain relief. This new method of absorbing pharmaceutical medicines into the body is likely to be less damaging than the tradition method of ingesting tablets orally or having them injected into one’s body. For example, as noted by mayoclinic.org; the drug, ‘Cortisone’, which is usually delivered in the form of a shot, may induce side-effects such as:
• Death of nearby bone (osteonecrosis)
• Joint infection
• Nerve damage
• Thinning of skin and soft tissue around the injection site
• Temporary flare of pain and inflammation in the joint
• Tendon weakening or rupture
• Thinning of nearby bone (osteoporosis)
• Whitening or lightening of the skin around the injection site
This drug is regularly used to treat ‘diseases and conditions’ such as:
‘Baker's cyst, Bursitis, Carpal tunnel syndrome, Chondromalacia patella, De Quervain's tenosynovitis, Frozen shoulder, Gout, Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Morton's neuroma, Myofascial pain syndrome, Osteoarthritis, Plantar fasciitis, Psoriatic arthritis, Reactive arthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Rotator cuff injury, Sarcoidosis, Tendinitis and Tennis elbow’
Should revolutionary advances allow for drugs with similar effects to be effectively inhaled, rather than injected; the negative side effects of such treatments may be reduced or eliminated altogether.
Faster Delivery of Pain Relief
Image: Credit to teenlife.com
New research by the Departments of Anesthesiology, Medicine, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation suggests that inhaling pharmaceutical drugs could deliver the desired relief faster than traditional methods with ‘45 percent reduction in pain intensity just 20 minutes after the first inhalation, lasting about 90 minutes total.’
According to Huffington Post, ‘It’s not all great news, however. One drugmaker tried to hedge bets that diabetics would prefer getting their insulin through vape doses rather than needles. However, unfortunately, the product didn’t sell well, and the manufacturer ofinhalable insulin lost its contract with pharmaceutical giant Sanofi back in January.’
How it works
Certain pharmaceutical drugs can be dissolved in a solution, which can then be used to fill the vaping tank to be inhaled. However, this is dependent on factors such as whether the drug is affected during the heating process. Also, there is the potential for some solutions to condense in your lungs when inhaled, which could cause a life-threatening risk of drowning; so it is important never to attempt to create your own concoctions at home. Once researched, this revolutionary process could help thousands of people however, so far, the majority of such research has been carried out in countries such as America and New Zealand and is yet to really take off in the U.K.
Availability
As noted by ecigssa.co.za, ‘The FDA has jurisdiction over any drug in any form, and it takes around 12 years for a drug to be made for public consumption, even if it is just a new form of application, like vaping. That means that even though the public is discussing vaping applications for pharmaceutical drugs now, it will be at least a decade before any drug is released in vaping form.’
Although sources suggest that it may be some time before vaping prescriptive drugs could be readily available to patients in the U.K., the potential benefits this concept could give still merits excitement for patients, scientists and medics alike. With a faster, more effective absorption rate of the drugs, offering better pain relief and therefore a potential for a quicker recovery; vaping pharmaceutical drugs could be a futuristic advancement for the medical world.
