01 Oct’ 25
From Ritual to Risk:
How We Lost the
Sacred in Smoking
By: Skye Scott
Let’s Talk About Smoking and Vaping
I want to begin by offering a reframe. I believe that at its heart, smoking is breathwork. Not in the glossy, Instagrammable sense, but in the raw, visceral longing for nervous system regulation. Every deep inhale and slow exhale is an opportunity to stimulate the long vagus nerve, slow our heart rates, drop our blood pressure, and connect us with the rhythm of what keeps us alive.
And in a dysregulated world, smoking can feel like medicine for this reason. But tragically, it’s medicine laced with poison.
From Sacred Roots to Industry
For as long as we’ve been human, we’ve smoked. Ancient shamans burnt herbs and plants in ceremonies. Tobacco has been used for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples, not as a vice, but as a sacred and occasional tool for prayer, connection, and grounding. In Central and South America, tobacco smoke was believed to carry messages to the spirit world.
But like so many things, industrialisation took this sacred practice and turned it into profit. The first manufactured cigarettes appeared in the late 1800s, and by the early 20th century, tobacco was mass-produced and aggressively marketed. Astoundingly, in the 1930s and ’40s, doctors were used in advertisements to endorse cigarettes. There’s one infamous campaign: “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” This wasn't satire – this was mainstream.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that the tides began to shift. A landmark U.S. Surgeon General’s report in 1964 finally confirmed what many already suspected: smoking causes lung cancer. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death globally – and tobacco is responsible for around 85–90% of those cases. It’s not just the lungs. Smoking increases the risk of at least 12 types of cancer, including throat, bladder, pancreas, kidney, and cervical cancer. The evidence is clear, overwhelming, and decades deep.
And yet, here we are, watching history try to repeat itself. Enter the vape.
Vaping: The New Mask
Sold to us as a “safer alternative”. A cessation tool. A cleaner smoke. But really, the vape is the most synthetic, chemical-laden evolution of smoking we’ve seen. It removes the sacred. It removes even the slow. Vaping delivers nicotine (often in much higher doses than cigarettes) in an almost pure form, with artificial flavours, colours, and scents that seem custom-designed to lure children.
We now have an entire generation of teens and young adults inhaling compounds like propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, and ultrafine particles deep into the lungs – every day.
What Lies Beneath the Vape
The long-term risk? We don’t fully know. Because we haven’t had the time. The data is still emerging. But what we do know is sobering. Some cases of “popcorn lung” (formally bronchiolitis obliterans) have been linked to diacetyl, a chemical found in some flavoured vapes. It causes irreversible scarring of the tiny airways in the lungs, leading to chronic cough and breathlessness.
Then there’s COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a long-known consequence of tobacco smoking. It causes progressive, permanent damage to the lungs. The alveoli (those delicate, balloon-like air sacs where oxygen enters the blood) lose their elasticity. Gaseous exchange breaks down. And eventually, patients become breathless doing the simplest things. Walking. Talking. Standing. Many end up dependent on oxygen tanks to survive. Once that damage is done, it cannot be undone.
A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that vaping damages blood vessel function and increases oxidative stress, both of which are linked to cardiovascular disease.
Another 2021 study from Thorax, a BMJ journal, associated regular vaping with increased risk of chronic bronchitis symptoms in adolescents.
Even more worrying, Tobacco Control published findings showing that many flavoured e-liquids (especially those targeting younger users) contain cytotoxic compounds, meaning they damage and kill human cells.
The Longing for a Pause
And yet, vapes are everywhere. In pockets, in pencil cases, in playgrounds. Accessible, legal, and marketed with pastel packaging and fruity names like 'blue razz ice' and 'cotton candy punch'. The language is candy – the impact is chemical.
This isn’t just about lung health. It's about dopamine seeking; it's about addiction and instant gratification. It’s about marketing and profit.
We are living through unprecedented times as humans, with AI and the wild speed at which technology is advancing. It is no accident that smoking and vaping feel like a balm. But we have to name what’s hiding beneath it; we need to examine the constant need that young people have to calm themselves.
We don’t need more speed or poison. We need more presence – and to collectively create space for the nourishing, regulating effect that is born of breath and pause.
About the Author
Dr Skye Scott is a family GP and co-owner of Health with Heart – a holistic wellness solution that includes a warm-hearted practice in Sandton, bespoke corporate wellness programmes, unique retreats and medical travel experiences, an educational podcast and portal, and a community outreach initiative.
For more information or to get in touch, follow @health_w_heart or @drskyescott on Instagram or @HealthwithHeartDoctors on Facebook, or visit www.healthwithheart.co.za.
01 Oct’ 25
From Ritual to Risk:
How We Lost the Sacred in Smoking
By: Skye Scott
Let’s Talk About Smoking and Vaping
I want to begin by offering a reframe. I believe that at its heart, smoking is breathwork. Not in the glossy, Instagrammable sense, but in the raw, visceral longing for nervous system regulation. Every deep inhale and slow exhale is an opportunity to stimulate the long vagus nerve, slow our heart rates, drop our blood pressure, and connect us with the rhythm of what keeps us alive.
And in a dysregulated world, smoking can feel like medicine for this reason. But tragically, it’s medicine laced with poison.
From Sacred Roots to Industry
For as long as we’ve been human, we’ve smoked. Ancient shamans burnt herbs and plants in ceremonies. Tobacco has been used for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples, not as a vice, but as a sacred and occasional tool for prayer, connection, and grounding. In Central and South America, tobacco smoke was believed to carry messages to the spirit world.
But like so many things, industrialisation took this sacred practice and turned it into profit. The first manufactured cigarettes appeared in the late 1800s, and by the early 20th century, tobacco was mass-produced and aggressively marketed. Astoundingly, in the 1930s and ’40s, doctors were used in advertisements to endorse cigarettes. There’s one infamous campaign: “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” This wasn't satire – this was mainstream.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that the tides began to shift. A landmark U.S. Surgeon General’s report in 1964 finally confirmed what many already suspected: smoking causes lung cancer. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death globally – and tobacco is responsible for around 85–90% of those cases. It’s not just the lungs. Smoking increases the risk of at least 12 types of cancer, including throat, bladder, pancreas, kidney, and cervical cancer. The evidence is clear, overwhelming, and decades deep.
And yet, here we are, watching history try to repeat itself. Enter the vape.
Vaping: The New Mask
Sold to us as a “safer alternative”. A cessation tool. A cleaner smoke. But really, the vape is the most synthetic, chemical-laden evolution of smoking we’ve seen. It removes the sacred. It removes even the slow. Vaping delivers nicotine (often in much higher doses than cigarettes) in an almost pure form, with artificial flavours, colours, and scents that seem custom-designed to lure children.
We now have an entire generation of teens and young adults inhaling compounds like propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, and ultrafine particles deep into the lungs – every day.
What Lies Beneath the Vape
The long-term risk? We don’t fully know. Because we haven’t had the time. The data is still emerging. But what we do know is sobering. Some cases of “popcorn lung” (formally bronchiolitis obliterans) have been linked to diacetyl, a chemical found in some flavoured vapes. It causes irreversible scarring of the tiny airways in the lungs, leading to chronic cough and breathlessness.
Then there’s COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a long-known consequence of tobacco smoking. It causes progressive, permanent damage to the lungs. The alveoli (those delicate, balloon-like air sacs where oxygen enters the blood) lose their elasticity. Gaseous exchange breaks down. And eventually, patients become breathless doing the simplest things. Walking. Talking. Standing. Many end up dependent on oxygen tanks to survive. Once that damage is done, it cannot be undone.
A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that vaping damages blood vessel function and increases oxidative stress, both of which are linked to cardiovascular disease.
Another 2021 study from Thorax, a BMJ journal, associated regular vaping with increased risk of chronic bronchitis symptoms in adolescents.
Even more worrying, Tobacco Control published findings showing that many flavoured e-liquids (especially those targeting younger users) contain cytotoxic compounds, meaning they damage and kill human cells.
The Longing for a Pause
And yet, vapes are everywhere. In pockets, in pencil cases, in playgrounds. Accessible, legal, and marketed with pastel packaging and fruity names like 'blue razz ice' and 'cotton candy punch'. The language is candy – the impact is chemical.
This isn’t just about lung health. It's about dopamine seeking; it's about addiction and instant gratification. It’s about marketing and profit.
We are living through unprecedented times as humans, with AI and the wild speed at which technology is advancing. It is no accident that smoking and vaping feel like a balm. But we have to name what’s hiding beneath it; we need to examine the constant need that young people have to calm themselves.
We don’t need more speed or poison. We need more presence – and to collectively create space for the nourishing, regulating effect that is born of breath and pause.
About the Author
Dr Skye Scott is a family GP and co-owner of Health with Heart – a holistic wellness solution that includes a warm-hearted practice in Sandton, bespoke corporate wellness programmes, unique retreats and medical travel experiences, an educational podcast and portal, and a community outreach initiative.
For more information or to get in touch, follow @health_w_heart or @drskyescott on Instagram or @HealthwithHeartDoctors on Facebook, or visit www.healthwithheart.co.za.
