Eddie Van Halen's health?

People who are addicted will sometimes employ ridiculous rationalizations rather than face the truth. It's like John Mellencamp claiming that his body is "so polluted" by his smoking that cancer would not be able to survive in there.

 

Many in the know are starting to say that "vaping" is actually worse than analog ciggs.

 

"Not a VH fan but...."

Liking Van Halen isn't a crime, guys the way that admitting you like Air Supply or god forbid being a fan of Journey around here is. Enjoying Van Halen won't ruin your high-brow music fan street cred. You can just say "I wish him well" and move along.

(I'm cranky. Snapping at everyone! )

 

I am a firm believer that when your time card gets punched by whom or whoever your time is up. I've had family in perfect health die young.

Live life every day to the max.

As far as Eddie's health? I hope he does what he needs to do. For my own selfish reasons I want to open up the VH vaults!

 

I think all of us fans feel that way about the vaults. It doesn’t sound selfish

 

There’s nothing to be ashamed about liking Journey.

 

To Germany speaks volumes. Roth is probably ramping up legal stuff for use of the Van Halen name if Eddie is through with the group. Mellencamp has been a 2 pack a day guy since LBJ was in office. He's like Keith Richards, never to die no matter what.

 

I look at it as a compliment. People that aren't Van Halen fans recognize the enormous magnitude of Eddie's impact on the musical landscape and, despite not being fans, feel compelled to take the time and pay tribute in a brief comment.

 

But I think Roth is also using the Van Halen road crew and gear, so I think the brothers are probably okay with it. They might even get a cut if the residency is profitable.

 

Sure. There are no guarantees in life as noted by all of your examples. However, we can certainly steer the odds in our favor for good health by making favorable lifestyle decisions IMHO.

 

The chemicals in the solutions?

 

Scotty: "Aye, probably a cut".

 

David Lee Roth is the future of Van Halen moving forward, as he has clearly stated.

 

The mixtures used for vaping nicotine don't contain anything close to the array of carcinogens in tobacco. At least, the legit ones don't. So they're a big improvement, as far as lessening the cancer risk. But that isn't the only health hazard of tobacco.

The bootleg vaping mixtures that apparently cause chemical burns on the lungs are a different story. It wouldn't surprise me to find that the offending chemicals are also carcinogenic. I haven't followed the story closely, but I think that those mixtures are using a chemical related to propylene glycol as a carrier. Propylene glycol (the same stuff that's in antifreeze) is highly allergenic to some people- it can cause a reaction simply by being spilled on bare skin. It's also possibly carcinogenic. Heating it to a high temperature in a vaping pen may lead to the formation of chemicals that are even more harmful.

The biggest health problem with nicotine vaping is, duh, that the nicotine is still in there. The number of people who develop severe cardiovascular disease resulting from their tobacco habit is estimated at about twice the number of those who develop cancer. Nicotine is a very strong vasoconstrictor. Spending an hour or more every day pumping a strong vasoconstrictor directly into one's bloodstream is pretty unhealthy, for most people. Nicotine is also poisonous; traditionally, it's been one of the compounds most commonly used to induce cell death when producing laboratory slides to examine cell structures. But unlike the carcinogens found in the tobacco plant or formed by its burning, like benzopyrene or carbon monoxide, nicotine is not a mutagen.

So I think that it's an exaggeration to claim that legit vaping products like Juul are more inherently unhealthy than tobacco. Nicotine vaping removes most of the carcinogen liability of tobacco, just like that. It's more easily ingested than products like nicotine gum or lozenges, which often have the side effect of nausea. It's easier to control the dosage of nicotine with a vape pen than with gum, lozenges, or a nicotine skin patch. So properly used as an aid to quitting or reducing nicotine consumption, vaping really does offer some important advantages over other delivery methods.

But it's up to the nicotine vaper to decide to use it as an aid to quitting or cutting down, and then hold to their decision. Nothing (other than money, perhaps) prevents someone from relying on their nicotine vape pen to give them the same amount of nicotine as when they were smoking 20-40-60 cigarettes a day. Or more, for that matter. Which is one way that vaping might conceivably be worse than cigarettes- it might lead new users to develop a heavy nicotine habit more easily than if they were smoking tobacco. Which is why age limits on sales of vaping products need to be the same as those for tobacco. Preferably age 21, in my opinion. (Including non-nicotine vaping products, in my opinion. They're much worse at conditioning kids to moving on to nicotine use than candy cigarettes, which were banned decades ago.)

There's no way to be certain that a given individual's cancer was caused or influenced by their long prior history of tobacco use. But that's the way to bet, particularly in the case of lung cancer or throat cancer. And even moderate alcohol use indisputably adds to the risk, particularly distilled alcohol. Not only are high doses of alcohol carcinogenic in in itself, high-proof alcohol is a very efficient solvent, which means that it dissolves and mobilizes all sorts of other chemicals, including carcinogens. Add in the risk of developing cancer when mucous membranes are exposed to HPV, and things get riskier and riskier. I don't know the details of EVH's sex life, but HPV is one of those STDs that has really gotten around, and people can even contract HPV if they're having sex exclusively with one partner, if that partner is already infected. I have heard that EVH got into heavy methamphetamine for quite a while. There's no evidence that pure amphetamines are carcinogenic, but the operative modifier there is "pure", and the illicit market doesn't especially inspire confidence in that regard. Although even pure amphetamines can indirectly add to cancer risks, because people tend to chain-smoke and drink much more heavily on speed runs than they would otherwise. Amphetamines are also vasoconstrictors, although they're neither as strong or as potent as nicotine in that regard. But if you keep stacking one substance with unhealthy vascular effects on another, the odds that you're going to develop chronic problems like avascular necrosis increase. A little bit of occasional mild vasoconstriction is fine, but basically you want your blood flowing smoothly and evenly, delivering oxygen and clearing impurities from your cells, not choked off with capillary constriction or arterial spasm by your sympathetic nervous system.

 

Well, that’s unfortunate.

 

Yeah, but Eddie's story is more "rock and roll"..........

 

Is it?

Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll = disease or death = respect.

Dodgy pick in the mouth = not so much.

 

I'm wishing him well...positive vibes sent his way...we can never have enough.

 

yes, it's the myth that kills...

 

I have never understood all that 'live each day to the max' and 'live each day as if it's your last' stuff. What if it's a school day or midweek with work in the morning?

 

File every TPS report like it's your last, man!

 

I was going to post something along the same lines. Hard to live that way when like most people you have to go to a job you most likely do not enjoy 5 days a week.

 

Great post. I learned a lot.

 

Do you think Eddie got that memo?