1. Honouring Steve Matusch and Lise Perdue this year!
2. Helen's Run in Honour of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives
3. Parsing the Newest COVID-19 News for Runners with André Picard
4. How Smoking and Vaping Affect Your Lungs and Performance
5. Photos This Week
6. Upcoming Events; Feb 28 Hypothermic Half   Mar 27 Bush Pig Open, May 30 SudburyRocks!!! Virtual Marathon
7. Running Room Run Club Update: 
8. Track North Jessie Nusselder has been accepted into the Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
   

Helen Bobiwash

André Picard has been Canada’s keenest interpreter of medical issues since he began his medical beat at the Globe & Mail in 1987. He recently wrote a column about the agonizing decisions each person needs to make as they try and do what’s right for their families while balancing their own basic needs, like attending funerals or whether or not kids should go back to school. iRun editor Ben Kaplan caught up with the Montreal-based Picard, an avid runner, to hear his take on the latest news.

Ben Kaplan: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about Canada’s current state in the fight against COVID-19?

André Picard: I’m always cautiously optimistic, I guess. You have to remain hopeful if you want to keep doing this job, reporting on health.

BK: But in a nutshell?

AP: There are some good signs—but we have to be vigilant.

BK: Let’s start with the good signs. What are they?

AP: The numbers are coming down again.

BK: So why do we need to be vigilant?

AP: We’ve seen this before. The pessimistic side of me knows that we tend to be impatient and once that happens, the numbers jump up again.

BK: I think everybody wants this to end. So be specific. What can each of us do to finish this thing?

AP: The simple old stuff.

BK: Washing hands, distance.

AP: Yeah, it’s really simple, and wear a mask. Don’t gather in groups, and limit social contacts. The virus spreads by interactions, and so the less we interact, the less the virus spreads. It’s really the boring old stuff, but the problem is we just get tired of doing it.

BK: Some of it also is that there’s mixed messages. Like, we came down hard on politicians that travelled and yet, if we really didn’t want them to travel, why not make travel illegal?

AP: I do think there’s been lots of mixed messages which again means that people have to take personal responsibility, but I know what you mean. It doesn’t make sense for Air Canada to have flight sales to the Bahamas while we’re told to stay home.

BK: So what do we do?

AP: A lot of other countries have cracked down on travel. Of course it’s necessary for some goods to travel between countries and maybe it makes sense for some travel for business, but the travel for fun part? We shouldn’t be doing it and that message needs to be much clearer from the government, with stricter rules.

BK: It’s strange how a lot of things like whether to have a distanced beer with a friend, hold a race or take the kids to the park, become moral dilemmas.

AP: The simple most basic rule is to limit your contact with others. Don’t get in your car if you don’t have to. Don’t go to the Bahamas. Now, if your grandmother dies, do you have to go to the funeral?

BK: Do you?

AP: Maybe. My father-in-law did die and I did go to the funeral, but this was in the summer in Montreal with ten people spread out in masks in an auditorium when the cases were very low, but these are tough personal choices. I think rituals are important but they should be done as safely as possible.

BK: It’s funny to talk about rituals when we see 18,000 American football fans in the stadium watching the Green Bay Packers play against Tom Brady. How can the Americans do that?

THEY’RE IN TOTAL DENIAL. IT’S JUST NUTS.

BK: How can they justify it?

AP: I watched a Dallas game with 35,000 people in the stands, and that’s just crazy, especially since the virus in the US is like three or four times worse than in Canada.

BK: Part of me is jealous. I feel like Toronto is the only place in North America where our kids still aren’t in school and meanwhile, they’re drinking draft beers at football games in Florida!

AP: They’re just giving the virus a chance to spread. And the US numbers speak for themselves, how bad they are. Now the school question, that’s complex and interesting.

BK: Why’s that?

AP: To me, schools should stay open. We can’t stop life altogether and it’s not like if the schools are closed, the kids won’t gather. The big question is how do you best control the environment? The school question is really about harm reduction and there’s no perfect approach. Though I do think they got it right in Quebec.

BK: How so?

AP: The Premier said that the number one priority is opening the schools and that everything else is secondary.

BK: And so what did Quebec do?

AP: The lockdown was much more strict than the one in Ontario and we applied a curfew, but the schools are open. The communication was clear and the politician did what he said he would and the message was clear—all you could want from a politician.

BK: Can you foreshadow our next few weeks, next month?

AP: January, February and March are the single hardest part of the pandemic. But there’s hope on the horizon with vaccines. There’s hope. But the vaccines won’t be here this spring and if the numbers come down, there will be the temptation to open up too much, and with this new variant, the numbers could go through the roof.

BK: So we just have to make it to April?

AP: I think in April, we’ll start having serious vaccines available, especially in Eastern Canada. And when the weather warms up again, it’s easier to go outside.

BK: How freaked out should we be about this new variant?

AP: We knew this was coming. We knew there’d be changes and this new variant seems to spread more quickly, but we don’t really know the details yet and I think it’s in line with what we’d expect. I also think social distancing and masks work well against this new variant, so it all comes back to what I first said: we need to do the old boring things.

BK: I could deal with a curfew, but I really miss running with my group. When can do that again?

AP: Running together in a group, even outside, is best avoided until everyone in the group has two shots of the vaccine.

BK: Oh, man.

AP: It’s just the distance and the time spent together on a Sunday long run is susceptible for a spread. 30 seconds when you see someone in a park? No big deal. But 25 people going on a Sunday long run together is a bad idea. We’re not all hysterical now like we were back in March, when there was a fear of runners, and surfaces. We know it’s safe. But a lot of time spent with a stranger, even outdoors, is dangerous. You’re interacting with every person that they’ve interacted with.

BK: Will we be able to race again in the fall?

AP: It’s up in the air. I think by September, maybe we’ll have half the population vaccinated, but a race with 30,000 people? That won’t look good. I don’t think it’s going to happen this year.

BK: On that note of depression, how’s your own running going?

AP: I plod along—as always.

BK: Is running still good?

AP: There’s nothing quite like getting outside and going for a run or a walk.

BK: Thanks for your time, man. Always a pleasure. Can you tell iRun readers about your new book?

AP: It’s called Neglected No More and it’s coming out March 2. It’s about how to improve home care and treatment for the elderly.

BK: Feels timely.

AP: There’s a lot more we can do and it’s time for a change.

After decades of anti-smoking campaigns, cigarettes are decidedly passé. Except...they’ve been replaced with more futuristic electronic smoking devices: battery-powered pens that could pass as USBs and hold pods of liquid that contain nicotine, CBD, THC, and other chemicals. In case you’ve been living under a rock, “vaping”—or inhaling the vapor created by these electronic smoking devices—is the new smoking.

Even as traditional cigarette and tobacco use has dropped by 67 percent among adults, according to the American Lung Association, worldwide vaping sales reached $15.7 billion in 2019 and are expected to reach $39 billion by 2030, research published in The Lancet found—that’s a whopping 154-percent increase.

Thanks to effective marketing and the fact that research suggests hardcore smokers can use e-cigarettes containing nicotine to help quit their habit, these electronic smoking devices have a way better reputation than old-school cigarettes. “E-cigarettes were initially created to wean people off of tobacco,” says Nancy E. Amoroso, M.D., a specialist in critical care and pulmonary medicine at NYU Langone in New York, NY. “Now, they’ve become so trendy, people who didn’t even smoke are using them—and people will vape anything, not just nicotine.”

But despite their (potentially) well-intentioned start, e-cigarettes of any kind can be disastrous for your lungs—especially as a runner. Here’s what you need to know.

What Happens In Your Lungs When You Vape
When you take a puff from an electronic smoking device, you’re heating a liquid within a cartridge into an aerosolized mist that you inhale into your lungs, explains Jonathan Parsons, M.D., a pulmonologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “That liquid can contain a various amount of ingredients like nicotine and THC, most of which are safe to ingest. But when you heat those ingredients, it is the additives in the cartridges that are the culprits.”

Those chemicals? We’re talking anything from propylene glycol, a common food additive that’s also used to make things like antifreeze and paint solvent; acrolein, a herbicide primarily used to kill weeds; diacetyl, a chemical linked to lung disease; heavy metals including nickel, tin, and lead; benzene, an organic compound (VOC) found in car exhaust; and carcinogens like acetaldehyde and formaldehyde, according to the American Lung Association. (FWIW, the FDA does regulate these products.)

When you inhale, those aerosolized chemicals enter your trachea (or windpipe), which breaks off into smaller and smaller airways, explains Amoroso. “Finally, they enter these tiny air sacs in the lungs called alveoli, which is where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged. Because those chemicals are irritants, they can cause an inflammatory response in the airways and lung tissue,” she says.

Not only will that inflammation cause respiratory symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and wheezing, says Parsons, it also impairs the ability for that gas exchange to occur, which prevents oxygen from getting into your bloodstream efficiently (more on that in a minute).

Vaping something “healthier” like CBD, THC, or even vitamins (yes, that’s a thing) is no better for you. In 2019, following a surge in hospitalizations, investigators at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration linked vitamin E acetate, which is used to dilute oils in vaping, to vaping-associated pulmonary injury (or EVALI). “Inhaling vitamin E acetate can cause acute lung injury—a more severe, aggressive form of the inflammation I already mentioned,” says Parsons.

What Does This Have to Do With Running Performance?
You don’t need a scientist or a medical doctor to tell you your lungs are critical to your running performance, but here’s a biology refresher anyway: When you inhale, oxygen goes into those alveoli, explains Amoroso. From there, it’s diffused into the blood vessels, which transport that oxygen to your working muscles. At the same time, your blood vessels bring carbon dioxide from your muscles to the alveoli, where it’s expelled when you breathe out.

“Anything that compromises the lungs’ ability to function at their best decreases the delivery of oxygen, which affects your muscles and your energy level—your muscles will fatigue sooner, and running will feel harder,” she says.

Pay Attention to Your Resting Heart Rate
In the case of e-cigarettes with nicotine, you’ll also be messing with your resting heart rate. Nicotine is a stimulant, which causes your heart rate to spike, says Parsons. “Endurance athletes tend to have low resting heart rates, which gives them a large performance window before they hit their max heart rate,” he explains. “If your resting heart rate goes from 40 to 80 because you’re smoking, though, your window to perform is going to be smaller.” Translation: The quicker you’ll fatigue, and the harder exercise will feel.

There’s no arguing with the fact that tobacco is bad for you. But inhaling foreign particles not prescribed by a physician can be harmful can also be bad for you. Think about the long-term effects on people in New York who inhaled dust from the World Trade Center, says Amoroso. “While we may not have all the data to discuss the long-term effects of vaping on the lungs, we do know that inhaling certain foreign particles can increase your risk of developing chronic lung disease,” she says.

“With long-term use, the likelihood is that runners will see some degree of decline in their performance,” adds Parsons. And as an endurance athlete—amateur or not—you likely don’t want to do anything that could compromise your lung function and performance.

ASHLEY MATEO IS A WRITER, EDITOR, AND UESCA-CERTIFIED RUNNING COACH WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED TO RUNNER’S WORLD, BICYCLING, WOMEN'S HEALTH, HEALTH, SHAPE, SELF, AND MORE.

Jan 29 Michelle and Marc on Whitson Lake

Whitson Creek trail Jan 29

Laurentian sunrise -22 deg C Jan 30

Trek to Perch Lake flag Jan31

Jerry and Sheila at at Moonlight flag Jan 31

by

Biking to the Cairn by Andrew Jan 31

Tim in Gatchell Jan 31

Laurentian lookout Feb1

Loach's path Feb 1

Loach's path Feb 1