According to two recent studies, using vaping products, such as electronic cigarettes, for an extended period of time can seriously damage the body’s blood vessels and raise the risk of cardiovascular disease.
The findings, published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, demonstrate that the use of both e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes may cause an even greater risk than the use of either of these products alone.
Vapes, or e-cigarettes, create an aerosol by heating a liquid that typically has flavorings that contain nicotine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that the aerosol is subsequently inhaled into the lungs.
In the first study, 120 volunteers—120 who had never used an e-cigarette before, 120 who had smoked cigarettes for a long time, and 120 who had not used any of these products—had their blood samples examined.
While long-term cigarette users are those who smoke more than five cigarettes a day, long-term e-cigarette users are those who vape more than five times a week for more than three months.
“In our human study, we found that chronic e-cigarettes users had impaired blood vessel function, which may put them at increased risk for heart disease,” said Matthew L. Springer, Ph.D., a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of California in San Francisco, and leader of both studies.
“It indicates that chronic users of e-cigarettes may experience a risk of vascular disease similar to that of chronic smokers.”
Additionally, researchers found that the detrimental effects of e-cigarettes on the cardiovascular system differed from those of tobacco smoke.
In particular, they discovered that blood from cigarette smokers had higher concentrations of some circulating biomarkers of cardiovascular risk, and that blood from e-cigarette users had higher concentrations of other circulating biomarkers of cardiovascular risk.
No specific component
Researchers attempted to determine whether any particular elements of cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor were accountable for blood vessel damage in the second study, which involved rats.
They put rats in a room with nicotine, menthol (which is added to cigarettes), acrolein and acetaldehyde gases (which are chemicals that are in both tobacco smoke and e-cigarette vapors), and inert carbon nanoparticles to show how smoke and e-cigarette vapor are made up of particles.
The results imply that certain types of cigarette smoke or e-cigarette vapor do not directly cause blood vessel damage. Rather, it seems to be brought on by irritation of the airways, which sets off biological signals in the vagus nerve that ultimately cause damage to blood vessels, possibly through an inflammatory process.
“We were taken aback to discover that eliminating even one element could not reverse the detrimental impact of smoke or fumes on blood vessels,” stated Springer. “As long as there’s an irritant in the airway, blood vessel function may be impaired.”
Because e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco or require other combustion processes, prior research has suggested that they are less dangerous than traditional cigarettes. However, the majority of e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is harmful to the developing fetus and can impair the development of the adolescent and young adult brains.
According to two research from Johns Hopkins Medicine, smoking traditional cigarettes is known to cause asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), both of which are conditions that vaping may raise your risk of developing. The risk of developing COPD is six times higher for individuals who regularly smoke and vape tobacco than for those who do not use any tobacco products at all.
Even though there is growing proof of the negative effects of e-cigarettes, young people still use them extensively. According to a recent study conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 2022, 3.3% of middle school students and 14.1% of high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the previous 30 days.