E-cigarette users when compared to non-users, according to a study, were 56 per cent more likely to have a heart attack.
Photograph: Kind courtesy lexphumirat/pixabay.com
Adults, who report puffing e-cigarettes, or vaping, are significantly more likely to have a heart attack, coronary artery disease and depression as compared with those who don't use them or any tobacco products.
"Until now, little has been known about cardiovascular events relative to e-cigarette use. These data are a real wake-up call and should prompt more action and awareness about the dangers of e-cigarettes," said Mohinder Vindhyal, study's lead author.
E-cigarettes -- sometimes called "e-cigs," "vapes," "e-hookahs," "vape pens" or "electronic nicotine delivery systems"-- are battery-operated, handheld devices that mimic the experience of smoking a cigarette.
They work by heating the e-liquid, which may contain a combination of nicotine, solvent carriers (glycerol, propylene and/or ethylene glycol) and any number of flavours and other chemicals, to a high enough temperature to create an aerosol or "vapour," that is inhaled and exhaled.
According to Vindhyal, there are now more than 460 brands of e-cigarettes and over 7,700 flavours.
E-cigarettes have been gaining in popularity since being introduced in 2007, with sales increasing nearly 14-fold in the last decade, researchers said.
But they are also hotly debated -- touted by some as a safer alternative to smoking tobacco, while others are sounding the alarm about the explosion of vaping among teens and young adults.
This study found that compared with non-users, e-cigarette users were 56 percent more likely to have a heart attack and 30 per cent more likely to suffer a stroke.
Coronary artery disease and circulatory problems, including blood clots, were also much higher among those who vape -- 10 per cent and 44 per cent higher, respectively.
This group was also twice as likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and other emotional problems.
Most, but not all, of these associations held true when controlling for other known cardiovascular risk factors, such as age, sex, body mass index, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking.
After adjusting for these variables, e-cigarette users were 34 per cent more likely to have a heart attack, 25 per cent more likely to have coronary artery disease and 55 per cent more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety.
Stroke, high blood pressure and circulatory problems were no longer statistically different between the two groups.
"When the risk of heart attack increases by as much as 55 per cent among e-cigarettes users compared to non-smokers, I wouldn't want any of my patients nor my family members to vape. When we dug deeper, we found that regardless of how frequently someone uses e-cigarettes, daily or just on some days, they are still more likely to have a heart attack or coronary artery disease," Vindhyal said.
The study, included data from a total of 96,467 respondents from the National Health Interview Survey, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-fielded survey of Americans, from 2014, 2016 and 2017.
The 2015 survey did not include any e-cigarette-related questions.
In their analyses, researchers looked at the rates of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, coronary artery disease, diabetes and depression/anxiety among those who reported using e-cigarettes (either some days or daily) and nonusers.
Those who reported using e-cigarettes were younger than nonusers (33 years of age on average vs. 40.4 years old).
Researchers also compared the data for reported tobacco smokers and non-smokers.
Traditional tobacco cigarette smokers had strikingly higher odds of having a heart attack, coronary artery disease and stroke compared with non-smokers--a 165, 94 and 78 percent increase, respectively.
They were also significantly more likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes, circulatory problems, and depression or anxiety.
The researchers also looked at health outcomes by how often someone reported using e-cigarettes, either "daily" or "some days."
When compared to non-e-cigarette users, daily e-cigarette users had higher odds of heart attack, coronary artery disease and depression/anxiety, whereas some days users were more likely to have a heart attack and suffer from depression/anxiety, with only a trend toward coronary artery disease.
Researchers said this could be due to decreased toxic effects of e-cigarette usage, early dissipation of the toxic effects or the fact that it has not been studied long enough to show permanent damage to portray cardiovascular disease morbidity.
"Cigarette smoking carries a much higher probability of heart attack and stroke than e-cigarettes, but that doesn't mean that vaping is safe," Vindhyal said, adding that some e-cigarettes contain nicotine and release very similar toxic compounds to tobacco smoking.
Nicotine can quicken heart rate and raise blood pressure.
Lead image published for representational purposes only.
