Vapers 20% more likely to develop heart issues: study

By Imogen Howse via SWNS

Vapers are nearly 20 percent more likely to develop heart failure than those who never vaped, a new study has revealed.

The findings add to concerns about the negative health effects of vaping and suggest that e-cigarettes are not a safer alternative to smoking, despite how they are often portrayed.

Heart failure is a condition that causes the organ to become unable to properly pump blood around the body.

More than 64 million people worldwide are currently affected by the debilitating heart issue, but numbers are understood to be on the rise.

Now researchers from the American College of Cardiology have found that e-cigarette users have a 19 percent increased risk of developing the condition.

Scientists analyzed 175,667 US adults with an average age of 52 for around four years and found that people who used e-cigarettes at any point were 19 percent more likely to develop heart failure than those who had never vaped.

Results showed that vapers were statistically more likely to develop preserved ejection fraction heart failure, in which the heart muscle becomes too stiff to function properly.

Rates of preserved ejection fraction have risen in recent decades, which has led to a heightened focus on determining risk factors for this condition.

Dr. Yakubu Bene-Alhasan, a physician at MedStar Health in Baltimore, Maryland and the study’s lead author, said: “More and more studies are linking e-cigarettes to harmful health effects and finding that it might not be as safe as was previously thought.

“The difference we saw was substantial. It’s worth considering the consequences to your health, especially your heart health.”

He added that the new findings point to a need for further investigation, especially considering the prevalence of vaping among younger generations.

Surveys indicate that around five to ten percent of US teens and just over ten percent of UK teens use vapes.

“I think this research is long overdue, especially considering how much e-cigarettes have gained traction recently,” Dr. Bene-Alhasan said.

“We don’t want to wait too long to find out eventually that it might be harmful, and by that time, a lot of harm might already have been done.”

Previous studies have pointed to an association between e-cigarette use and heart failure, but many have been inconclusive, which Dr. Bene-Alhasan says is due to limitations in cross-sectional study designs and smaller sample sizes.

The American College of Cardiology used a larger sample size – and accounted for a variety of demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle risk factors – making it one of the most comprehensive studies on this topic to date.

However, Dr. Bene-Alhasan said the team can still only infer, rather than conclusively determine, a causal relationship between vaping and heart failure.

“With more research, we will get to uncover a lot more about the potential health consequences and improve the information out to the public,” he said.

He also encouraged people not to use vaping as a tool to quit smoking, as many people continue to use e-cigarettes long after they have given up tobacco cigarettes.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a combination of counseling and medication as the best strategy for quitting smoking.