Vaping

Smoking electronic cigarettes, also known as vaping, can harm the heart and blood vessels even without nicotine. That’s according to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania. The combination of heat and the chemicals that give the e-liquid its flavor creates toxic particles that harm health.

Electronic smoking

Electronic smoking has been on the rise for some time now. Yet in recent years there has been a smoke of doom around the e-cigarette. For this reason, their sale was also strictly regulated in our country. For example, a number of (small-scale) studies have suggested that vaping increases the risk of cancer and heart disease. In early June, a new report from the European Association of Pulmonologists stated that e-cigarettes are a tobacco industry trick to keep smokers addicted. Ecigmarketxl.com best e liquidsfor more information. A month later, experts from the Flemish Institute for Healthy Living pointed out that for obstinate smokers, the electronic cigarette with nicotine is just an excellent way to renounce the real cigarette. They even called on GPs in the Artsenkrant to “not frighten their patients” when they want to stop smoking with an e-cigarette. 

Still, a new study in the journal Radiology, conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, is once again ringing alarm bells. To find out the effect of vaping without nicotine on blood vessels, the researchers took MRI scans of 31 volunteers who used this type of e-cigarette but had never smoked regular cigarettes.

Stroke or heart attack

Even a single session of vaping – inhaling 16 times for 3 seconds – proved to have serious consequences. The MRI scan showed that 17.5% less blood flowed through the femoral artery (which supplies the leg with blood, ed.). Also, about 20% less oxygenated blood was pumped through the other veins, and the participants’ blood vessels were about 34% less dilated, meaning less blood could flow through the narrowed passageways.

More narrowed blood vessels means that less blood reaches the different parts of the body, which means that they also receive less oxygen. If the oxygen is cut off completely, you could have a stroke or heart attack.

“E-cigarettes are marketed as harmless and many users believe they are simply inhaling water vapor,” Alessandra Caporale, lead author of the study, told the Daily Mail. “But the chemicals that give the e-liquid its taste and other additives in liquid form can be very harmful when heated. For the respiratory tract and the heart and blood vessels.”

“I would strongly advise against starting electronic smoking,” added Felix Wehrli, co-author of the study. “Most people think that nicotine is especially harmful, but with this study we have just been able to show that there are also dangers even if there is no nicotine in the e-cigarettes. Ecigmarketxl.comfor more information. If there is such a clear effect after a single vaping session, you can imagine what the effect will be in the longer term.”

About the e-cigarette

The e-cigarette was developed in China in 2003. A year later, the non-tobacco cigarette entered the market in Europe and America. In 2017, 14% of Belgians had already used an electronic cigarette. This concerns electronic cigarettes that meet the requirement of a maximum of 20 milligrams of nicotine per milliliter of liquid. 29% of them used e-cigarettes without nicotine in them.