Just one puff of an E-cigarette ‘increases your risk of a heart attack’
IT is sold as a better alternative to smoking that could even help you quit fags for good.
But new research suggests e-cigarettes containing nicotine could increase your risk of heart disease.
Researchers found just one vape caused a spike of adrenaline levels in the hearts of non-smokers.
But this did not happen when they used e-cigarettes without nicotine in the vaping fluid.
Lead author Dr. Holly Middlekauff, from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), said: "While e-cigarettes typically deliver fewer carcinogens than are found in the tar of tobacco cigarette smoke, they also usually deliver nicotine.
"Many believe that the tar, not the nicotine, is what leads to increased cancer and heart attack risks.
"So, we asked the question, 'are e-cigarettes safe?'."
The researchers have previously reported that chronic e-cigarette use causes a spike in nerve activity which increases adrenaline directed to the heart and hinders how the body removes toxins from oxygen.
Both are risk factors for a heart attack.
In the new study Dr Middlekauff and her team looked at 33 healthy adults who were not e-cigarette users or smokers.
On different days each person used a vaping device with either nicotine or no nicotine.
They then tested their heart rate and oxidative stress - the inability of the body to counteract free radicals - using a blood test.
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They found exposure to e-cigarettes with nicotine led to increased adrenaline levels to the heart, indicated by an abnormal heart rate.
But oxidative stress, which increases risks for atherosclerosis and heart attack, showed no changes after exposure to e-cigarettes with and without nicotine.
"While it's reassuring that the non-nicotine components do not have an obvious effect on adrenaline levels to the heart, these findings challenge the concept that inhaled nicotine is benign, or safe," Dr Middlekauff said.
"Our study showed that acute electronic cigarette use with nicotine increases cardiac adrenaline levels.
"And it's in the same pattern that is associated with increased cardiac risk in patients who have known cardiac disease, and even in patients without known cardiac disease.
"I think that just seeing this pattern at all is very concerning and it would hopefully discourage nonsmokers from taking up electronic cigarettes."
