E-cigarettes and Your Heart
Seventy percent of smokers say they want to quit, but just five percent actually do. Over the last few years, e-cigarettes have emerged as a "safe" alternative, even though studies now place doubt on that claim. The newest research links e-cigarettes to an increased risk of heart disease.
E-cigarettes came out just a decade ago. Users inhale vapor from a hand held device that heats a liquid solvent containing nicotine, flavorings and other substances. Concerned about its health effects, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now monitors their manufacturing, distribution and marketing.
The new study compared forty e-smokers with healthy non-smokers and found two risk factors were higher in e-smokers. First, their sustained increased heartrate reflects heightened levels of adrenaline, which puts them at risk for heart disease. Nicotine is to blame.
Second, users showed higher evidence of oxidative stress. Put simply, these are free radicals the body normally removes; excessive levels, however, can be damaging to cells and tissues. Since nicotine makes the heart muscle very active metabolically, it produces many free radicals. When heart cells are damaged, the heart enlarges over time, causing cell death and eventually heart failure.
Beyond the nicotine, the heating factor in e-cigarettes creates toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein. At first their levels are low but increase as the smoking session continues and the setting gets hotter. The devices build up residue which emits toxic chemicals as well.
The best choice is to quit altogether and it's very possible. In the last forty years, the number of American smokers has fallen by eighteen percent.
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