E-Cigarettes: Researchers Find Abnormalities In Heart Function Of Electronic Cigarette Users; Is This Confirmed?

Most likely people are going for the new option of replacing tobacco with electronic cigarettes. As they are trying to escape the hazardous risk of tobacco cigarettes such as heart disease, the other options such as e-cigs have been studied, and users are found to have some abnormalities in the heart function.

The Washington Post reported that people who are habitual users of e-cigarettes that are a battery-operated device that heats the liquid that contains flavoring, various chemicals and nicotine are being inhaled.

The study that has been published online, on JAMA Cardiology, involves 42 adults with and the average age of 28. The number of the e-cigarette users is 23, who vaped daily for at least a year, and 19 of the participants have never vaped.

All the study participants have no health problems and do not take any prescription medications. They also claimed that they have never smoked any tobacco cigarettes. To have their heart activity evaluated, the experts used electrocardiograms and conducted some blood testing.

The experts found that e-cigarette users tend to show effects psychologically that are not found in the non-users, such as cardiovascular function abnormalities including higher oxidative stress levels and levels of adrenaline in the heart. It is an effect known to raise cardiac sympathetic activity. The factors that have been found are a risk of cardiovascular problems.

However, the chief of the cardiology division from the Johns Hopkins University, Gordon Tomaselli who is not part of the study, said that further research must be conducted as it has some limitations. It is small, which makes it less likely to be reliable. The participants are just reporting their own habits and are sometimes dishonest.

Also, according to The Verge, Tomaselli said that the findings do not connect the dots all the way to the actual heart disease. "They only show that vaping affects the markers we use as risk factors. These surrogate markers ... are cautionary tales and I think to warrant longer-term follow-ups."