E-cigarettes as harmful as cigarettes

Did you know! E-cigarettes increase cardiovascular risk as much as cigarettes do.

The usage of e-cigarettes containing nicotine has a significant impact on vascular functions, claims new study.

It revealed that smokers of e-cigarettes experienced the same, if not higher level of cardiovascular elevation for prolonged periods after smoking the e-cigarette.

Researchers found that using e-cigarettes and cigarettes, in comparison to nicotine-free e-cigarettes, had the same significant impact on vitals, with participant's blood pressure and heart rate being affected.

Peripheral systolic blood pressure was raised significantly for 45 minutes after using an e-cigarette and 15 minutes after smoking a cigarette. Heart rate also remained elevated for 45 minutes for e-cigarettes, with the increase being higher than 8% for the first 30 minutes.

In comparison, traditional cigarettes only raised heart rate for 30 minutes and there was again no change when using nicotine-free e-cigarettes.

Franzen et al. use this data to state that the e-cigarettes can be as dangerous as cigarettes, simply concluding that: "The increased parameters within the nicotine containing devices might be a link to an increased cardiovascular risk which is well known for cigarettes."

The findings have been published in the journal Vascular Medicine.