Magic Dragon

[XCR1250]

Nicotine in e-cigs is not only addictive, it might also increase your risk of heart disease

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Nicotine can affect a smoker’s health in more than one way

by Alessandra Potenza@ale_potenza  Sep 20, 2017, 4:00pm EDT

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Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Even after puffing on just one electronic cigarette with nicotine, healthy non-smokers were found to have a biological marker known to increase the risk of heart disease in tobacco users, according to a new study. The research, published in Journal of the American Heart Association, shows that nicotine is not harmless, as many people believe. It can affect a smoker’s health in more than one way, and not just by triggering addiction.

“There is this old saying that people smoke for the nicotine, cause it’s so addictive, but they die from the tar,” says study co-author Holly Middlekauff, a cardiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. This belief that nicotine is generally safe led to nicotine-replacement therapies in the 1970s — like nicotine patches and gums — to help people quit. Today, electronic cigarettes have become popular with people addicted to cigarettes, who view vaping as less harmful than smoking.

NICOTINE IS NOT HARMLESS

The use of e-cigarettes, however, is fairly new, so its long-term effects are still unknown. And the scientific community has been divided about e-cig safety. Last year, a prestigious medical group in the UK recommended that tobacco smokers switch to e-cigs to quit, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there’s no evidence that e-cigs work as a smoking cessation tool. Meanwhile, the body of research on health risk is slowly growing: a 2015 study found that e-cig vapor damages the immune system of mice. Last year, a study foundthat e-cigs produce 31 harmful chemicals, including some that are believed to cause cancer.

Another study, conducted by Middlekauff that was published earlier this year, showed that people who use e-cigs almost every day have biological markers known to increase the risk of heart disease in tobacco users. These included an increase in adrenaline levels in the heart, which can predispose smokers to bad heart rhythms, heart attacks, and sudden death, as well as increased oxidative stress, an imbalance in the body’s ability to defend itself against the damaging action of free radicals. Oxidative stress can lead to changes in blood fats and lead to arteriosclerosis.

That study, however, didn’t show what exactly was causing those changes. E-cigarettes can have different flavoring and solvents, as well as nicotine. So to identify the culprit, Middlekauff brought 33 healthy non-smokers and non-vapers into the lab. On three different days, one month apart, the participants were asked to puff on three different kinds of e-cigarettes for 30 minutes: one with nicotine, one without nicotine, and a sham e-cig that was empty.

“THAT QUESTION IS STILL WIDE OPEN.”

The researchers did blood tests and measured the subjects’ heart rhythms, and found that the participants had high levels of adrenaline in their hearts after they smoked the e-cig with nicotine, but not after they puffed on the e-cigarette without nicotine or the empty e-cig. The researchers didn’t find increased oxidative stress, but Middlekauff says they also only looked at one marker, and more tests should be done to confirm that finding. “I think that question is still wide open,” she says.

The study has some limitations: it is small, which makes it less reliable. It also only shows that vaping affects the markers that are known risk factors, it doesn’t show that vaping is connected to actual heart disease. The only way to find that out is to do longer-term studies on e-cig users.

Still, the study “challenges the belief that nicotine is benign and without significant risk,” Middlekauff says. It also adds to our understanding of the potential health effects of e-cigarettes, which people should consider when deciding whether or not to pick up vaping. For people who smoke regular cigarettes, switching to e-cigarettes is better, because e-cigs have “orders of magnitude” less carcinogens than tobacco cigarettes, Middlekauff says. But for non-smokers, the story is different.

“If you don’t smoke at all, I would strongly advice not to start smoking electronic cigarettes,” she says. “They’re not harmless.”

 

 

 

 

 

[f7ben]

that shit is gay as hell 

[snatchslayer]

Why does this remind me of diet soft drinks vs reg

[1trailmaker]

why would anyone add Nicotine if they weren't trying to quit smoking? 

 

Is Vaping bad? NO, dumb maybe

[racer254]

11 hours ago, 1trailmaker said:

why would anyone add Nicotine if they weren't trying to quit smoking? 

 

Is Vaping bad? NO, dumb maybe

Maybe they are not trying to quit, but just being respectful of others and the secondhand smoke? 

[1trailmaker]

1 minute ago, racer254 said:

Maybe they are not trying to quit, but just being respectful of others and the secondhand smoke? 

Point is someone that doesn't smoke would not use Nicotine for vaping, making the article  and argument useless

Vaping isn't dangerous

[racer254]

1 minute ago, 1trailmaker said:

Point is someone that doesn't smoke would not use Nicotine for vaping, making the article  and argument useless

Vaping isn't dangerous

The anti-smoking crowd needs a new target, this is it.

[1trailmaker]

Just now, racer254 said:

The anti-smoking crowd needs a new target, this is it.

true dat, but more so the cigarette companies are targeting nicotine and vaping. 

 

[racer254]

21 minutes ago, 1trailmaker said:

true dat, but more so the cigarette companies are targeting nicotine and vaping. 

 

If they were smart they would be the ones developing the vaping products.  I thought for years that GM should have invested in HealthCare companies since they knew they were going to have so many retirees needing health care.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by racer254

[XCR1250]

1 hour ago, 1trailmaker said:

Point is someone that doesn't smoke would not use Nicotine for vaping, making the article  and argument useless

Vaping isn't dangerous

From the article:

“If you don’t smoke at all, I would strongly advice not to start smoking electronic cigarettes,” she says. “They’re not harmless.”

 

[1trailmaker]

1 hour ago, XCR1250 said:

From the article:

“If you don’t smoke at all, I would strongly advice not to start smoking electronic cigarettes,” she says. “They’re not harmless.”

 

well to be fair diet coke isn't harmless

red meat

alcohol

salt

blah blah

 

You can find harm in anything you chose to test i would agree

[Mileage Psycho]

8 hours ago, 1trailmaker said:

Point is someone that doesn't smoke would not use Nicotine for vaping, making the article  and argument useless

Vaping isn't dangerous

I'm thinking that sucking vapors in your lungs might not be good seeing pneumonia is caused by the buildup of fluids in your lungs.

 

[xtralettucetomatoe580]

Using a vape makes it look like you are sucking on C3PO's dick. 

[1trailmaker]

1 hour ago, Mileage Psycho said:

I'm thinking that sucking vapors in your lungs might not be good seeing pneumonia is caused by the buildup of fluids in your lungs.

 

isn't that two different vapors? 

vaporizers have the same contents that are in Asama puffers -  puffers open the lungs

[Anler]

Smoke weed instead or better yet vape weed oil. Totally healthy!