‘E-cigs are damaging arteries’

VAPE at your peril, say experts behind a new study that claims e-cigarettes treble the risk of a dangerous heart condition.

The safety of the nicotinevapour gadgets has been questioned by researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, who found there was three times greater arterial stiffness in smokers using an e-cigarette containing nicotine than in ones without nicotine.

THE safety of e-cigarettes has come under the spotlight again after researchers found they increase a symptom linked to heart disease.

The vaping devices were found to increase the blood pressure and heart rates of users.

And the study found there was three times greater arterial stiffness in smokers using an e-cigarette containing nicotine than in one without nicotine.

Swedish scientists warned regular vaping with nicotine liquids or being exposed to other people’s vapours could cause lasting damage to blood circulation. Stiffer arteries are associated with high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure and atrial fibrillation.

Study leader Dr Magnus Lundbäck, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said: ‘The increase [in arterial stiffness] was temporary.

‘However, the same temporary effects on arterial stiffness have also been demonstrated following use of conventional cigarettes. Chronic exposure to both active and passive cigarette smoking causes a permanent increase in arterial stiffness.

‘Therefore, we speculate that chronic exposure to e-cigarettes with nicotine may cause permanent effects on arterial stiffness in the long term.’

However, Professor Peter Hajek, of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London, said arterial stiffness was also true of other stimulants such as caffeine.