Vaping, heart and cholesterol?

[inmortus]

I was wondering. Smoking has been linked plenty of times with heart conditions and increasing the chances for heart attack and similar. I recently received some medical tests back and it happens my trygliceride count came very high. Not "here, have some medication" high, but basically I am on the high end and I need to change my dietary habits completely if I am to avoid this becoming a real life threatening issue.

So I'm on diet now... But I'm wondering whether vaping has the same "bad for the heart" levels of smoking, or any connection at all with cholesterol levels...

As I understand not too much research has been done about vaping but thought it was worth asking...

 

[Kopfstimmen]

I am not a doctor, but I play a bum on ECF and Facebook.
My advice is to ask your doctor about it. (And if he gave me the wrong answer, I'd look for another doctor, but that's just me.) Seriously, just ask a doctor the next time you go. Be very specific that vaping is nicotine, but not tar or the x amount of chemicals that are in "normal" tobacco.

 

[NICnurse]

I have vaped for 2.5 years. Once I quit smoking, I started paying attention to the other bad habits in my life, namely my love for all things fried, greasy, and medium rare red meat. Back in 2009, my cholesterol was 266. Not good.

A year ago, I decided that once my 35th birthday approached, it was time to start paying more attention to my diet. I was one of those people that could eat crappy food and not be really overweight or obese. But it was still hard on my body. So I limited the red meat, ate more fruit and veggies, and watched my daily calories/sodium/fat consumption.

I just had labs drawn 2 weeks ago. By making these diet changes, my cholesterol is now 142! I still treat myself to a good steak or prime rib every so often, and I have a cheeseburger every 7-10 days. It is all about lifestyle modification. In the process of being more health conscious, I feel better, have more energy, and my weight is in the 120's. Looking at my labs, lifestyle, eating habits, and weight plus not smoking anymore, I am in the best health I have been since I was 16 and a high school athlete.

I am an advocate for making lifestyle changes and having the labs redrawn in 6 months.

 

[Mike36609]

I started vaping in November 2011 after having three stents placed in my heart because of three 90-plus percent blockages. My problems had been discovered after I went to the Dr. and had a nuclear stress test, among many others, after a possible cardiac event. Turns-out I didn't have a heart attack, but was well on my way. Two specialists have told me they don't know exactly what my event was, but they don't believe it was a heart attack, and I have no heart damage. My blood pressure at this time was around 150/90, and sometimes higher; it was 210/120 for about an hour the night of my cardiac-event. My cholesterol has never been a problem, if I remember correctly it was around 140, and I was about 9 points too high in the bad cholesterol, nothing major.

In November 2012, I had all of the same tests I had in 2011, plus a couple more, and no problems were found. My blood pressure now consistently reads around 118/70.

The Dr. who did the stents for me got in my face after the procedure, pointing his finger in my face at point blank and said, "you have to quit smoking," so I did, and vaping made it so much easier. Hitting a little Tennessee Cured right now!

 

[DC2]

Please watch this...
VPLive Vape Team Episode #25: Proof Positive - YouTube

No, seriously, please take the time to watch it.
I feel confident your concerns will be eased quite a bit.

 

[ppeeble]

I have angina so am particurlarly concerned with anything that can make my condition worse.
I have been vaping for 5 months (high VG) and have had 3 cholesterol tests done in that time. I can confirm that my levels have decreased from 7.2 to 4.1. Obviously i have been on a low fat diet too !
I monitor my blood pressure frequently and can confirm that vaping has not increased it.
I am aware that constant nicotine inhalation has a short term effect on lung capacity but i think this is far outweighed by the benefit of not inhaling smoke which does irreversible damage.
For me the choice was to continue to smoke and die prematurely or switch to vaping and take my chances. All i know is that i feel so much better now and have loads more energy.

 

[McGarnagle]

It's really difficult to identify why smoking causes the myriad of health issues, and what in cigarette smoke actually causes the issues outside of the carcinogens causing lung disease. It's just known they do. Cigarettes include all kinds of toxins that have tons of effects on the body. Cigarettes also include nicotine (duh). So the question is what health problems do nicotine cause. This is a relative unknown. Nicotine metabolites are considered carcinogens, but there is still debate over nicotine itself (which is what your lungs see). There are recent studies that have shown some negative effects of pure nicotine (which can of course kill in high enough doses), but long term effects of just nicotine is an unknown.

There is also the fact vaping is not as efficient at delivering nicotine into the bloodstream as smoking. Due to this, vaping does not have the instant increases in blood pressure and heart rate that is seen with smoking. I personally can confirm this. My heart rate and blood pressure increase significantly when I smoke a cigarette, but vaping has little effect (I also don't get the nicotine high from vaping like I do cigarettes).

Anyway, to answer your question no one knows the exact reasons for the cholesterol and triglicerides issues from smoking. It's just known that smokers statistically have higher levels of triglicerides, higher bad cholesterol, lower good cholesterol (technically not cholesterol but I won't get into the whole cholesterol debate), and are more prone to atherosclerosis. Smokers also have higher rates of heart disease, often attributed to those things I mentioned. Yet the exact reasons are not known. There are theories about effects on exercise and other factors that lead to those problems, but it's mostly theory. What is known is nicotine is a stimulant, and that has some link to heart disease thanks to the increase in blood pressure and heart rate. Yet, as mentioned, vaping does not have the same effects since it seems to mitigate much of the stimulant effect. So you go back to how bad is nicotine without the jumps in blood pressure and heart rate. Once again, not really known.

BTW...don't take this as gospel truth. This is just what I have gathered from reading general info on the internet. I don't read actually medical studies in my free time and someone more versed on the subject might be able to state what exactly in cigarettes causes those things. I personally have not found it, just that there is a link and that those links are to smoking not nicotine.

 

[judy j]

I started vaping a year ago. My family Dr. said "Vaping won't hurt you." My heart Dr. said "Good for you." My cholesterol has come down. My blood pressure is lower. That's all the evidence I need. No change in diet or exercise.

 

[mostlyclassics]

My blood pressure also dropped when I switched to vaping, down 10 points each on the systolic and diastolic. I've read speculation that much of the blood pressure increase in smokers is due to the carbon monoxide in the smoke.