A recent study, conducted by Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos of the Department of Cardiology at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens Greece, and presented at the European Society of Cardiology conference on Aug. 25th, found that electronic cigarettes do not cause impairment to heart function. The study found no difference in heart function after electronic cigarette use, compared to acute impairment in heart function after tobacco cigarette smoking. Other findings were that the electronic cigarette users experienced less of a rise in blood pressure and elevation in heart rate than the smokers in the study.
(Thanks to VapeTeam for the video of the ESC presentation)
The study compared 20 smokers, who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day for at least 5 years, to 22 experienced electronic cigarette users, who had previously smoked at least as much, but had quit smoking and used electronic cigarettes for at least one month prior to the study. The study compared baseline measurements taken after a 4 hour abstinence period from food, caffeine, or nicotine, to measurements taken after smoking one cigarette, or using an e-cig for 7 minutes.
Besides showing less effect on heart rate and blood pressure than smoking, and no adverse impact on heart function, another interesting finding noted in Dr. Farsalinos' presentation was that the electronic cigarette users, who averaged 95 days of e-cig use each, had been heavier smokers than the smoking group in the study, averaging 44% greater lifetime smoke exposure. Despite this, the e-cig user groups experience with switching from cigarettes to e-cigs was very rapid, with a mean average of only 2.5 days to make the transition.
Although the study size was small, making the findings suggestive rather than definitive, the careful protocols and detailed readings of recognized cardiac health indicators make this a very valuable study in the growing body of data supporting the relative safety of e-cig use compared to tobacco smoking. And it avoided several flaws in previous studies' methods, such as ensuring that all e-cig users were experienced users, because experienced e-cig users use their e-cigs more intensively and efficiently than beginning users, a fact that skewed the results in several earlier studies. Hopefully, this study's results will be published soon in a peer reviewed journal, and will be followed up on with larger studies involving much larger numbers of subjects so the results will have greater statistical significance.
Presentation data: http://www.west-info.eu/files/Slides27.pdf
(Thanks to VapeTeam for the video of the ESC presentation)
The study compared 20 smokers, who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day for at least 5 years, to 22 experienced electronic cigarette users, who had previously smoked at least as much, but had quit smoking and used electronic cigarettes for at least one month prior to the study. The study compared baseline measurements taken after a 4 hour abstinence period from food, caffeine, or nicotine, to measurements taken after smoking one cigarette, or using an e-cig for 7 minutes.
Besides showing less effect on heart rate and blood pressure than smoking, and no adverse impact on heart function, another interesting finding noted in Dr. Farsalinos' presentation was that the electronic cigarette users, who averaged 95 days of e-cig use each, had been heavier smokers than the smoking group in the study, averaging 44% greater lifetime smoke exposure. Despite this, the e-cig user groups experience with switching from cigarettes to e-cigs was very rapid, with a mean average of only 2.5 days to make the transition.
Although the study size was small, making the findings suggestive rather than definitive, the careful protocols and detailed readings of recognized cardiac health indicators make this a very valuable study in the growing body of data supporting the relative safety of e-cig use compared to tobacco smoking. And it avoided several flaws in previous studies' methods, such as ensuring that all e-cig users were experienced users, because experienced e-cig users use their e-cigs more intensively and efficiently than beginning users, a fact that skewed the results in several earlier studies. Hopefully, this study's results will be published soon in a peer reviewed journal, and will be followed up on with larger studies involving much larger numbers of subjects so the results will have greater statistical significance.
Presentation data: http://www.west-info.eu/files/Slides27.pdf
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