Smoking e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes are detrimental to health

Feb, 2021 - By SMI

According to a new study published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation, smoking both traditional and e-cigarettes are detrimental for health, having similar effects on smoking cigarettes. Smoking has always been related to cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and death. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2018, around 9.6 million deaths were attributed to cancer with around 2.09 million cases of lung cancer. With rising popularity of e-cigarettes and vaping, smoking has appeared to be on the decline. However, there has been limited research on the impact of vaping on the body.

In a recent study, researchers assessed over 7,100 U.S. adults aged 18 years and above with their association of e-cigarette and smoking for oxidative stress and inflammation as biomarkers. Oxidative stress and inflammation have been considered as key contributors to smoking-induced cardiovascular disease. As a matter of fact, their biomarkers are known to be predictors of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and failure. The team derived the data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, assessing five biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress. Four categories were formed namely exclusive cigarette smoking, exclusive e-cigarette smoking, use of both traditional and e-cigarettes, and nonuse of both. Around, 58.6% of participants did not use e-cigarettes or cigarettes, while 30% of them used conventional cigarettes. Furthermore, around 2% used e-cigarettes exclusively and 10% used both.

The researchers found that participants who smoked exclusively e-cigarettes showed similar inflammatory and oxidative stress indicators as people who did not smoke at all. Furthermore, people who used both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes had a higher level of biomarkers as compared to those who did not smoke at all. It also showed high levels of biomarkers as compared to participants who used either conventional or e-cigarettes. Since the sample was large, it is applicable to the U.S. adult population. However, a cross-sectional study makes it impossible to establish causality.