A new study suggests that people who have used e-cigarettes at some point in their lives are more likely to develop heart failure than those who have never vaped. .

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are battery-powered devices that work by heating a liquid, usually containing nicotine, into an aerosol that is then inhaled. This device emerged in the early 2000s as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes. But a growing body of research suggests they also pose health risks.

“A growing body of research is linking e-cigarettes to harmful effects, and we now know that they may not be as safe as previously thought,” said lead author and resident physician at MedStar Health in Baltimore. said Yakubu Bene Alhassan, MD, MPH, in a paper. statement. “The difference we saw was considerable. It’s worth considering the impact on your health, especially your heart health.”

Heart failure, as the name suggests, does not mean that the heart stops working. Rather, it is a serious but sometimes manageable condition that occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood and oxygen to other organs in the body. Approximately 6.2 million people in the United States have heart failure.

Scientists know that smoking is one of the most significant lifestyle causes of heart failure, but they are still studying how e-cigarettes affect heart failure.

The new study was presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Sessions. Journal of the American College of CardiologyBene-Alhassan said that e-cigarette use has not been shown to cause heart failure. health. But he said “there’s reason” researchers believe so.

Here’s what you need to know about the relationship between e-cigarettes and heart failure, including what causes e-cigarettes to affect your heart.

The study included approximately 176,000 participants with an average age of 52 years. About 70% were white, 20% were black, and 10% were Asian or Hispanic.

Researchers used electronic health record data and participant surveys to determine whether people were vaping, using any form of tobacco, or drinking alcohol. The report also indicated whether participants had ever smoked e-cigarettes in the past.

The research team followed the participants for about four years. A total of 3,242 people developed heart failure during this period.

Researchers crunched the numbers and found that people who had ever used e-cigarettes were more likely to develop a type of heart failure in which the heart muscle becomes stiff and doesn’t fill with blood properly than people who never used e-cigarettes. found to be 19% higher. Vaping does not appear to be associated with another type of heart failure caused by a weakened heart.

As part of the analysis, the team adjusted for other important heart failure risk factors, including diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and high BMI.

Because this study is observational, it does not suggest that e-cigarettes cause heart failure, only that there is a link between e-cigarettes and heart failure.

“This adds to the list of potential symptoms associated with vaping,” Bene-Alhassan said.

However, Holly Middlekauf, MD, professor of medicine and physiology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, said: health The researchers argued that the study was limited because they did not know whether the person had smoked in the past. Although many people, especially older adults, use e-cigarettes instead of smoking, it is thought that there is a link between heart failure and e-cigarette use, but there is actually a link between tobacco use and heart failure. He explained that there may be.

But, she added, “e-cigarettes are unlikely to be harmless.” “If you don’t smoke cigarettes, you shouldn’t start vaping.”

But for people who already smoke cigarettes, current evidence suggests e-cigarettes are a safer alternative, Middlekauf said. In fact, the study also found that both cigarette smokers and e-cigarette users had a 60% increased risk of heart failure.

“I can’t think of any other legal activity that is more harmful to the heart than smoking,” Middlekauf said.

Inhaling nicotine can increase your heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow, and narrow your arteries. It can also cause hardening of artery walls, which can lead to heart attacks.

Studies in mice have shown that vaping can stiffen the heart, which can lead to heart failure over time. Other mouse studies have suggested that e-cigarette use may cause inflammation, which is well-documented to play an important role in heart disease.

Bene-Alhassan said researchers need to investigate whether e-cigarettes increase inflammation in people and how inflammation affects the development of heart failure.

“Heart failure is now increasingly seen as an inflammatory disease,” he noted.

Bene Alhassan said his team plans to dig into the data to assess how the risk of heart failure varies by age group. They also want to better understand how having a history of smoking affects the risk of heart failure.

Middlekauf said it will likely be decades before scientists know the full impact of e-cigarettes on heart failure, especially since heart failure typically develops over many years.

However, Bene-Alhassan stressed that what is clear is that “vaping should be avoided while studies are conducted to investigate other effects of e-cigarettes.”