E-cigarette smoking linked to heart disease risk
High adrenaline levels, oxidative stress seen in comparison with nonsmokers
HEART HEALTH E-cigarette use may increase risk for heart disease by increasing adrenaline levels in the heart, a new study suggests.
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Electronic cigarettes may increase the risk of heart disease, researchers at UCLA report.
The team found that two risk factors for heart disease were elevated in 16 e-cigarette users compared with 18 nonsmokers.
“The pattern was spot-on” for what has been seen in heart attack patients and those with heart disease and diabetes, says cardiologist Holly Middlekauff, a coauthor of the study published online February 1 in JAMA Cardiology.
But because the study only looked at a small number of people, the results are not definitive — just two or three patients can skew results, John Ambrose, a cardiologist with the University of California, San Francisco cautions. Plus, he says, some of the e-cigarette users in the study used to smoke tobacco, which may have influenced the data.
Even so, Ambrose called the study interesting, noting
