Use of E-cigarettes Linked to Markedly Higher Risk of Heart Failure

People who use e-cigarettes are significantly more likely to develop heart failure” compared with those who have never used them, states the American College of Cardiology in reference to a new study -- one of the largest to date looking at possible links between vaping and heart failure. 

An estimated 6 percent of U.S. adults use e-cigarettes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Vaping is particularly popular among young people. 

Heart failure, which can happen at any age but more likely if you’re 65 or older, does not mean the heart stops. It’s when the heart is not pumping as well as it should be. With heart failure, the weakened heart can’t supply the body’s cells with enough oxygen and nutrient-rich blood. 

Heart failure is a serious condition, and there’s no outright cure. But many people with heart failure lead full and active lives when the condition is managed with a range of available medications  and healthy lifestyle changes. Previous clinical studies have indicated that e-cigarettes can cause serious health issues and can entice young users to try traditional tobacco products. Both cigarettes and vaping devices contain nicotine, which is the ingredient that makes them highly addictive.

For the study, researchers used data from surveys and electronic health records. Researchers reviewed associations between e-cigarette use and new diagnoses of heart failure in 175,667 study participants (an average age of 52 years and 60.5 percent female). Of this sample, 3,242 participants developed heart failure within a median follow-up time of 45 months.

The results showed that people who used e-cigarettes at any point were 19 percent more likely to develop heart failure compared with people who had never used e-cigarettes. In calculating this difference, researchers accounted for a variety of demographic and socioeconomic factors, other heart disease risk factors and participants’ past and current use of other substances, including alcohol and tobacco products.

The researchers also found no evidence that participants’ age, sex or smoking status modified the relationship between e-cigarettes and heart failure.