A new study led by researchers at University of California-San Francisco looks at the link between e-cigarettes and heart attacks.
Compared with those who never used e-cigarettes, daily users almost double their risk for heart attack, the study found.
“While people may think they are reducing their health risks, we found that the heart attack risk of e-cigarettes adds to the risk of smoking cigarettes,” said lead author Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
The analysis was based on combined data from two national surveys of almost 70,000 people carried out in 2014 and 2016. About 66 percent of current e-cigarette users were also current cigarette smokers. For them, the risk of heart attack was nearly five times the risk of nonsmokers.
The good news? The risk of heart attack starts to drop immediately after people stop smoking.
Although this is the first study to examine the link between e-cigarette use and heart attacks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been trying to warn consumers about the potential dangers of these devices for years.
As with everything else, when it comes to the human heart, technology turns out to be a double-edged sword.
With this new study, Glantz and his team opened the door for more research on e-cigarettes. Meanwhile, it’s through innovative technologies and procedures such as angioplasty, stents or stem cell therapy that doctors are treating heart disease.
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