The e-cigarette and heart disease

The European Society of Cardiology, shortly since the ESC has been engaged in cardiovascular research, vocational training and informing the general public about everything related to cardiovascular disease.

During their annual congress, which was organized in Munich recently, the electronic cigarette was on the agenda for the first time.

It was the Greek Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos who made the results of his study on the immediate effects of electronic cigarettes on the cardiac function.

In his study, he compared the heart activity of 20 young smokers after smoking one cigarette with 22 people who smoked a nicotine e-cigarette for seven minutes.

This showed that smoking a tobacco cigarette caused a sharp increase in blood pressure. An increase of both the negative pressure and the upper pressure was observed. In addition, a significantly increased heart rate was detected in smokers of tobacco cigarettes. The electronic cigarettes, on the other hand, only caused a slight increase in the vacuum.

According to Dr. Farsalinos, this shows that - compared to a regular cigarette - nicotine is absorbed to a lesser extent from the electronic cigarette's liquid.

The research focuses on the left ventricle, where oxygen-rich blood is fed from the lungs (diastolic phase, the heart is relaxed) after which it is pumped to the body (systolic phase, the heart is contracted).

The researchers, after smoking a cigarette, found a disturbed function of the left ventricle in the diastolic phase, whereas no single parameter showed a significant difference after smoking an electronic cigarette.

This is not unimportant since diminished efficacy during the diastolic phase is often the first to be established in patients who develop heart disease.

Whether the e-cigarette becomes the revolutionary replacement of the harmful tobacco cigarette leaves Farsalinos for the moment in the middle.

"It is the only product that answers both the chemical (nicotine) and psychological addiction of smokers. Laboratory research indicates that it is significantly less toxic and our study shows that there are no significant changes in the functioning of the heart just after use. "

Dr. Farsalinos concluded that more clinical studies should be done before the e-cigarette can be labeled revolutionary. Nevertheless, he also notes that the data available today indicates that electronic cigarettes are a lot less harmful and that tobacco cigarettes replaced by e-cigarettes can have a positive impact on health.

On the one hand (based on "false" rumors), much is spoken and written to warn against e-cigarettes and the use must be avoided because there is no approval from the Food & Drugs Administration, on the other hand, we see (based on facts) Piloting the evidence supporting the use of electronic cigarettes.

However, given the interests, all noses may never point in the same direction.