Smoking electronic cigarettes significantly affects the health of the heart by reducing blood flow levels in it.

The study was conducted by researchers at the American Heart Association's Tobacco Center and will present its findings to the Society's annual conference, which will be held November 16-18 in Pennsylvania.

The American Heart Association recommends that people stop smoking using nicotine substitutes, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, which have proven safe and effective, the researchers said.

If they choose to use e-cigarettes during their trip to stop smoking other tobacco products, people should also plan to stop e-cigarettes, given the lack of information about their long-term safety and the growing number of data monitoring the physiological effects of these products on body health, they said.

The researchers followed 476 healthy people between the ages of 21 and 45 who did not suffer from cardiovascular disease, including 94 who did not smoke e-cigarettes, and the rest smoked only e-cigarettes or traditional cigarettes only, or both.

The researchers compared cholesterol, triglyceride and glucose levels in the study, factors that negatively affect heart health.

Cholesterol
The researchers found that levels of bad cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose were higher among those who smoked e-cigarettes only, those who smoke only traditional cigarettes, or those who smoke both e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, compared to those who did not smoke.

In a separate study, the researchers analyzed the heart's blood flow, a measure of coronary vascular function, for 19 smokers aged 24 to 32 years before and immediately after smoking electronic or conventional cigarettes.

The researchers found that smoking electronic cigarettes is associated with dysfunction of coronary blood vessels, and affects the flow of blood in the heart, similar to the smoking of traditional cigarettes.

"Although primary health care providers and patients may think that using e-cigarettes if used instead of traditional cigarettes does not affect heart health, our study proves otherwise," said Dr. Sana Majid, co-researcher.

"We were surprised by the low blood flow in the heart at rest, even in the absence of stress, after inhaling electronic cigarette smoke.

Electronic cigarettes work through a heat heater to heat a liquid containing the nicotine inside, turning the liquid into the nicotine vapor inhaled by smokers.