Research shows that vaping is even worse than we thought.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire—and then, after wildfires, often come the rains and all-too-lethal mudslides. Well, the same is true for vaping—turns out mudslides of information are piling up about the serious health problems associated with firing up e-cigs.
At first, no one was sure if vaping was bad for you—at least compared to smoking tobacco. In the 2010 movie The Tourist, Frank (Johnny Depp) says, while smoking an e-cigarette, “It delivers the same amount of nicotine, but the smoke is water vapor.” But inhaling any batch of ignited chemicals is destructive to lung tissue—and we’ve been warning you about the hazards for years.
Well, it’s even worse than we thought: research from the UK shows that not only does vaping cause destructive lung-cell inflammation, it can also shut down your lungs’ protective cells that ward off bacteria and allergens (researchers used the phrase “impaired bacterial clearance”).
Plus, research presented at the American Chemical Society says that e-cigs can damage DNA in your oral cells, upping your risk of mouth and throat cancers. Additionally, there’s mounting evidence that vapers have double the risk of heart disease and heart attack compared to people who don’t smoke anything. Cigarette use triples the risk. Another study found people who used e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes daily (many do) were five times more likely to have a heart attack than those who had never used either.
So there you have it. Where there’s smoke… well, you know the rest.
Medically reviewed in July 2019.
