February 8, 2017
Richard Miech and colleagues at the University of Michigan just published a very strong longitudinal study adding more details to not just that but also how and why e-cigarettes are a gateway to cigarette smoking. To date, all the studies of the relationship between e-cigarette use and smoking have shown a gateway effect.
Their study, “E-cigarette use as a predictor of cigarette smoking: Results from a 1-year follow-up of a national sample of 12th grade students,” published in Tobacco Control, examined several different aspects of the relationship between e-cigarette and cigarette use. Using the respected Monitoring the Future national sample, they showed that initiating with e-cigarettes both was followed by more than 4 times the odds of smoking cigarettes a year later. They also showed that e-cigarette use increased the likelihood of relapse to cigarette smoking among youth who had stopped smoking.
February 4, 2017
Sharon Lerner just posted a great story on efforts to redefine science to make issuing health regulations almost impossible. The people involved have lots of tobacco ties.
A couple paragraphs at the start of her story sum up the situation:
February 4, 2017
While e-cigarette advocates keep stressing the widely-accepted fact that e-cigarettes deliver lower levels of most cancer-causing chemicals, they remain silent on the growing and quite consistent evidence that e-cigarette use increases the risk of cardiovascular (and non-cancer lung) disease.
The latest contribution to this literature is “Increased Cardiac Sympathetic Activity and Oxidative Stress in Habitual Electronic Cigarette Users: Implications for Cardiovascular Risk” by Roya S. Moheimani and colleagues at UCLA in JAMA Cardiology. This paper examined heart rhythms and oxidative loads in chronic e-cigarette only users. They found reduced heart rate variability, the variation in the time between heart beats. Reductions in heart rate variability are a well-established predictor of future heart attacks.
They also found increases in oxidized LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol which increases the risk of atherosclerosis. This increased oxidant load is also tied to reductions in normal function of arteries, an effect previously shown in cigarette smokers and e-cigarette users.
February 4, 2017
While e-cigarette advocates keep stressing the widely-accepted fact that e-cigarettes deliver lower levels of most cancer-causing chemicals, they remain silent on the growing and quite consistent evidence that e-cigarette use increases the risk of cardiovascular (and non-cancer lung) disease.
The latest contribution to this literature is “Increased Cardiac Sympathetic Activity and Oxidative Stress in Habitual Electronic Cigarette Users: Implications for Cardiovascular Risk” by Roya S. Moheimani and colleagues at UCLA in JAMA Cardiology. This paper examined heart rhythms and oxidative loads in chronic e-cigarette only users. They found reduced heart rate variability, the variation in the time between heart beats. Reductions in heart rate variability are a well-established predictor of future heart attacks.
They also found increases in oxidized LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol which increases the risk of atherosclerosis. This increased oxidant load is also tied to reductions in normal function of arteries, an effect previously shown in cigarette smokers and e-cigarette users.
February 4, 2017
While e-cigarette advocates keep stressing the widely-accepted fact that e-cigarettes deliver lower levels of most cancer-causing chemicals, they remain silent on the growing and quite consistent evidence that e-cigarette use increases the risk of cardiovascular (and non-cancer lung) disease.
The latest contribution to this literature is “Increased Cardiac Sympathetic Activity and Oxidative Stress in Habitual Electronic Cigarette Users: Implications for Cardiovascular Risk” by Roya S. Moheimani and colleagues at UCLA in JAMA Cardiology. This paper examined heart rhythms and oxidative loads in chronic e-cigarette only users. They found reduced heart rate variability, the variation in the time between heart beats. Reductions in heart rate variability are a well-established predictor of future heart attacks.
They also found increases in oxidized LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol which increases the risk of atherosclerosis. This increased oxidant load is also tied to reductions in normal function of arteries, an effect previously shown in cigarette smokers and e-cigarette users.