A new study is shaking things up, saying vaping might actually be worse for your health than smoking cigarettes. Yeah, worse. For years, people thought vaping was the “less bad” option because it supposedly had fewer toxins.
But back in 2020, a report from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) already warned that vaping was hitting lungs and hearts just as hard as smoking.
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The expert once thought vaping was safer
Fast forward to 2023, and researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Sport decided to dig even deeper. They wanted to see what e-cigarettes were doing to people over the long haul.
And one of the experts working on the study, Dr. Maxime Boidin, now thinks vaping might actually be worse than smoking. Funny enough, he didn’t always think that way — he used to believe vaping was the better option.
Vaping makes it easier to overdo nicotine
“Smokers tend to go outside and smoke, and once a cigarette is finished they have to light up another to keep going,” he told The Mirror.
“But with vapes, you just keep going and it’s much harder to know how many puffs you’ve had. It’s much easier to vape continuously because you can do it in places where smoking might be less acceptable.”
“What we have found is the dangers for someone who keeps vaping are no different from smokers.”
Vape vapour contains a concerning mix of chemicals
According to The Daily Mail, vape smoke (or vapor, if you wanna be technical) is made by heating up a mix of stuff like propylene glycol, glycerine, flavorings, and other random chemicals.
Sounds tasty, right? Experts are now thinking that breathing in all that junk might be messing with heart rates and blood pressure more than people realized.
Researchers tested vaping’s effect on blood flow
To figure out exactly what vaping was doing to people’s bodies, the MMU team brought in volunteers between the ages of 18 and 45. The average age was 27. They had to go 12 hours without vaping, smoking, or exercising before the test — just water allowed.
Then, researchers checked how well their blood vessels were working.
Vaping weakens artery walls
Dr. Boidin explained that they used a cuff on each person’s arm to measure how much their arteries expanded as blood flowed through. Turns out, both smokers and vapers had a problem — artery walls that didn’t open up like they were supposed to.
Their readings were flat, which basically meant their arteries weren’t doing great.
Vaping raises the risk of heart disease
This kind of damage doesn’t just stay in the background. If your arteries can’t expand properly, it puts you at a way higher risk of serious heart problems. Think heart disease, organ failure — stuff you definitely don’t want.
Vaping could also harm brain function
On top of that, The Daily Mail reported that both smokers and vapers had blood flow issues that could lead to cognitive problems. Yeah, that means potential memory loss, brain fog, even dementia down the road. Not exactly a great trade-off.
It could be ruining your sleep too
We all know caffeine, alcohol, and screen time mess with sleep, but sleep expert Martin Seeley says vaping might be just as bad.
Waking up with a dry, scratchy mouth?
Vaping could be to blame. Seeley explained, “If you’re a smoker, not only does it affect your long-term health, but it could be making you snore, too.”
“Cigarette and tobacco smoke irritates the airways and the throat, which can cause swelling. A build-up of catarrh also blocks not just the throat but the nasal passages, which interrupts the flow of air and causes the soft tissue to vibrate.”
And since vaping sends chemicals straight into your airways, it can have the same effect — drying out your throat and making breathing harder while you sleep.
Experts say vaping should only help quit smoking
“When you put this mixture of metals and chemicals into your body, you can’t expect nothing to happen,” Dr. Boidin said.
“The only benefit of vaping is to help people quit smoking, but if they keep vaping the result is going to be the same.”
Vaping is quite common, but experts hope that changes
Right now, about 11% of people in the UK vape, according to public health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Over half of them (53%) are ex-smokers. But with this study coming out soon, experts are hoping more people will rethink it.
The NHS still says vaping isn’t “risk-free,” but it’s technically less harmful than smoking. That’s based on 2022 research that found vaping carries only a “small fraction” of the risks of smoking — at least in the short and medium term.
Long-term? Well, that’s exactly what studies like this are trying to figure out.
