Apparently it wasn't common knowledge that e-cigs with nicotine in are bad for you, but a study has found the devices may indeed have a negative effect on your health.

They're sold as an alternative to smoking, but they still contain nicotine - and researchers have found that one toke of nicotine can increase your risk of heart disease.

"While e-cigarettes typically deliver fewer carcinogens than are found in the tar of tobacco cigarette smoke, they also usually deliver nicotine," Lead author Dr. Holly Middlekauff, from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), said. "Many believe that the tar, not the nicotine, is what leads to increased cancer and heart attack risks.

"So, we asked the question, 'are e-cigarettes safe?'"

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It was found that one vape drove up adrenaline levels in the human heart, whereas the this wasn't the case for e-cigs that didn't contain nicotine.

The team from UCLA studied 33 healthy individuals, who previously had not been smokers of either normal or electronic cigarettes. To be honest, asking someone to take up smoking just so they can find out whether they become at risk of heart disease... it just seems really unethical. It seems even worse when you consider the end results.

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They were given devices with differing levels of nicotine in, testing their heart rates, and oxidative stress.

"While it's reassuring that the non-nicotine components do not have an obvious effect on adrenaline levels to the heart, these findings challenge the concept that inhaled nicotine is benign, or safe," Dr Middlekauff said.



"Our study showed that acute electronic cigarette use with nicotine increases cardiac adrenaline levels.

"And it's in the same pattern that is associated with increased cardiac risk in patients who have known cardiac disease, and even in patients without known cardiac disease.

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"I think that just seeing this pattern at all is very concerning and it would hopefully discourage nonsmokers from taking up electronic cigarettes."

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Similar scientific research from the American Physiological Society (APS) suggested the same results, claiming that taking just one puff of an e-cig could increase a person's chances of a heart attack.

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As part of the study, mice were exposed to vaping for 20 hours per week over the course of an eight-month period.

The results showed that the mice's blood vessels were less capable of dilating after exposure to the e-cigs, a process needed for safely lowering blood pressure. The arteries of the mice that were exposed to e-cigs had over twice the stiffness of the ones that had not been exposed to any nicotine at all.

Tests conducted on mice also demonstrated the negative effects of just five minutes of vape exposure, with the mice's arteries narrowing by 30% after an hour. Having narrow arteries is linked to an increased chances of heart attacks and strokes.

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The study's conclusion was that: "These data indicate that e-cigs should not be considered safe and that they induce significant deleterious effects."