Recently, a paper jointly published by medical teams from Italy, the United States and other countries pointed out that electronic cigarettes have far less damage to the cardiovascular system than cigarettes. Cigarettes will increase the risk of smokers suffering from coronary heart disease, cerebral infarction, stroke and other critical diseases. affect cardiovascular health.
The paper was published in the authoritative medical journal “Drug Testing and Analysis” (Drug Testing and Analysis)
According to the World Heart Federation (WHF), there are 550 million cardiovascular disease patients worldwide, and 20.5 million people die from heart disease and stroke every year. The study, led by the Center of Excellence for Accelerating Tobacco Harm Reduction (CoEHAR) at the University of Catania in Italy, examined the effect of cigarettes and e-cigarettes on the wound healing capacity of the vascular endothelium, a key indicator of vascular health. The lower the healing power, the easier it is for the wound to cause atherosclerosis, which in turn induces cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, which are life-threatening.
The results showed that cigarettes significantly reduced the healing power of vascular endothelial wounds. The concentration of cigarette smoke is only 12.5%, which can inhibit wound healing, and the higher the concentration, the greater the adverse effect. In contrast, no matter the concentration of e-smog gas, even at 100%, had no significant effect on wound healing.
“This shows that the harmful substances that damage cardiovascular health must be in cigarettes, but not in e-cigarettes. Even if they are in e-cigarettes, their content is low enough to cause harm.” The author wrote in the paper.
The researchers first ruled out nicotine, which is present in both cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Nicotine is not carcinogenic and has never appeared on the list of carcinogens published by the World Health Organization. The authors also emphasized in the paper that there is evidence that nicotine does not induce atherosclerosis.
Harmful substances in cigarettes are basically produced when tobacco is burned. Studies have shown that tobacco combustion produces more than 4,000 chemical substances, including 69 carcinogens such as tar and nitrosamines, as well as a large number of oxidative substances (which can cause DNA damage and cell necrosis). The researchers analyzed that a large number of oxidizing substances should be the “culprit” that damages the cardiovascular system. E-cigarettes do not contain tobacco combustion process, so they do not produce a lot of oxidizing substances.
Not only that, smokers switching to electronic cigarettes can also play a role in harm reduction. Studies have shown that vascular endothelial function has been effectively improved after smokers switch to electronic cigarettes for one month. “The harm of cigarettes to the cardiovascular system is obvious, and helping smokers quit smoking has become a top priority.”
The official website of the World Health Organization describes smoking cessation as “Quitting tobacco”, that is, quitting tobacco. Many authoritative studies around the world have confirmed that e-cigarettes can significantly increase the success rate of smokers quitting tobacco, and the smoking cessation effect is better than nicotine replacement therapy. “E-cigarettes support smokers’ willingness to continue trying to quit smoking, which is very commendable.” Riccardo Polosa, founder of the Center of Excellence for Accelerating Tobacco Harm Reduction (CoEHAR) at the University of Catania, Italy.
In a recent speech, Riccardo Polosa pointed out that the promotion of e-cigarettes by public health institutions will help reduce the smoking rate (number of cigarette users/total number*100%) and improve the public health environment: “Even the most unwilling tobacco control institutions Diehards who accept e-cigarettes have to admit that e-cigarettes are an effective harm reduction product. If harm reduction strategies can be adopted to allow smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, the risk of illness among smokers will be greatly reduced.”
Post time: Jul-04-2023
