Smoking, vaping and your heart

Smoking and vaping in Australia

Although the rate of cigarette smoking has been dropping in Australia since the early 1990s, approximately 1.8 million people still smoke. At the same time, the use of e-cigarettes, also known as vaping, has been steadily increasing. Concerningly, the largest number of people taking up vaping are aged between 18 and 24, with nearly 50% of people in that age group reporting having tried e-cigarettes at least once. This is compared to the about 20% of people in that age group who have tried cigarette smoking at least once. While some people use vaping as a way to help them quit cigarette smoking, many others have started vaping without ever smoking cigarettes. This group of people are three times more likely to start cigarette smoking than people who have never vaped.

What are vapes?

E-cigarettes, or ‘vapes’, are devices that use a battery to heat a liquid into an aerosol or vapour that can be inhaled. The liquid – called e-juice, e-liquid or vape juice – contains chemicals, flavourings and usually nicotine. In Australia, e-cigarettes and vapes are only legally available to people aged 18 and over through a pharmacy. Vapes sold at other stores are illegal. Because these illegal vapes are bypassing the regulations enforced by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, they can contain harmful and unknown chemicals, very high doses of nicotine, and are often mislabelled as not containing nicotine when they actually do.

What do smoking and vaping do to your heart?

It is well known that cigarette smoking has serious damaging effects on your health. But there is still a lot that we don’t know about how your body reacts to vaping. However, the current evidence suggests that vaping is also bad for your heart.

The effects of smoking

Smoking has both short- and long-term effects on your heart and blood vessels. This includes:

• Raising your heart rate and blood pressure immediately after smoking.
• Making your blood ‘sticky’, or more likely to clot, which can lead to heart attack or stroke.
• Increasing the levels of bad cholesterol in your blood, which increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery disease and other heart diseases.
• Making your blood vessels stiffer and less able to move blood around your body properly. This can increase your risk of a heart attack, stroke or chest pain (angina).
• Reducing the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry by replacing the oxygen with harmful carbon monoxide.
• Contributing to the build-up of fatty deposits, or plaques, in your arteries leading them to become narrowed or blocked (atherosclerosis). This can slow or stop blood supply leading to heart attack or stroke.

The effects of vaping

Some short-term effects of vaping have been found, but we don’t know yet what the long-term effects may be. Some of the known effects of vaping include:

• Some short-term effects of vaping have been found, but we don’t know yet what the long-term effects may be. Some of the known effects of vaping include:
• Raising your heart rate and blood pressure.
• Making your blood vessels stiffer and less able to move blood around your body properly. This can increase your risk of a heart attack, stroke or chest pain (angina).
• Increasing the levels of bad cholesterol in your blood, which increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery disease and other heart diseases.

Second-hand smoke and vapour

Second hand smoke or vapour is the material that is breathed out or released from the cigarette/vape of someone smoking or vaping. Breathing in second-hand smoke can damage your arteries, cause heart disease, and make the platelets in your blood become sticky and more likely to form clots – just like in a person who smokes. If you already have heart disease, you are at greater risk from exposure to second-hand smoke than people who don't. Less is known about second hand vapour, but early studies suggest that it may be harmful. Second hand vapour can contain nicotine and other chemicals that are harmful to your heart.

Cardiovascular outcomes from smoking and vaping

Overall, people who smoke are:

• 250% more likely to have a heart attack.
• 200% more likely to have a stroke.
• 500% more likely to develop peripheral arterial disease.
• 300% more likely to die of heart disease (i.e. heart attack and stroke).
• 300% more likely to die from sudden cardiac arrest.

Overall, people who vape are:

• 300% more likely to take up smoking.
• Nearly 20% more likely to develop heart failure.
• 33% more likely to have a heart attack.

What about other sources of nicotine?

In addition to cigarettes and vapes, there are multiple other products that people smoke, vape, or consume that contain tobacco and/or nicotine. These include:

• Nicotine gums, pouches, tablets, lozenges, and lollies – products that are chewed or sucked on that contain nicotine.
• Snuff and snus – finely ground tobacco that is sniffed or snorted into the nose (snuff) or placed in the mouth to absorb nicotine through the gums (snus).
• Heated tobacco products – devices that heat tobacco to a high enough temperature to release nicotine (and other chemicals) as aerosols without actually burning or combusting the tobacco in to smoke.
• Hookahs, waterpipes and shisha pipes – devices that are used to smoke tobacco which pass the smoke through water before it is inhaled.
• Bidis and kreteks – types of small, hand-rolled cigarettes that contain tobacco and often flavouring.

Like vaping, there is often the misconception that these products are safe. This is not true. The nicotine contained in these products still has the same damaging impacts on your body and heart as it does from smoking and vaping.

Quitting smoking and vaping

Both cigarettes and e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is a very addictive chemical. This makes it very difficult for people to quit smoking, even if they want to. It also causes some people to start smoking again after they have successfully quit for a while. This can be very disheartening, but it is important to keep trying.

The benefits of quitting

One year after quitting smoking, your risk of a heart attack or stroke is reduced by half. In 5 to 15 years, your risk of stroke and coronary heart disease returns to that of someone who has never smoked.

Getting help to quit

If you are a smoker and are ready to quit, thinking about quitting, or want to help someone else to quit, there is help available. A good place to start is to talk to your doctor or health practitioner about giving up smoking.

You can also visit the Quit website, download the My QuitBuddy app, or call the Quitline on 13 7848 to learn about things you can do to help you successfully quit.