Without the Smoke, Still Dangerous?

Unlike regular cigarettes, nicotine in electronic cigarettes into the body through the vapor, not smoke. The process did not involve the burning of tobacco, although nicotine contained in cigarettes obtained from Nicotiana plants.

Although marketed as a safer alternative than regular cigarettes, the electronic cigarette was still potentially cause damage to the lungs. Recent research presented at the annual congress of the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna, Austria, on September 2, 2012.

The findings add new evidence to the debate about the safety and efficiency of electronic cigarettes. "Until now we did not know whether nicotine delivery products that have not been approved, such as electronic cigarettes, safer than regular cigarettes, electronic cigarettes even though the company claims it is more secure," said Christina Gratziou, members of the research team who is also Chairman of the Tobacco Control Committee at the European Respiratory Society. "This research helps us understand how the potential dangers of electronic cigarettes."

With the aim of investigating the short-term effects of electronic cigarette use, Gratziou and her team from the University of Athens in Greece doing research on three different groups. They examined the effect of the device on healthy individuals without specific health problems and smokers, those that have impaired lung or not.

The study involved eight people who had never smoked and 24 smokers. Among the members of the group of smokers, 11 had normal lung function, while the other 13 suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma.

Everyone is required to use the electronic cigarette for 10 minutes. Through a number of tests, including spirometry test to measure lung function capacity, researchers measured airway resistance or obstruction of air flow into the lungs. The larger the diameter of the airways, the lower the resistance. And vice versa.

An Electric Cigarette in general. (PIcture from: http://best.eliquidnicotine.net/)

The results showed electronic cigarettes cause an increase in airway resistance directly. The effect was only ended after 10 minutes. In healthy subjects who had never smoked, there was an increase in airway resistance very significantly, from an average of 182% to 206%.

In smokers with normal spirometry figures, also seen a substantial increase from the average 176% to 220%. Instead, use the electronic cigarette in patients with COPD and asthma do not demonstrate a direct effect on airway resistance.

"The increase in airway resistance directly in the study group indicates the electronic cigarette could cause immediately after you use them," said Gratziou. "More research is needed to understand whether these disorders have long-term effects."

Research the health effects of electronic cigarettes should be examined again indeed. Moreover, only a few weeks before there are other researchers who claimed that the e-cigarette is not harmful to the heart. The results of both studies were contradictory even though the research was also carried out by scientists from Greece.

In a Reuters report, citing a statement from the European Society of Cardiology, said that the electronic cigarette is not a threat to the functioning of the heart. The findings of the first clinical trial of the effect of electronic cigarettes on the heart was presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Munich, Germany, on August 25, 2012.

"The electronic cigarette is not a healthy habit., But that tool is a safer alternative than tobacco cigarettes," said Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos from Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens. "When compared to the dangers of secondhand smoke, our data indicate that electronic cigarettes are much safer and replace the tobacco with the electronic cigarette may be beneficial to health."

This small study done by Farsalinos and his team in Greece. They compared the cardiac function 20 young smokers before and after smoking a cigarette tobacco with cardiac function 22 electronic cigarette users before and after using the e-cigarette for seven minutes.

The research team found significant cardiac dysfunction in tobacco smoker, including the increase in heart rate and blood pressure. In the electronic cigarette users, only showing a small rise in blood pressure.

Unfortunately, the scale of this study was so small. University of Athens study involved only 32 participants, while Onassis study of 42 people. Similar to Gratziou, Farsalinos states need larger studies to examine the long-term effects that may arise tool.

Bill Godshall, executive director of Pittsburgh's Smokefree Pennsylvania, said study author Dr. Farsalinos is important because heart disease is the leading cause of death in smokers. "But US food and drug regulatory agency claimed that all tobacco products such as cigarettes is dangerous," he said. *** [SCIENCEDAILY | TOBACCO E-NEWS | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 3987]

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