Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
A new study has added to the growing evidence that long-term vaping is harmful to health, finding that young people who vape perform worse than others in tests measuring their capacity for exercise.
Although the study only involved 60 people, it found vapers’ exercise performance was similar to that of young smokers.
The research was presented last week at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Vienna, Austria.
“In this study, we looked at a group of young people with no apparent signs of lung damage,” says Dr Azmy Faisal, senior lecturer in cardiorespiratory physiology at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, who presented the research.
“Among the people who had been vaping or smoking for at least 2 years, we saw important differences in how well they coped with exercise.”
Faisal and colleagues studied 60 people in their 20s, all of whom had normal lung function according to spirometry testing. A third of the participants were long-term smokers, a third were long-term vapers, and a third did not smoke or vape.
To study their heart, lungs, and muscles’ responses to increasingly difficult exercise, participants took part in an incremental exercise test on a static bike. This involved pedalling at harder and harder levels until they reached exhaustion.
“The smokers and the vapers had measurably excess breathing while using the exercise bikes. They found it harder to breathe, their muscles became more fatigued, and they were less fit overall,” says Faisal.
“In this regard, our research indicated that vaping is no better than smoking.”
In addition, and on average, the group of young vapers had lower ‘peak exercise capacity’ than the group who did not vape or smoke – 186 watts and 226 watts, respectively. This is a measure of the maximum amount of physical exertion that a person can achieve.
But their peak exercise capacity was similar to the group of smokers (182 watts).
Blood tests and an ultrasound also revealed signs of reduced blood vessel health in vapers and smokers compared to the non-smoking and non-vaping group.
“Previous research has shown that vaping is linked to lung inflammation and damage, and harmful changes to the blood vessels,” says Faisal.
“Although, some research suggests that vaping could be used to cut back or quit smoking, we don’t yet know what longer-term vaping use does to our bodies.”
Dr Filippos Filippidis, Chair of the ERS Tobacco Control Committee, who was not involved in the research, says more and more young people take up vaping without knowing what the long-term consequences could be to their health.
“Although it’s always a challenge to know if the associations we find in these studies are causal or a result of some other systematic differences between groups, people who vape need to be aware that using these products could make them less fit and able to take part in exercise,” says Filippidis.
“Doctors and policymakers also need to know about the risks of vaping, and we should be doing all we can to support children and young people to avoid or quit vaping.”
