Can Vaping Help Smokers Lower Blood Pressure?

High blood pressure is common among smokers. Can vaping help reduce this risk factor for heart disease?

Can vaping help smokers lower their blood pressure and avoid weight gain after quitting? If so, then switching from cigarettes to vaping products early on could significantly reduce smokers' risk of heart disease in the future.

A new study investigated patients with high blood pressure who either smoked, vaped exclusively, or reduced tobacco use through vaping. It found that smokers who significantly reduced their tobacco use or quit smoking through vaping experienced "significant reductions" in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

This study was led by Dr. Riccardo Polosa from the University of Catania in Italy and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. He has also studied the effects of vaping, including findings that using e-cigarettes to quit smoking or reduce smoking can actually reverse the damage caused by smoking in asthma patients.

Why is blood pressure so important?

Heart disease and stroke are among the leading causes of premature death among smokers. Smokers are twice as likely to suffer fatal cardiovascular disease in the next decade compared to non-smokers, and young smokers are five times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers. Cigarette smoke causes atherosclerosis and maintains low-grade systemic inflammation, both of which can lead to high blood pressure. High blood pressure greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease for smokers.

According to the authors, there is little information on the long-term effects of quitting smoking on blood pressure in smokers with hypertension. Additionally, the benefits of quitting smoking are often offset by weight gain in former smokers. Weight gain itself is a risk factor for high blood pressure and heart disease, complicating the analysis of the issue.

Polosa and his team found that using e-cigarettes significantly limited weight gain after quitting compared to former smokers who did not vape. "The slight weight gain after switching to regular e-cigarettes may contribute to the positive long-term effects of quitting on blood pressure and blood pressure control," they concluded.

Despite some limitations (sample size, lack of control for other lifestyle factors, self-reported smoking patterns), the study suggests that vaping can play an important role in helping smokers reduce their risk of serious cardiovascular harm. "Regular use of e-cigarettes may help smokers with hypertension reduce their weight gain after quitting, or experience only negligible weight gain," they summarized. Larger studies could confirm these results.