A new study by Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, has found that vaping may increase the risk of diabetes, even in people who do not smoke traditional cigarettes, according to Medicine Net.
Researchers looked at more than 600,000 American adults and found that those who used e-cigarettes were more likely to develop prediabetes than people who had never vaped or smoked.
Prediabetes is a serious health condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes, according to CDC.
However, senior author Dr. Shyam Biswal said the findings do not prove that vaping directly increases the risk of prediabetes. He said it is clear that smoking traditional cigarettes is associated with higher diabetes risk, adding that nicotine and other chemicals in tobacco smoke can affect the body’s ability to control blood sugar.
Like conventional cigarettes, e-cigarettes contain nicotine, apart from their own blend of “e-liquid.” Therefore, it is “certainly plausible” that vaping could influence diabetes risk, too, according to Dr. Biswal.
The study findings now add to growing concerns about the adverse health effects of vaping.
Previous research has shown that vaping can immediately impair the function of blood vessels. A recent American Lung Association (ALA) study has also found that vaping in young adults is linked to problems with lung injury, causing wheezing and dry cough – the condition called EVALI (E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury).
The current study, published last week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that e-cigarette users, who did not smoke conventional cigarettes, were 54% more likely to say they had been diagnosed with prediabetes.
Dr. Biswal said that does not prove vaping is the culprit, but he added, “this study certainly provides a real reason to be concerned.”
He explained, “There is a real concern that there’s a perception among the younger population that e-cigarettes are a safer alternative [to smoking]. But more and more evidence is piling up that e-cigarettes are not safe.”
