Like other cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vape pens contain nicotine, which users inhale as a vapor. Nicotine is highly addictive and can cause short- and long-term issues with how your heart operates.
Heart Rate
When you vape, the nicotine jolt will increase your adrenaline levels, causing your blood vessels to constrict and your heart to beat faster.
“You may feel heart palpitations,” Dr. Middlekauff says.
People who vape for the first time may experience a heart rate increase of as much as 4 beats per minute. That might not sound like much. But if it’s sustained over time, it could lead to an abnormal heart rate, which can increase your risk of a heart attack and sudden death, regardless of whether you have heart disease.
Vaping also makes it harder for your heart rate to correct itself after exercise or other strenuous activities.
Blood Pressure
Just as the nicotine from vaping increases your heart rate, it also increases your blood pressure. This is also part of the body’s fight-or-flight response to nicotine entering your bloodstream.
Vaping can increase your systolic blood pressure by 4 percent and your diastolic blood pressure by 7 percent.
Heart Damage
Vaping causes your heart to demand more oxygen to work properly. It is also linked to increases in oxidative stress, in which harmful, free-radical oxygen molecules outnumber antioxidants.
“Oxidative stress increases your risk of many diseases, including heart disease, premature aging, and cancer,” Middlekauff says.
It can also lay the groundwork for atherosclerosis, the buildup of dangerous, artery-clogging plaque. Smoking is a risk factor for this condition, and the aerosol in e-cigarettes contains potentially harmful chemicals such as acrolein, acetaldehyde, and formaldehyde that are linked to atherosclerosis.
“The levels of these chemicals are much lower compared to tobacco cigarettes,” Middlekauff says. “But if a large population starts using electronic cigarettes, a significant number of people will develop health issues, and we’ll have another public health problem.”
Early research also shows that long-term e-cigarette use can increase your risk of heart failure by 19 percent.
Pre-Existing Heart Conditions
If you already have an irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, or heart disease, vaping can complicate these heart problems.
“People with coronary artery blockages and people with congestive heart failure could be made worse by exposure to nicotine,” says Elliott Antman, MD, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “They might develop chest pain or increased symptoms of heart failure.”
If you have an arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation, the nicotine in e-cigarettes could increase your risk of having an episode, Dr. Antman says.