Vaping, smoking negatively impact exercise capacity in young adults
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Key takeaways:
- Oxygen consumption at peak exercise was lower in both e-cigarette users and smokers vs. never smokers.
- Dyspnea became “very severe” in e-cigarette users and smokers at a lower work rate vs. never smokers.
In young adults with normal spirometry, e-cigarette users and tobacco smokers had similar poorer exercise capacity vs. never vapers/smokers, according to a presentation at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.
“It was surprising to see among ‘healthy’ young adults that vapers who had never smoked show similar vascular dysfunction, exercise intolerance and increased breathing and leg discomfort during exercise as tobacco smokers,” Azmy Faisal, PhD, FHEA, senior lecturer in cardiorespiratory physiology in the department of sport and exercise sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University, told Healio.
“Certainly, our study provides another reason to support tobacco and vapes bill (ban vaping for youth and young adults),” Faisal added. “It also alerts all youth and young adults who do not smoke to avoid starting vaping.”
In this study, Faisal and colleagues assessed 25 e-cigarette users (mean age, 22.8 years; mean e-cigarette use length, 3.1 years), 25 tobacco cigarette smokers (mean age, 23 years; mean smoking length, 5 years) and 25 never e-cigarette users or smokers (mean age, 23 years) — all physically active with normal spirometry — to determine how vascular function, inflammatory markers and cardiorespiratory responses to exercise differ between the groups.
All individuals completed two visits. During the first visit, researchers collected various lung function measurements via spirometry, as well as ventilation measures, blood lactate, dyspnea and leg fatigue via a cardiopulmonary exercise test on a static bicycle.
During the second visit, patients provided blood samples for the evaluation of inflammatory markers, and researchers measured brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD).
Several measures did not differ between the three groups: lung function, blood pressure, complete blood count and resting brachial artery diameter.
Both e-cigarette users and tobacco smokers had a similar degree of reduced vascular function vs. never smokers, as represented by FMD. Further, thrombospondin-1, a thrombosis biomarker, was higher among those using e-cigarettes and those smoking cigarettes vs. never smokers. The difference between the e-cigarette group and the never smoker group in thrombospondin-1 levels was comparable to the difference between the tobacco smoker group and the never smoker group.
Between the three groups, the lowest average peak exercise capacity was observed in tobacco smokers (182 watts), followed closely by e-cigarette users (186 watts), whereas never smokers had a peak exercise capacity of 226 watts.
Oxygen consumption (VO2) at peak exercise was lower in both e-cigarette users and tobacco smokers vs. never smokers (2.7 L/minute and 2.6 L/minute vs. 3 L/minute), according to researchers.
Similar to above, blood lactate was increased to a comparable degree in e-cigarette users and tobacco smokers at a lower peak work rate than never smokers.
Rises in ventilation were also similar between the e-cigarette group and the smoking group. Around the work rate of 180 watts, these two groups had higher ventilation than the never smoking group. Researchers observed the same pattern when evaluating ventilatory efficiency (VE/VCO2), with the two smoking groups reaching an elevated VE/VCO2 amount at a lower work rate vs. the never smoking group.
In terms of symptoms, dyspnea became “very severe” in e-cigarette users and smokers at a lower work rate vs. never smokers.
E-cigarette users and tobacco smokers vs. never smokers also experienced similar, more intense leg fatigue at a lower work rate, according to researchers.
“The impact of vaping on young adults might not be noticeable for the everyday clinician, but we don’t know what harmful impact the long-term use of vaping could have,” Faisal told Healio. “It seems that, we are just swapping one nicotine addiction (smoking) for another (vaping).”
Looking ahead, Faisal said he is expecting research around vaping to take three different directions:
- “Detailed physiological studies with small sample size to address the chronic impact of long-term use of vaping (we are planning three studies to examine the impact of vaping on 1. cardiac function using MRI, 2. brain blood flow and cognitive function and 3. muscle structure and function).
- Clinical longitudinal studies to examine the impact of vaping over years.
- Vaping cessation studies as we have started to see clinically proven products to relive vaping cravings.”
Reference:
- Young vapers perform worse in exercise testing. https://www.ersnet.org/news-and-features/news/young-vapers-perform-worse-in-exercise-testing/. Published Sept. 8, 2024. Accessed Sept. 8, 2024.