Vaping Might Be Doing the Same Damage to Your Body as Smoking, Researchers Say

A new study is challenging the idea that vaping is harmless simply because it does not involve traditional cigarette smoke. Researchers found that young adults who vape had reduced exercise capacity, poorer blood vessel function and less efficient breathing, with some effects comparable to those seen in cigarette smokers. The findings do not mean vaping causes exactly the same diseases as smoking, but they add to growing evidence that e-cigarettes can have measurable effects on the body. 

The Study Focused on 75 Young Adults

Researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University studied 75 healthy adults between ages 18 and 30. Participants were divided into three equal groups: people who had never smoked or vaped, cigarette smokers who had never vaped, and people who had vaped for about three years but had never smoked. The groups had similar lifestyles and normal lung function at rest, allowing researchers to compare their responses to exercise.

Vapers Had About 15% Lower Exercise Capacity

During exercise testing, both the vaping and smoking groups had roughly 15% lower exercise capacity and oxygen uptake than people who had never used either product. The researchers also found that both groups became short of breath and developed intense leg fatigue sooner during strenuous activity. That suggests vaping may affect physical performance even in otherwise healthy young adults. 

Blood Vessels Also Showed Concerning Changes

The researchers used ultrasound scans and blood tests to examine participants’ blood vessels during the study. They found signs of inflammation and poorer vascular function among both smokers and vapers compared with non-users. Because healthy blood vessels are important for delivering oxygen throughout the body, these findings raise concerns about the cardiovascular effects of regular vaping. 

Breathing Became Less Efficient During Exercise

The study also found differences in how efficiently participants’ lungs handled the demands of exercise. Vapers and smokers had a reduced ability to remove carbon dioxide and accumulated lactic acid more quickly as exercise intensity increased. Those changes help explain why participants using either cigarettes or e-cigarettes experienced more breathlessness and muscle discomfort. 

Vaping Is Not the Same as Smoking, but It Is Not Harmless

Researchers are not saying that vaping and smoking have identical long-term health consequences. Traditional cigarettes expose users to smoke containing thousands of chemicals created through combustion, while e-cigarettes generally expose users to a different mixture of chemicals and typically fewer cancer-causing substances. However, the new findings suggest that vaping can still produce harmful changes in blood vessels, breathing efficiency and exercise performance.

The Findings Are Especially Important for People Who Never Smoked

One concern highlighted by researchers is that many people who vape have never been cigarette smokers. For those individuals, vaping is not replacing an established smoking habit but introducing nicotine and other chemicals into their bodies in the first place. Researchers say that makes the potential health effects particularly important as vaping becomes increasingly common among younger people. 

More Research Is Still Needed

The study provides important evidence, but it was observational and involved only 75 participants, so it cannot establish that vaping directly caused every change that researchers observed. Larger and longer-term studies will be needed to determine how these effects develop over time and whether they translate into higher rates of cardiovascular or respiratory disease. Researchers are continuing to investigate how vaping affects the heart, lungs and muscles beyond what can be measured during a single exercise test. 

What the Findings Mean for Vapers

The findings suggest that vaping should not be treated as a risk-free habit, particularly for people who have never smoked cigarettes. The study found measurable differences in fitness, breathing and blood vessel function among young vapers even though they appeared healthy at rest. For current smokers, health authorities continue to distinguish between completely switching away from cigarettes and continuing to use both products, because dual use does not eliminate the risks associated with smoking. 

The Health Debate Around Vaping Is Changing

The latest research adds another warning to the growing body of evidence that vaping can affect the body in ways that are not immediately visible. Young vapers in this study had about 15% lower exercise capacity than non-users, along with reduced breathing efficiency and signs of blood vessel inflammation, results that were similar in several respects to the smoking group. While the study does not prove that vaping is identical to smoking or establish its long-term disease risks, it shows that e-cigarettes are far from risk-free and deserve continued scientific scrutiny.