Vaping and Heart Health: What You Need to Know
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Vaping and Heart Health: What You Need to Know

Vaping and Heart Health: What You Need to Know
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Updated on February 11, 2026
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Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, have grown in popularity in the past few decades as an alternative to tobacco cigarettes. Although research is just now emerging about the health effects of e-cigarettes, vaping does carry risks of problems for your heart, in addition to your lungs and other parts of your body.

“E-cigarettes aren’t as bad for you as regular cigarettes, but they’re not harmless,” says Holly Middlekauff, MD, a cardiologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Vaping can increase your heart rate, cause high blood pressure, damage blood vessels, and double your risk of having a heart attack, in addition to complicating existing health issues.

Vaping and Heart Problems

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.

General Health Risks

Although e-cigarettes lack the dangerous smoke, tar, and carbon monoxide of traditional tobacco cigarettes, they can be addictive and pose additional health risks, Middlekauff says.

Over time, vaping can lead to health problems that include:

  • Asthma
  • Changes to brain development
  • Increased cancer risk

Vaping can also cause what’s known as an e-cigarette or vaping product use–associated lung injury (EVALI), which can include:

  • Acute respiratory distress syndrome
  • Bronchiolitis obliterans, or popcorn lung
  • Hypersensitivity pneumonitis
An EVALI can be fatal, and more than half of people with an EVALI require a visit to intensive care. Talk to your doctor or call for immediate medical help if you vape and have symptoms that include:

  • Chest pain
  • Coughing
  • Diarrhea
  • Dizziness
  • Fever
  • Headaches
  • Rapid heart rate
  • Shortness of breath
  • Vomiting and nausea
Vaping may also cause brain-development issues in teenagers and young people, about 6 percent of whom use e-cigarettes.

 Teens who vape also may experience mood disorders, anxiety, and other health conditions.


How to Quit Vaping

Quitting vaping can be just as hard as quitting smoking. If you or a loved one is vaping, talk to your doctor about ways to address it.

There are also numerous resources available to increase education about e-cigarette risks and strategies for quitting.

  • The American Heart Association offers a five-step process for quitting vaping and smoking.
  • The American Lung Association has a conversation guide for talking about vaping’s risks and how to quit.
  • The National Institutes of Health’s Smokefree.gov is designed to provide ideas for developing a vaping-cessation plan.

The Takeaway

  • Although e-cigarettes may be viewed as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes, they pose a number of risks to your heart health as well as your general health.
  • Vaping can cause increases in your heart rate and blood pressure and lead to severe cardiovascular damage, in addition to making existing heart conditions even worse.
  • If you vape, you also increase your risk of potentially serious and fatal lung issues.
  • Talk to your doctor about ways to help you or a loved one quit vaping and consider numerous online resources available to learn about vaping’s risks and to develop a plan to quit.

Resources We Trust

Additional reporting by Tony Stasiek.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Fromson N. Why Vaping Is Bad for Your Heart. University of Michigan Medicine Health Lab. February 26, 2025.
  2. Health Effects of Vaping. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. January 31, 2025.
  3. Blaha MJ. 5 Vaping Facts You Need to Know. Johns Hopkins Medicine.
  4. Tattersall MC et al. Abstract 11674: Acute Effects of Nicotine-Containing Product Challenges on Cardiovascular and Autonomic Function Among Electronic Cigarette Vapers, Combustible Cigarette Smokers, and Controls: The CLUES Study. Circulation. October 30, 2022.
  5. Hughey CM et al. Abstract 10218: Differences in Treadmill Exercise Stress Testing Parameters Among Electronic Cigarette Vapers, Combustible Cigarette Smokers, and Controls: The CLUES Study. Circulation. October 30, 2022.
  6. Damay VA et al. How Electronic Cigarette Affects the Vascular System. Journal of Smoking Cessation. January 1, 2024.
  7. Hassan M et al. E-Cigarettes and Arterial Health: A Review of the Link Between Vaping and Atherosclerosis Progression. World Journal of Cardiology. December 26, 2024.
  8. Bene-Alhasan Y et al. Electronic Nicotine Product Use Is Associated With Incident Heart Failure: The All of Us Research Program. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. April 5, 2024.
  9. Vaping (E-Cigarettes). Cleveland Clinic. August 22, 2022.
  10. E-Cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI). American Lung Association.
  11. E-Cigarette Use Among Youth. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. October 17, 2024.
  12. Meehan J et al. The Adverse Effects of Vaping in Young People. Global Pediatrics. September 2024.
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Cheng-Han Chen

Cheng-Han Chen, MD, PhD, FACC, FSCAI

Medical Reviewer

Cheng-Han Chen, MD, PhD, is the medical director of the structural heart program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California, and director of structural and interventional cardiology at Pacific Cardiovascular Associates Medical Group.

Dr. Chen completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at MIT in materials science and engineering. He received his MD degree from UCSD and his PhD in bioengineering from UCLA.

As a medical device engineer at Medtronic, Chen played an important role in the development of the Endeavor and Resolute drug-eluting coronary stents. His internship and residency were completed at UCLA, where he also completed his cardiovascular disease fellowship. He went on to complete both interventional cardiology fellowship followed by structural heart disease fellowship at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Hospital. While at Columbia, he was closely involved in the major clinical trials involving transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).

Chen has presented his research at major national and international conferences including the American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC), and Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), and has authored multiple manuscripts and book chapters on subjects ranging from interventional cardiology to cardiac stem cells. Prior to his current roles, he served on faculty of Columbia University Medical Center as a clinical instructor.

Outside of the office, Chen enjoys spending time with his wife and children. He is also an accomplished violinist.

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Sandra Gordon

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Sandra Gordon is a health and medical writer with decades of experience writing for consumers and physicians online and in print. She has written for Prevention, Parents, Self, Energy Times, WebMD, the Cleveland Clinic, NYU Langone Health, Your Teen, Spirit of Women, Arthritis Today, dLife, HealthProview, and Medical Economics, among others. She's also the author of 11 books including the upcoming Gifted: My Journey of Surviving a Double Liver Transplant. Gordon is ghostwriting the autobiography.

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