According to the Daily Mail, people who smoked with vaping devices were 22% more likely to develop high blood sugar (i.e. prediabetes) than those who had never used vaping devices.
Scientists say traditional cigarettes make smokers 40 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, but it appears that e-cigarettes may also have an effect on blood sugar levels.
The U.S. team from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland analyzed data from 600,000 people in the United States.
They looked for a link between e-cigarette use and prediabetes — a serious health condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes.
Their findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, show that current e-cigarette users are not only 22 percent more likely to develop prediabetes, but also that previous e-cigarette users are 22 percent more likely than those who have never used e-cigarettes. Users still had a 12% higher risk.
Lead author Dr Shyam Biswal said: “We were surprised. E-cigarettes have been touted as a safer alternative, but this is not the case. It is time to step up public health efforts to promote cessation of vaping.
About 3.6 million people in the UK used e-cigarettes last year.
The NHS plans to prescribe prescriptions to help people quit smoking.
The possible link between them and prediabetes is unclear, but the nicotine in regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes is known to raise blood sugar.