2026-07-21 12:13:18

Vaping could be just as damaging to your fitness as smoking cigarettes, with scientists warning that e-cigarette users tire more quickly and struggle to absorb oxygen during exercise.

Researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University found that young adults who vaped had around 15 per cent lower exercise capacity than people who had never smoked or used e-cigarettes.

The study compared 75 adults aged 30 and under, dividing them into smokers, vapers and people with no nicotine habit. All participants had otherwise similar lifestyles.

Volunteers completed increasingly intense cycling tests until they reached maximum effort, while researchers monitored blood oxygen levels and examined their blood vessels using ultrasound scans.

Published in ERJ Open Research, the findings showed both smokers and vapers became exhausted sooner than non-users.

The scans also revealed signs of damage and swelling in the blood vessels of e-cigarette users, reducing their ability to transport oxygen efficiently around the body.

As a result, they became breathless more quickly and experienced a faster build-up of lactic acid, causing their leg muscles to fatigue sooner.

Study author Dr Azmy Faisal said: “Both vapes and tobacco smoking led to worsened exercise capacity, shortness of breath, and intense leg fatigue.

“Our research indicates that, like smoking, vaping can lead to harmful changes to the blood vessels, lung efficiency during exercise and approximately a 15 per cent reduction in fitness compared to those who have never smoked or vaped.”

Vaping has now overtaken smoking in popularity in the UK, with around 10 per cent of the population using e-cigarettes compared with nine per cent who still smoke tobacco.

While vaping is widely regarded as less harmful than smoking because it exposes users to fewer cancer-causing chemicals, experts say many of its long-term health effects remain uncertain.

Dr Stamatoula Tsikrika, from the European Respiratory Society, who was not involved in the research, said: “Vapes may contain lower levels of cancer-causing substances but they can still trigger genetic changes such as DNA damage and inflammation, which are linked to increased lung cancer risk.

“For people who have never smoked, the health consequences of vaping are becoming harder to justify.”

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