Nicotine is not carcinogenic and does not cause heart disease, a leading cardiologist has told a doctors’ convention.
Professor Reuven Zimlichman, Director of the Institute for Quality in Medicine at the Israeli Medical Association, explained that nicotine is addictive but does not harm the body like smoking does.
Smoking causes eight million deaths globally per year, while vaping is not fatal or linked to any smoking-related diseases. Zimlichman said smokers should consider switching to vapes or other safer nicotine alternatives if they find it hard to quit cigarettes without an aid.
“Nicotine is addictive, but it doesn’t harm the body,” he told the 46th Philippine Neurological Association (PNA) annual convention. “It’s not carcinogenic, and it doesn’t cause heart disease or blood vessel disease. If there is an alternative way to satisfy the nicotine craving of smokers without burning tobacco, this is clearly an option worth considering.”
‘Encourage patients who smoke to switch’
The professor urged healthcare professionals to encourage any patients who struggle to quit smoking to switch to safer alternatives.
“Ask your patient to consider switching to a heated tobacco product or vape,” he told the hundreds of medics who attended the event in November. “The more severe the patient’s cardiovascular disease is, the more benefits they can derive from switching.”
Smoke-free products such as vapes that deliver nicotine without burning tobacco can save the lives of millions of hardened smokers who are unable to quit smoking, Zimlichman added.
“Quitting smoking is very difficult because tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive,” he said. “But it’s not nicotine that causes the serious health effects of tobacco use. It’s the thousands of chemicals produced by the burning of tobacco that make smoking so deadly.”
Zimlichman said nearly half (49 percent) of smokers diagnosed with coronary artery disease continue to smoke, 57 percent continue to smoke after a stroke, and 72 percent diagnosed with peripheral artery disease (narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the arms and legs) keep smoking.
The potential to save millions of lives
Previously a non-believer in tobacco harm reduction, Zimlichman said he changed his position after reviewing the growing scientific evidence supporting it as an effective public health strategy.
He said vapes and heated tobacco products are technological innovations that have the potential to save millions of lives.
Vapes do not burn tobacco and do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, two of the most damaging elements in cigarettes. Heated tobacco products are lithium battery-powered devices that heat the tobacco just enough to release a nicotine-containing tobacco aerosol but without burning the tobacco.
These products “offer the best chance for hardened smokers to quit smoking,” Zimlichman said.
Growing body of evidence
The professor cited a study from South Korea, published in the European Heart Journal, which found that switching to vaping from smoking leads to significantly less fatal and life-threatening cardiac events in people with heart disease
He also referenced Sweden, which recently became the first country to be officially declared ‘smoke-free’. The Scandinavian country says its success with reducing smoking rates is down to the widespread availability and use of snus, nicotine pouches and vapes.
According to global health campaign group Smoke Free Sweden, the nation has a 41 per cent lower cancer rate than the European average, and the lowest rate of tobacco-related diseases in the European Union.
Zimlichman said: “There are currently an estimated one billion smokers globally, with 8 million people dying of smoking-related diseases every year. We need to try something new. Governments, regulatory agencies, and the medical community need to be open to new ideas such as tobacco harm reduction.”
