The vape flavours that increase your risk of heart attack

Researchers say some vape flavours could have links to heart diseases. Photo / Getty Images

Many people don't consider e-cigarettes to be as bad as smoking, however a new study has found that certain flavourings could be linked to heart disease - specifically cinnamon and menthol.

According to a report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, even non-nicotine vaping prompts dysfunction in the blood vessels that can increase the likelihood of developing heart disease.

Some flavours, not even including nicotine, prompted dysfunction in the blood vessels. Photo / Getty Images

In their experiment, researchers exposed health human blood vessels to six different non-nicotine vape flavourings.

Even without nicotine, the flavourings caused blood vessel dysfunction comparable with someone who had smoked a normal cigarette.

The most harmful flavours were found to be cinnamon and menthol.

More work is going to be done focused on how vaping impacts heart and brain tissue. Photo / Getty Images

As vaping is still a relatively new trend, the long term effects are still unclear - but Dr Joseph Wu, director of Stanford University's cardiovascular institute, warns that smokers who decide to swap to e-cigarettes for health reasons may have
to rethink their decision.

"This is really a warning shot that people should not be complacent and think that these e-cigarettes are completely safe," warns Dr Wu.