Have a crazy idea about the cause of all these "common symptoms"

[Letzin Hale]

Dr. Jim Loi probably agrees with you - he made (a) post(s) a long time ago that he thought PG was speeding up the clearing of the lungs. A lot out of the rest of your theory sounds pretty good (to me at least) also.

Monkeylurv, I did read your original post all the way through and I do give a **** about the effects. I have had 'temperamental' sinuses for many years and they respond to products such as Vick Sinex. I have been vaping for around 7 months and have definitely felt better, breathed easier and reduced my blood pressure which has been uncomfortably high for over 2 years. However, I have been using VG more and more over the past couple of months and I think my sinuses have been clogged and dry more often than before. Having read your post, and been aware of the humectant properties of PG & VG, I shall have to conduct some tests to ascertain whether PG or VG makes any difference. I don't have the tightness or chest pains etc, just the stuffed sinuses and sometimes a dry throat, but I keep up my liquid intake to compensate for the moisture-absorbing effect of the glycol.
Our experiences might not be clinically scientific experiments but such trials and anecdotal information is helpful in understanding what we are doing and how we can make it safe rather than banned. Keep it up and thanks for taking the time.
Alan.

[Monkeylurv]

Thanks Katink & Letzin (lol, sounds like a law firm).

I appreciate your comments and am so glad that I didn't sound like a complete lunatic. Now that I've gotten a good 8 hrs. sleep I was almost afraid to read the comments or my own post.

I feel 100% better today. I took 2 doses of time release mucinex over a 24 hr period. Alot of stuff came "up" yesterday. Probably not as much as needed. I also was drinking TONS of water. More than my usual. That helped alot too. I was able to at least smoke analogs yesterday without completely losing my breath. Today it's like nothing ever happened.

I think I'm going to wait till Monday (after easter) to start vaping again. I don't want to take a chance on feeling bad on easter when I'm hosting dinner. I am thinking I can't do BOTH. It's possible that analog smoke interferes with the process by freezing the cilia. Or at least that's what I'm thinking, since smoking analogs was just making it worse. I'm going to continue with the mucinex/water every day.

Letzin - have you tried a netti pot? Maybe some salt water with it? Maybe the throat is your sinuses draining? Or at least trying to! I had sinus problems every night before this so I'm thinking of getting a netti pot too.

Thanks again for your comments!

[Monkeylurv]

Oh, and I forgot to mention something else, lest it be left out of the equation. I took some oil of oregano too which is a strong anti viral supplement that has been shown even to fight off antibiotic resistant staph. Just in case I'd get hit with something viral/bacterial from the lung "clearing".

It might help to mention too that I didn't have any fever, took my BP & pulse & they were fine. Even when I was feeling my worst.

[Monkeylurv]

One of the side effects of quiting smoking is "smokers flu".

I just realized I wasn't sure if I stated that I actually did NOT quit smoking analogs. This was during the course of smoking analogs AND vaping (only about a few 5 min. sessions on the pv each day). Just wanted to clarify that. The symptoms started into day 2.

[Monkeylurv]

Just thought I'd update on my unusual experience with vaping:

I have figured out that my over exaggerated response was to PG & VG was actually my adrenal problems. I have had cortisol insufficiency in the recent past and was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor. My dr. seemed to believe it was actually my adrenals causing the problems. Needless to say, I had been on low dose steroids for a few months up till about February. I had weaned off & was doing well, but the past 2 weeks noticed symptoms creeping up on me again.

So long story short, I am back on small replacement doses of steroids. Since cortisol keeps inflammation in check, I believe PG and/or VG had become an irritant of larger proportions due to that & my low cortisol levels lead to the irritant causing perhaps much more inflammation than it should have - maybe in my bronchial tubes. I.e. if I lightly scratch myself when my cortisol is slipping, I get large welts.

So ultimately, I have been vaping about a few times a day this past week to test my response (which is actually more than I could tolerate on some days when I first started out), and have not had any breathing problems at all since being back on steroids. I plan to work my way up to make sure I don't end up feeling the same way.

I am on VERY low dose hydrocortisone (5mg), so it's not a matter of the steroids masking any inflammation. This is simply replacing what's missing.

So sometimes there may be an underlying cause to an allergic reaction to vaping! And people even with regular old "adrenal fatigue" may be susceptible to this. Since low cortisol can actually be a cause of allergies.