Nicotine THAT bad? Or just a coincidence?

[Frankie]

Day 9. Still off the meds, BP still good. I start to think this might be long term, not just withdrawal. Because the withdrawal I feel started to subside a few days ago and now it is almost bearable. Will see in another couple of weeks.

[TropicalBob]

Thanks for updating, Frankie. Lots of posters start something interesting and we never hear from them again!

You are saying that without nicotine and without meds, you are normal?

That would mean, Frankie, that you are normal. Nicotine is what makes your BP and heart rate abnormal, and, if you're like me, you are always either e-smoking or have a snus in your mouth. We are always taxing our body. We will pay the price.

Keep us posted. You're learning a lot. And so are we all.

[Frankie]

It has been 3 weeks now. My BP is still well within the optimum range and I am still off the meds (I fear the doctor will kill me if/when I tell her. She assured me the BP pills are for life. No stopping ever).

I think the crisis will come much later, when I am totally comfortable with being clean, which I am definitely not at the moment.

Anyway, the answer for me was: YES, nicotine was that bad. Not smoking, not 4000 chemicals, just the nic. Unfortunately. The one thing in life i really passionately love is the one I cannot afford.

[paladinx]

Usually your body becomes immune to nicotine. When I first started smoking my blood pressure would go up and heart rate, but now it does not budge, in fact, my blood pressure actually lowers when I smoke because it relaxes me and my body is already used to the nicotine.

[Frankie]

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea what my BP was when I first started smoking. I suppose it was as good as for any 16-year old Otherwise I can only envy you. There are ways to get nic rather safely, and if it lowers your BP... well, you are really lucky.

[Angela]

I have a tendancy towards a low BP rather than a high one - during the standard GPs checks it's always normal (but on the low side of average) but on the occasion when I've been in hospital and unable to smoke for any period of time, the BP checks always cause a little concern because they are rather low.... so for me, it's another good excuse to keep vaping nicotine!

Good luck with staying off the stuff Frankie

[TropicalBob]

I really feel good for you, Frankie. You can make the rest of your life an enjoyable experience now. It's up to you. Cheers, my friend in Slovakia. Continued good health to you.

[toughdiamond]

I reckon this must vary a lot with the individual - I had a bout of hypertension recently, and immediately suspected the e-cig (it was fairly new then) - so I read up on it and did a few sums - couldn't see why the amounts I was consuming would make much difference......and they said cigarette tar accounted for most of the hypertension (I was off analogues by then)......so I tried an experiment - laid off the e-cig for a few hours, took blood pressure, "smoked" a cartridge, took blood pressure again - increased by 4 points. Repeated the experiment, same thing happened - up by 4 points again. Which is a very small change, probably real (I took an average of 5 readings each time), but not large enough to cause concern. So I figured, what the hell, and carried on vaping. The hypertension came back down all by itself in a few days, I guess it was just environmental stress....I do have trouble knowing whether I'm really stressed out or not. And the vaping is a great comfort to me, so I'd have been gutted if I'd found out I had to quit.

But your case shows a very different reaction - it must be great to be off the meds. I did read something I took to be anti-smoking propaganda - "your blood pressure begins to fall almost as soon as you stop smoking" - like I say, I thought they'd made it up (given my experiences), but perhaps it depends on the individual's biochemical make up.

The other thing for anybody concerned about blood pressure is that regular exercise is said to be a great help - it encourages the heart to grow big and strong - I was also getting insomnia so a bit of exercise helped me doubly......all the other things on the list, like keeping alcohol under control and avoiding unhealthy food, I was already doing all that. Certainly I'm happy to do a bit of cycling to "earn" my nicotine hit. I'm a strange guy.

[Frankie]

No, not big! I am a man with a big heart and it is almost a diagnosis for itself. Doctor said the <i>Borderline Heart Size</i> is probably due to lack of excercise and years of hypertension before they found out and started treating me.

I am also experiencing a rather unpleasant development. My BP is rising again. Started somwtime around Week 4 after I quit, which coincided with substantial weakening of my nic cravings. In worst case it really was just a withdrawal symptom and the cold turkey gurus lied about the duration of the symptoms. Because my first month was absolutely OK BP-wise and a hell to live. Now I almost feel well without the drug and my BP is steadily rising. I am still off the meds, but if nothing changes I will have to start them before summer...

For the time being, though, I will remain off the wagon. I think I want to try and live without nic for some period of time, at least a few months, before ordering some new snus. I seem to be able to do it, and it is a sort of new experience (really new, I never stopped since early 1980-ies so many situations are compeletely novel without a cig).

I wish you good luck.

[TropicalBob]

Frankie, I'm begining a process to lower my nicotine dependence and have ordered some no-nic snus and no-nic nasal snuff. The snus is XQs, and I've used it before. I rotate it along with regular snus portions. It tastes good and replicates having a mini portion in the mouth. I've never tried no-nic nasal snuff, and plan to rotate it with regular snuff, as well.

E-liquid is easy to regulate by cutting a known strength with fractional amounts of vegetable glycerine. I think I'm more addicted to the sight of the vapor than I am to any nicotine I get with vaping. We shall see.

Some of this might help you maintain your sanity without negatively impacting your BP readings. Good luck, my friend, and I hope you get it in check, without meds if possible but with meds if necessary. It killed my mother, so do be careful to keep it in the normal range.