A herniated disc- Nicotine, and ,trying to go down??..

[Sergiu1967]

Hi everyone,
a question. At the moment I have a herniated disc. I have been going for spinal decompression, and physical therapy and they appear to be helping a bit.
Here is my dilemma. They say that nicotine is really bad for this and the disc healing .And of course it is very bad long-term for discs in general.

I always vape 18 mg on my joy Tech ego one with 1.0 atomizer .
At the moment, I do not want to drop down to 0mg completely cold turkey. vaping is one of few things that gives me pleasure now while I have to deal this pain.
My question is this. I just bought a 6 mg. In theory, if i vaped exactly as much as I normally do, let's say 120, 3 second hits a day .. I would now be reducing my nicotine intake by about 66% or so. Is that correct?
Which at least is a start, i guess

Many thanks for your advice

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Nicotine slows down the healing process?

 

[ReigntheGamer]

It would be less in theory, yes. But I'm not sure it's that big of a deal in the first place I have 3 herniated discs in my lower back (the numbers escape me) but the three right above the pelvis, and my doctor hasn't ever said anything to me about it. And he knows I used to smoke and now vape.

I could be wrong though but my back hasn't bothered me in sometime with my normal therapy and vaping as I please.

 

[PaulBHC]

Nicotine constricts your capillaries therefore reducing blood flow. That could slow healing.

 

[Sergiu1967]

Nicotine constricts your capillaries therefore reducing blood flow. That could slow healing.

Yes. That is what I was told. I was also told that nicotine is really bad for the disc not just in terms of healing but also long-term in what it does to a disc
And I've been vaping for a year at about 18 mg. Maybe it's best to simply get it down now in general, anyway

 

[PaulBHC]

I went from 24 to 18 to 12 to 6 over a year and a half. For you it depends on your motivation and cravings. Better to chain vape some 6 on occasion than to keep going at 18 IMO but you might want to step down to 12 first.

Caffeine dilates capillaries which is why coffee and cigs goes so well together.

Not sure what nic by itself would do to discs. I can see a doc telling you not to smoke cigs but what about other nic replacement therapy?

 

[Sergiu1967]

I went from 24 to 18 to 12 to 6 over a year and a half. For you it depends on your motivation and cravings. Better to chain vape some 6 on occasion than to keep going at 18 IMO but you might want to step down to 12 first.

Caffeine dilates capillaries which is why coffee and cigs goes so well together.

Not sure what nic by itself would do to discs. I can see a doc telling you not to smoke cigs but what about other nic replacement therapy?

Ya. Good point.
It's interesting. I just replaced my favorite juices with 6 mg. ( kilo cereal milk and five pawns queenside). What I am finding so interesting, as well as throat it is obviously so much less, it seems that the flavor is actually quite a bit 'better'. Tough to describe it. 'Clearer' in flavor.

don't know… Might be the placebo effect. Because I'm less focused on the throat hit, I am experiencing the flavor little bit more. But
I actually am liking it so far.

 

[englishmick]

Hi everyone,
a question. At the moment I have a herniated disc. I have been going for spinal decompression, and physical therapy and they appear to be helping a bit.
Here is my dilemma. They say that nicotine is really bad for this and the disc healing .And of course it is very bad long-term for discs in general.

I always Vape 18 mg on my joy Tech ego one with 1.0 atomizer .
At the moment, I do not want to drop down to 0mg completely cold turkey. Vaping is one of few things that gives me pleasure now while I have to deal this pain.
My question is this. I just bought a 6 mg. In theory, if i vaped exactly as much as I normally do, let's say 120, 3 second hits a day .. I would now be reducing my nicotine intake by about 66% or so. Is that correct?
Which at least is a start, i guess

Many thanks for your advice

I had spinal surgery and I was told smoking was particularly bad for spinal healing because it reduces oxygen flow to the spine. The surgeon was OK with vaping instead of smoking as a way of getting past this.

I don't think anyone knows whether it's the nicotine or the smoking that causes this effect. It seems fairly clear that a lot of smoking related illness doesn't come from nicotine, but from the combustion of tobacco. Maybe that's the case with spinal healing problems as well. I would say ask your doctor, but I honestly don't think they know the answer any more than we do. Given the uncertainty I think you are on the right track with cutting back on the nic.

Good luck.

 

[PaulBHC]

Smoking displaces oxygen with carbon monoxide. Add that effect to the capillary restriction and you see what that doctor meant.

 

[dhood]

Ya. Good point.
It's interesting. I just replaced my favorite juices with 6 mg. ( kilo cereal milk and five pawns queenside). What I am finding so interesting, as well as throat it is obviously so much less, it seems that the flavor is actually quite a bit 'better'. Tough to describe it. 'Clearer' in flavor.

don't know… Might be the placebo effect. Because I'm less focused on the throat hit, I am experiencing the flavor little bit more. But
I actually am liking it so far.

Nicotine in juices is known to mute flavor. Less nicotine, less muting of the flavor.

 

[Sergiu1967]

Nicotine in juices is known to mute flavor. Less nicotine, less muting of the flavor.

Wow. That kind of explains it.
Actually I have another question. Funny… I have replaced a few of my juices now with 6 mg coming down from 18 and 12.
Interestingly I went all day, with not necessarily even vaping anymore. And it works fine . I'm actually appreciating the greater flavors. But..I noticed that the five pawns queen side which is the only one thats a 50-50, has A substantially better throat hit than the others, that are 70-30. And that is the one thing that I don't want to really miss so much. It's not the nicotine, or even the nicotine that I crave. The throat it very important to me. (Even having 'some'.)
So I guess the name of the game is if I am going down to 6mg juices , I should explore and try the juices that have at least a 50-50 PG, is that about right?
Thx !

 

[AndriaD]

It's gotta be better than smoking. I had a herniated disc about 20 yrs ago, and I smoked like a chimney, 2-3 pks a day. It healed. yes, it's a slow healing, regardless of the presence or absence of nicotine. Anything that goes wrong with you, that you have to go to the doc about, because of the Holy Crusade Against Tobacco and Nicotine, they will use that as an excuse to interfere in your personal choices, regardless of the actual facts of the matter -- or lack thereof, as the case may be. If dropping nic or dropping vaping is going to give you cravings to smoke, it's not worth it.

Andria