anyone else have shortness of breath?

[JCUNITED]

This will probably sound odd but I have wondered. Steam causes mold. Vapor is steam. Does any one think it is possible we are growing mold in our lungs? I know our lungs are moist to begin with but I have wondered if that is possible. Now............stop laughing.

I am not sure but think that the steam from vaping will kill the mold before inhale possible, i do have something i was wondering and don't laugh at me either lol ok you can laugh with the e liquids that are vG based vegetable glycerin when we vape on the liquid that is vg based is it like clogging our artieries like a whopper or something?? this sounds goofy but i have wondered this,

Jim

 

[Bellasin]

Lungs can definitely grow mold, but they need spores to grow it. I would guess the heat that forms the vapor kills spores/bacteria. Maybe not.

I am waiting on the results of my labs, should get them in the mail this week. Once I see them I will come back here and let everyone know what, if anything, turned up. Today is the 1st day in months I have not had a very weird spacy head feeling.

 

[WhatAClumsyGirl]

Lungs can definitely grow mold, but they need spores to grow it. I would guess the heat that forms the vapor kills spores/bacteria. Maybe not.

I am waiting on the results of my labs, should get them in the mail this week. Once I see them I will come back here and let everyone know what, if anything, turned up. Today is the 1st day in months I have not had a very weird spacy head feeling.

Saying a prayer that everything turns out good for you Bellasin..Please keep us informed. Wishing you all the best.

 

[AJMoore]

SkyDragon and What a Clumsy Girl - I wonder about how clean our equipment is. I know I've seen things about how hot the atomizer gets before it can produce vapor, etc. but I still worry about something growing in the polyfill/fluvall/whatever. I've experienced a shortness of breath on occasion. When you spoke about the DR giving you a script for antibiotics/antibacterial and you immediately noticed an improvement - that only worries me more.

 

[skydragon]

Lungs can definitely grow mold, but they need spores to grow it. I would guess the heat that forms the vapor kills spores/bacteria. Maybe not.

I am waiting on the results of my labs, should get them in the mail this week. Once I see them I will come back here and let everyone know what, if anything, turned up. Today is the 1st day in months I have not had a very weird spacy head feeling.

I too hope everything gets better for you. Hoping for good results for you.

 

[Cody M]

As far as SOB goes, this link 'may' clear up something (Shortness of breath after stopping smoking >> Medical Questions, Weight Loss, Pregnancy, Drugs, Health Insurance ).

It may also be a good idea to clean your equipment (especially carts) on a more routine basis to avoid illnesses like pneumonia.

NOTE: I'm not a doctor, just browsed around for SOB symptoms from smokers who quit (possibly without the use of a PV).

 

[skydragon]

SkyDragon and What a Clumsy Girl - I wonder about how clean our equipment is. I know I've seen things about how hot the atomizer gets before it can produce vapor, etc. but I still worry about something growing in the polyfill/fluvall/whatever. I've experienced a shortness of breath on occasion. When you spoke about the DR giving you a script for antibiotics/antibacterial and you immediately noticed an improvement - that only worries me more.

I know I try to keep my stuff pretty clean but you never know. I even wipe my cartos with an alcohol wipe from one time to the next because bacteria does grow and lets face it, we have bacteria in our mouths.

 

[skydragon]

I am not sure but think that the steam from vaping will kill the mold before inhale possible, i do have something i was wondering and don't laugh at me either lol ok you can laugh with the e liquids that are vG based vegetable glycerin when we vape on the liquid that is vg based is it like clogging our artieries like a whopper or something?? this sounds goofy but i have wondered this,

Jim

That I would have no clue about. Again, in reality who knows. Maybe it is clogging all the whatever they are called that go into our lungs. But I would think tar would be worse.

 

[Captain Morgan]

I am now in my eighth week of vaping and only in the last week, since I started adding additional VG to all my juice, have I noticed a vaping related increase in SOB. I stopped using the juice I had added VG too a couple of days ago and have immediately noticed an improvement in breathing. I have early stages of COPD with constant SOB so I am very sensitive to any and all changes in my breathing. I don't know if this increase in SOB is an allergy to VG or a common symptom but I suspect it is just a common symptom. If you look at most Material Safety Data Sheets for Glycerin (see http://avogadro.chem.iastate.edu/MSDS/glycerine.htm ), you will notice under Potential Health Effects the warning "Inhalation of a mist of this material may cause respiratory tract irritation", and I am fairly certain this is the effect it had on me.

PG, on the other hand, has been a God Send to me. A side effect of some of the meds I take for hypertension and COPD is Dry Mouth. Before I started vaping I had cases of extreme dry mouth. I would awake at night about every thirty minutes to an hour with my palate and throat in agony due to dryness and have to sip some water before I could go back to sleep. The only thing that helped any with the dry mouth was PG based mouth sprays like Biotene. Since I started vaping I now am able to sleep straight through the night without waking from dry mouth. I attribute that to the PG which coats my mouth and throat when vaping much like the Biotene mouth spray, except the mouth spray only lasted two hours and the coating from vaping lasts at least eight.

Overall, except for the VG incident, my COPD has noticabley lessened since I started vaping. I was wheezing badly before I started vaping, and scarcely had any wheezing while vaping until my lungs became irritated by the VG. I am really bummed about the effect VG has on me because I love the vapor you get with VG. So, I am just going to vape PG juices and let my lungs heal some. Vaping PG makes my lungs feel good as if it were actually therapeutic. Who knows, it may be! At least for me. PG is antimicrobic, capable of destroying or inhibiting the growth of microorganisms, which to my understanding VG is not. The VG mixes I had a reaction to were 70/30 PG to VG mixes, so I am going to try 80/20 and 90/10 before totally giving up on VG.

P.S.: I was able to quickly eliminate the possibility of flavors causing the SOB because every day juices I had no problems with increased SOB shortly after I added the VG.

 

[skydragon]

I have noticed that I have to clear my throat much more with a higher VG content. Which bums me out as well since I love the vapor. But I too have started cutting back on the VG.

 

[WhatAClumsyGirl]

I'm doing much much better...still on the antibotics. still vaping but not as much as usual because it makes me cough. I have begun cutting back on the vg that i use..and i'm wondering if that isnt helping as well. I think it is...but hard to tell because i am taking the bacterial antibiotics still. I'm going to continue to lessen the vg and see how that goes for me.

Good luck to everyone

 

[miss MiA]

I am really bummed about the effect VG has on me because I love the vapor you get with VG. So, I am just going to vape PG juices and let my lungs heal some. Vaping PG makes my lungs feel good as if it were actually therapeutic. Who knows, it may be! At least for me. PG is antimicrobic, capable of destroying or inhibiting the growth of microorganisms, which to my understanding VG is not. The VG mixes I had a reaction to were 70/30 PG to VG mixes, so I am going to try 80/20 and 90/10 before totally giving up on VG.

It would be nice if the presence of VG was listed more often in the product descriptions of pre-mixed eliquids too, to make various comparisons easier and more accurate. Seems it's not unusual for sellers to have or make juice with at least 15% and up to 30% VG, but still refer to it only as PG juice. I don't mean that I think they're trying to hide something, just that they think that's what the vast majority wants and even expects now, and so far haven't seen reason to bother actually listing it or something...

 

[Bellasin]

I got my test results, wasnt tested for one of the thyroid ones I needed tho. For 2 years my free Thyroxin was .91 and normal is .58-1.64 sensitive tsh .92, normal .34-5.60. That 2nd one has been way low for 2 years but nobody says anything. If they hadn't taken over 2 weeks to get the orders to me I suspect 2 other levels were low since they were just at the lowest number for "normal", total protein and bilirubin. Maybe low is good?

Still feeling like I am in another realm, I am so spaced out and unless I eat nothing at all I gain weight. One thing which helped a tiny bit was taking Claritin. Maybe I am allergic to something I vape. I need a CBC, I wrongly assumed I was getting that done. Otherwise on paper I appear to be OK and I know its not depression or anxiety, this is physical. It happened so fast too, right when I quit analogs. But that was months ago, youd think by now my body woulda adapted. I give up. All I can do is try an analog, other people have and feel normal immediately.

I want to thank those of you who wished me well and were supportive of me. I wish I had some concrete answers but its still a mystery. The timing of this fatigue, weight gain and head spaciness coincides with stopping analogs, thats all I know for sure.

 

[Vocalek]

Hmm.. Fatigue, weight gain, and head spaciness are all symptoms that appear when you eliminate or greatly reduce your nicotine intake. I got it on the 21 mg. patch when I switched to it from smoking 2-1/2 packs a day, and it got super bad when I stepped down to zero over the course of several months.

When I went back to smoking, I began to feel normal again, but the 30 pounds I gained never came back off. I did not go back up to 2-1/2 packs. Over the years, I worked my way down to half a pack, supplemented with 5 or 6 pieces of 4 mg. nicotine gum or lozenges.

When I first began vaping and stopped all analogs, I was feeling the "brain fog" until I upped my dosage to 24 mg.

Oh, BTW, low is good for TSH. My number had crept back up to 3 at my last test, so my doc upped my Synthroid dosage to 150 mcg. For those of us prone to hypothyroidism, the goal is to keep TSH under 2. So you are doing great.

 

[Aunt Cranky]

Still feeling like I am in another realm, I am so spaced out and unless I eat nothing at all I gain weight. One thing which helped a tiny bit was taking Claritin. Maybe I am allergic to something I vape. I need a CBC, I wrongly assumed I was getting that done. Otherwise on paper I appear to be OK and I know its not depression or anxiety, this is physical. It happened so fast too, right when I quit analogs. But that was months ago, youd think by now my body woulda adapted. I give up. All I can do is try an analog, other people have and feel normal immediately.

I had similiar symptoms when I saw my doc a month ago. I told her it felt like I was dragging a body behind me, extreme fatigue, and that no matter what I did or what I "cut out" I did not feel any better.

She tested me for Vitamin D deficiency and I came back as being VERY low. I live in the Boston area, where last Summer it rained the entire month of June.

A month on some pretty serious prescription Vitamin D supplements, vaping instead of my B&H ultra lights, and getting more exercise has definitely improved things for me. (although I was not a heavy smoker - so it's hard to really put a comparison there).

Just saying, Vitamin D deficiency is becoming more common in adults, especially those in northern climates and the symptoms are similiar to other illnesses. Good luck to you.

 

[AlexTM]

This will probably sound odd but I have wondered. Steam causes mold. Vapor is steam. Does any one think it is possible we are growing mold in our lungs? I know our lungs are moist to begin with but I have wondered if that is possible. Now............stop laughing.

I would not worry about that too much, for several reasons:

• It's water steam that can make mold grow. PV vapour is mostly PG or VG, not water.
• PG actually kills mold.
• If mold grows in your lungs (you inhale spores every day unless you live in a desert), you have a serious problem with your immune system. Usually, the body deals with those without any problems.

 

[jimmyzee]

I have been vaping seven months with no problems until lately.

For the past two or three weeks, inhaling vapor sends me into a coughing fit. Some days, I can't inhale the vapor at all without coughing up a lung. Sometimes, it feels like my throat is closing up and I have trouble getting enough air. I can hear myself wheezing. I am using 0, 6, or 11 mg nic liquid.

I do have inhalers and have started using them again after not needing them for six months.

It happens with PG or VG, so I'm not sure what is causing the sensitivity to the vapor but I have cut back a lot on vaping. I think it could be the flavoring in some liquids I purchased from a vendor I hadn't tried before.

I'm going to stick with one flavor at a time to determine if one specific liquid is causing the reaction, or if it is a build up of PG or VG.

Anyone one else have similar symptoms?

Same thing is happening with me I used the same vendor for a year or so And decided to try dekang and when I inhale it like all the breath is taken right out of the back of my throat is is scary to be honest I think it is the liquid because it will not happen when I use the eliquid from my regular supplier I have a 30ml coming from TW so I will let you know but I do know that dekangs is kinda weird on the throat
Please let us know how your test come out

 

[Metstoo]

Oh, BTW, low is good for TSH. My number had crept back up to 3 at my last test, so my doc upped my Synthroid dosage to 150 mcg. For those of us prone to hypothyroidism, the goal is to keep TSH under 2. So you are doing great.

I've been having hypothyroid symptoms for about 3 years but my TSH is always around 3 which is in the traditional 'normal' range so the doc doesn't do anything for me. I'm exhausted, have raised cholesterol and triglycerides, dry skin, some hair loss and can't lose weight no matter what. My mother is hypothyroid so it's in the family. With all that, I still cant get any help. Very frustrating. I guess I have to get alot worse first.

I also had extremely low B12 and D levels for a while there but they have been fixed with supplements and shots.

Vaping is my way of quitting smoking without gaining the extra weight that I know will never come off in my current condition.

 

[Metstoo]

I'm also experiencing some bronchial constriction a month into vaping. I've been vaping all VG so far so I am going to try some mixes and see if that helps. Tonight I notice I am suddenly coughing up some brownish gunk. (eew!) I have been off of analogs for 4 days now...

 

[jamie]

I've been having hypothyroid symptoms for about 3 years but my TSH is always around 3 which is in the traditional 'normal' range so the doc doesn't do anything for me. I'm exhausted, have raised cholesterol and triglycerides, dry skin, some hair loss and can't lose weight no matter what. My mother is hypothyroid so it's in the family. With all that, I still cant get any help. Very frustrating. I guess I have to get alot worse first.

You might consider a second opinion (and an endocrinologist). A doctor who treats only to the test and ignores the symptoms can be a problem where Thyroid is concerned. Also there are additional tests besides the TSH, and the TSH 'normal' range has been tightened more than once.

It's no laughing matter to have a doc allow your brain and other organ functions to slow down as they treat lab tests like a religion and disregard the actual patient.

Endocrinologists Say TSH Normal Range is Now 0.3 to 3
How to Tell If You are Hypothyroid
Rethinking the TSH Test: An Interview with David Derry, M.D., Ph.D.

Best wishes to you.