In my thread regarding a calculator for use with PEG400, the comments really began to run the gamut of many issues related to the dehydration of vaping, some of those issues quite serious. I have seen it in many posts here, some of them the "stickies," to beware of dehydration, to drink more water, etc, but that just does not begin to cover the very dangerous level of dehydration that vaping can cause or exacerbate, and the fact that simply drinking more water is often not even close to being a sufficient "cure." Someone suggested that since I have had to deal with this problem at such a detailed level, I start a thread all about it, for any of us dealing with any level of dehydration, but especially for those of us dealing with catastrophic dehydration, and the problems associated with it.
I have asthma, and I found out quite early on that if I vape e-juice with more than about 25% VG, I simply cannot breathe -- I feel constantly as if I need to cough up, but nothing moves, nothing coughs up, and I feel like there's a hairball or something in my chest. Being so new to vaping when I discovered this, I simply switched to an e-juice containing a very high percentage of PG, 80%-85%, and this apparently solved the problem -- no more hairball. However, because I *am* an asthmatic, using a rescue inhaler containing PG for a great many years, I have suffered for most of those great many years with dehydration severe enough to cause me leg cramps nearly every night in my sleep, though I never knew what was causing it, until I became a vaper and learned more about PG and its properties. When I added the high-PG vaping to this already-dehydrated state, it was simply the straw that very nearly broke the camel's back.
This could all be termed "anecdotal" evidence, on the subject of the catastrophic dehydration potential of vaping, especially vaping a very-high-PG ejuice, but it is the only kind of evidence to which I have access. What I know is this:
a) my right foot started hurting within a few weeks after I started vaping, but I didn't think much about it at the time, figuring I had probably hurt myself somehow (I'm a serious klutz);
b) within another month, that right foot hurt even worse, and my right ankle was so puffy and swollen it appeared to be a sprained ankle, though the ankle, at that point, didn't hurt;
c) within a couple more weeks, my left foot started hurting, and left ankle was starting to show some puffiness;
d) within another couple weeks, the left ankle's puffiness as as bad as the right's, which was getting worse, and the pain on the bottom of both feet, right in the arch, was worse, and swellings could be actually felt, with the fingers, like lumps.
As I said, I knew from reading in this forum that PG causes dehydration. When I went looking online for possible causes of foot/ankle edema, one of the foremost answers was "dehydration."
Then, I got sick with appendicitis, had my appendix out; spent about 4 days mostly in bed (elevated feet!), and was not vaping at all during those 4 days. When I was finally able to get up and try to resume something like normal life, I noticed that
a) the swelling was GONE, and
b) the pain was GONE.
Within a couple days, I tried to resume vaping, and we went to the local B&M where I spent about an hour-ish trying out some new flavors. That night, when I disrobed to go to bed, I noticed that once again, my right ankle was swollen.
Since then, I have been vaping only what probably amounts to a few minutes per day -- when we go out in the truck, I take the vape and not the cigarettes since I don't want that smell coming back, in the truck. I've been paying PARTICULAR attention to trying to correct my severe dehydration (worsened badly by the vomiting/........ I suffered in my illness). What I'm seeing is that with
a) not vaping much *at all*, and
b) trying steadfastly to correct the dehydration,
my ankles have slowly returned to normal.
I experience this edema and pain worse with one side -- the right -- than the other, which I have no explanation for. But I have no other explanation for any of it, since my general health, aside from the acute appenditicitis I suffered, is very good; no heart issues, post-menopausal so no hormonal issues, no issues whatever that would cause or contribute to the severe pain and edema -- except the dehydration I suffered before I ever even heard of vaping, and then the enormous dehydration caused by the vaping itself.
Also... when it first became very painful, I tried to go from 80%PG to 67%PG, and although that level of VG is way too much for my asthmatic lungs, just flat out suffocating me, I did begin to notice some improvement in my feet and ankles, before I was forced, in order to keep breathing, to return to the high-PG mix -- and the improvement went away.
As stated, this could all be termed "anecdotal" evidence, but there is simply no other factor which could be causing the edema, other than the extreme amount of PG. I do not have an allergy to it, having used it for years in my asthma inhalers, with no issues except a continuing mild dehydration which, for many years, I had no explanation.
It appears that others have suffered similar, if not identical, issues with vaping, but there is just NOTHING definitive about it online, either here at ECF or anywhere else. I had to draw my own conclusion that the problem, at bottom, was dehydration on a massive scale.
Many times here, when someone posts a symptom they think may be related to vaping, they get treated to the ubiquitous "see your doctor," but many of us do not have the wherewithal to be running to the doctor for every little symptom that rears its head, plus the fact that many times, when you go to the doctor with a symptom, you're just handing them a hunting license to find something wrong with you that requires some pharmaceutical intervention that will ultimately cause an even worse problem. I think we all know the score where Big Pharma is concerned -- they don't give a rat's hindquarters for our health, they just want to make money and devil take the hindmost. I have no alternative to the BP asthma inhaler I must use regularly, just as many have no alternative for the hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic-condition medicines that must be taken on a daily basis, but for dehydration, there is just no reason to involve BP, if you can resolve it before it affects your overall health in catastrophic ways.
My own particular "fix" seems to be coconut water -- it's just in the past week since I've been consuming about 12oz of coconut water daily, that the swelling and pain in my feet and ankles has finally gone away. It's possible that "sports drinks" could have a similar effect, though I don't know too many people who can abide their taste -- but if you can, it's probably a cheaper fix than the coconut water.
Also, reducing my salt intake seems to have had a beneficial effect. I never went terribly overboard with salt intake, but maybe it was more than a dehydrated body really needed -- so I've reduced it, while adding the coconut water regimen, and as stated, the swelling has gone away.
I'm also beginning to learn about doing DIY e-juice, using PEG400. I cannot offer much at the moment about "how it vapes," because I just created my first test batch of it day before yesterday, and it's currently steeping; I don't know if the end result will be tolerable or not, and I may need to experiment with other brands of flavor, to get something really tasty. PEG400 may not be a "perfect fix," because apparently it shares some of PG's chemical properties, but it may be less dehydrating, which is why I'm trying it out. More on the subject of PEG400 specifically can be found at http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/578402-diy-calculator-use-peg400.html.
Anyone else with serious issues related to dehydration, please chime in. Perhaps together we can arrive at some real fix to keep vaping a viable option for those wishing to improve their health by ditching cigarettes, while not destroying their health with serious dehydration.
Andria
I have asthma, and I found out quite early on that if I vape e-juice with more than about 25% VG, I simply cannot breathe -- I feel constantly as if I need to cough up, but nothing moves, nothing coughs up, and I feel like there's a hairball or something in my chest. Being so new to vaping when I discovered this, I simply switched to an e-juice containing a very high percentage of PG, 80%-85%, and this apparently solved the problem -- no more hairball. However, because I *am* an asthmatic, using a rescue inhaler containing PG for a great many years, I have suffered for most of those great many years with dehydration severe enough to cause me leg cramps nearly every night in my sleep, though I never knew what was causing it, until I became a vaper and learned more about PG and its properties. When I added the high-PG vaping to this already-dehydrated state, it was simply the straw that very nearly broke the camel's back.
This could all be termed "anecdotal" evidence, on the subject of the catastrophic dehydration potential of vaping, especially vaping a very-high-PG ejuice, but it is the only kind of evidence to which I have access. What I know is this:
a) my right foot started hurting within a few weeks after I started vaping, but I didn't think much about it at the time, figuring I had probably hurt myself somehow (I'm a serious klutz);
b) within another month, that right foot hurt even worse, and my right ankle was so puffy and swollen it appeared to be a sprained ankle, though the ankle, at that point, didn't hurt;
c) within a couple more weeks, my left foot started hurting, and left ankle was starting to show some puffiness;
d) within another couple weeks, the left ankle's puffiness as as bad as the right's, which was getting worse, and the pain on the bottom of both feet, right in the arch, was worse, and swellings could be actually felt, with the fingers, like lumps.
As I said, I knew from reading in this forum that PG causes dehydration. When I went looking online for possible causes of foot/ankle edema, one of the foremost answers was "dehydration."
Then, I got sick with appendicitis, had my appendix out; spent about 4 days mostly in bed (elevated feet!), and was not vaping at all during those 4 days. When I was finally able to get up and try to resume something like normal life, I noticed that
a) the swelling was GONE, and
b) the pain was GONE.
Within a couple days, I tried to resume vaping, and we went to the local B&M where I spent about an hour-ish trying out some new flavors. That night, when I disrobed to go to bed, I noticed that once again, my right ankle was swollen.
Since then, I have been vaping only what probably amounts to a few minutes per day -- when we go out in the truck, I take the vape and not the cigarettes since I don't want that smell coming back, in the truck. I've been paying PARTICULAR attention to trying to correct my severe dehydration (worsened badly by the vomiting/........ I suffered in my illness). What I'm seeing is that with
a) not vaping much *at all*, and
b) trying steadfastly to correct the dehydration,
my ankles have slowly returned to normal.
I experience this edema and pain worse with one side -- the right -- than the other, which I have no explanation for. But I have no other explanation for any of it, since my general health, aside from the acute appenditicitis I suffered, is very good; no heart issues, post-menopausal so no hormonal issues, no issues whatever that would cause or contribute to the severe pain and edema -- except the dehydration I suffered before I ever even heard of vaping, and then the enormous dehydration caused by the vaping itself.
Also... when it first became very painful, I tried to go from 80%PG to 67%PG, and although that level of VG is way too much for my asthmatic lungs, just flat out suffocating me, I did begin to notice some improvement in my feet and ankles, before I was forced, in order to keep breathing, to return to the high-PG mix -- and the improvement went away.
As stated, this could all be termed "anecdotal" evidence, but there is simply no other factor which could be causing the edema, other than the extreme amount of PG. I do not have an allergy to it, having used it for years in my asthma inhalers, with no issues except a continuing mild dehydration which, for many years, I had no explanation.
It appears that others have suffered similar, if not identical, issues with vaping, but there is just NOTHING definitive about it online, either here at ECF or anywhere else. I had to draw my own conclusion that the problem, at bottom, was dehydration on a massive scale.
Many times here, when someone posts a symptom they think may be related to vaping, they get treated to the ubiquitous "see your doctor," but many of us do not have the wherewithal to be running to the doctor for every little symptom that rears its head, plus the fact that many times, when you go to the doctor with a symptom, you're just handing them a hunting license to find something wrong with you that requires some pharmaceutical intervention that will ultimately cause an even worse problem. I think we all know the score where Big Pharma is concerned -- they don't give a rat's hindquarters for our health, they just want to make money and devil take the hindmost. I have no alternative to the BP asthma inhaler I must use regularly, just as many have no alternative for the hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic-condition medicines that must be taken on a daily basis, but for dehydration, there is just no reason to involve BP, if you can resolve it before it affects your overall health in catastrophic ways.
My own particular "fix" seems to be coconut water -- it's just in the past week since I've been consuming about 12oz of coconut water daily, that the swelling and pain in my feet and ankles has finally gone away. It's possible that "sports drinks" could have a similar effect, though I don't know too many people who can abide their taste -- but if you can, it's probably a cheaper fix than the coconut water.
Also, reducing my salt intake seems to have had a beneficial effect. I never went terribly overboard with salt intake, but maybe it was more than a dehydrated body really needed -- so I've reduced it, while adding the coconut water regimen, and as stated, the swelling has gone away.
I'm also beginning to learn about doing DIY e-juice, using PEG400. I cannot offer much at the moment about "how it vapes," because I just created my first test batch of it day before yesterday, and it's currently steeping; I don't know if the end result will be tolerable or not, and I may need to experiment with other brands of flavor, to get something really tasty. PEG400 may not be a "perfect fix," because apparently it shares some of PG's chemical properties, but it may be less dehydrating, which is why I'm trying it out. More on the subject of PEG400 specifically can be found at http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/578402-diy-calculator-use-peg400.html.
Anyone else with serious issues related to dehydration, please chime in. Perhaps together we can arrive at some real fix to keep vaping a viable option for those wishing to improve their health by ditching cigarettes, while not destroying their health with serious dehydration.
Andria
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