Dramatic loss in taste and smell of EVERYTHING since vaping

[vapnstuff]

I have to agree with Wonner and devauto's suggestion about seeking medical advice. Of course, you'll probably be told to quit both but you may be able to make a better decision on your path. The other thing you need to consider is that analogues contain a lot of chemicals that affect a person physiologically as well as psychologically and that may provide a partial explanation for your reaction; when you're vaping, you're taking in some chemicals as well ... just different ones. Taste is strongly related to smell and vice verse and may be affected by the different chemicals. When you quit smoking, your sense of taste and smell come out of hiding but when they get overstimulated, your brain can't handle it and shuts them down. I think most new vapers have gone through similar experiences and it usually subsides, at least for awhile. In my case, there are mornings where I can't tell much difference between tobacco, vanilla, cherry blend or a coconut/lime flavor. For some reason, later in the day, they seem almost over-powering.

vaping has also triggered a sinus condition similar to a cold and I get the occasional "smokers cough" with a lot of phlegm, like when I quit smoking before. Hopefully, it's temporary like my system cleaning itself out; if that's the case, it will be worth it. In any case, for me, vaping has got too many advantages over smoking (35 yrs of analogues) to not give it a shot but personal health has to be a prime consideration and no one in their right mind would knowingly do anything to harm their body, right?

I hope it works out for you.

And the cure for dry mouth is???

Try Biotene ... not a cure but helps alleviate the symptoms and is routinely recommended by a lot of doctors and dentist.

 

[Kimveri]

RE: dehydration - When I moved to the Mojave desert, I had to increase my H2O intake. I'd thought that I was fine because I drank the recommended 10 glasses of H2O daily, but I soon discovered that wasn't enough as my environment had changed.

IOW, vaping increased your body's H2O needs, so your intake has to increase as well. You'll know when you have hit a sufficient level when you see the pinkness returning to your tongue.

As others have stated, your first & most important step should be seeing a doctor, however.

Good luck & keep us posted, please.

~K

 

[Racehorse]

I have to agree with Wonner and devauto's suggestion about seeking medical advice. Of course, you'll probably be told to quit both but you may be able to make a better decision on your path.

All my doctors as well as my dentist support my vaping. Did you post that base on experience, or just what you've read that gets posted? I have no idea why this gets posted so much....vbut it is really a huge disservice to the many good people in the medical profession. I've been here 1.5 years and know there are plenty of us working with our doctors. Happily.

My PCP, my women's health doc, opthamologist, and my dentist all are happy that I am vaping. My physical therapist at the hospital IS a vaper.

(I have no idea why a lot of people in the medical profession have been villanized here and elsewhere based simply on FDA stuff, but it's really too bad. )

The one exception is my skin cancer doc doesn't like any kind of NRT, but that is because she knows nicotine is less than kind to skin due to some blood vessel stuff I guess.

Anyway, any and all unusual things that happen to your mouth, esp. in an ex smoker, esp, if you are having what I would characterize as "a lot of symptoms"........... should always be followed by your doctor. If you don't trust or dislike your doctor, then find new ones......there are great ones out there

That said it is possible that you have a problem with 1) flavorings (certain ones) 2) PG or 3)VG

I would narrow down from there. Biotene main ingredient is PG, so this may not be a product that can help ya.

BTW, did your dentist explain to you why you have a white tongue? Tongues, like skin are body organs. I have been in treatment for dry mouth, a chronic condition for me, by an oral surgeon, but white tongue was never a symptom. Has anyone evaluated you for thrush or yeast overgrowth? It's pretty simple to have the dentist take a swab.

 

[mkbilbo]

Some seem to only have it with the vaping flavour (and not food, drink) but isn't anyone concerned? It sounds great to wait for it to pass or cycle flavours but when I see so many posts such as this, it makes me think something else is at play here and not just a matter of getting used to a flavour.

You don't see much--if any--concern because it seems to be a nuisance thing that's transient. And from what I've seen, is most common in the early days. I don't read posts by long term vapers talking "vaper's tongue" except to give advice. I've had it happen once back when I first discovered (and overdid) Flavorz by Joe and never again. It just doesn't seem to be anything serious.

Listen, the switch from smoking to vaping is a big, big change for your body. A positive one, yes, but big. Tobacco smoke has over 4,000 (!) known chemicals in it. 50+ are known to cause cancer. There's a lot going on in there. Did you know (I didn't and I smoked over 30 years) there are MAOIs in tobacco smoke? Yeah, anti-depressants. No wonder people tend to become depressed when quitting!

My experience and what I've read around here over the last nine months now is the early days can have some oddball "side effects". That they're common, some are weird (I had the bizarre dreams some talk about, it was... bizarre), they can be annoying (like your sleep habits shift around on you), but in all, they're not life threatening, they're nuisances.

Many of which you would go through regardless of the method you use to quit smoking.

Losing your ability to taste for a few days is pretty minor up against, oh, lung cancer or emphysema doncha think? So maybe the early days of the switch can sometimes get bumpy but for the vast majority of us (and there's a lotta us around, the forum member count is 171,501 of which over 20,000 are counted as "active"), it's worth it.

Like me. I'm 52 and male from a family that has a history of heart attacks on one side, hypertension on the other. My blood pressure fell back to levels not seen since I was in freaking college. 110/65 is my normal with no meds. My "little" (well, he's middle aged with kids now) brother has to take meds or his BP shoots up into the 140 something or other range. Urk.

And I sleep like a rock these days. That hasn't been true in a long time. I was used to toss, turn, get up middle of the night, oh-gawd-I'm-getting-older-aint-I sleep. After a while on vaping, I went back to I go to bed, somebody flips a switch and it's morning. Some nights, I barely even have a sensation of a passage of time I'm getting sleep so deep. It's like *poof* morning.

So, yeah, I had some oddball things happen along the way in the early days (ask me about The Drowsies sometime) but go back? Like hell!

I'm leaning towards taking wonner's advice and lay off a few more days. I'll try again, but I'm going to grab a very mellow flavour, something the opposite of menthol. I wouldn't even mind trying flavourless eliquid (that would eliminate if it's a matter of the flavours).

Damn I was very happy when I got this, but this took the wind out of my sails a bit. At a minimum I'm going to stop chain vaping (my thought was, 0 nic! vape all I want)

Meh. I chain vape now. I do my own mixes so I can set my nic level where I want it (and because I save a truckload of money) and partly doing it myself was so I could make low, low nic "evening vape" juices so I could chain vape all I wanted.

Eight months out from my very, very last cig, the level doesn't seem to matter as much. I was puffing away like some kind of crazy steam engine last night at 12mg and when I went to bed, I was out like a light in a few minutes.

Shrug?

Upshot being, yeah, for now you may need to back off "chain vaping" but is it gone for good? Wasn't for me. Everybody's different and you have to play around with things, experiment, find what works for you. Give it some time. Some weeks down the road, when you get things lined up and working for you personally, you may be able to happily chain vape your brains out without a hitch.

One question I have for others. For those that have experienced a loss of taste of one particular eliquid, has it not affected the taste of any food, drink or just that particular eliquid? I wonder if some might not even notice that this is happening, but maybe it is just not as dramatically as I'm experiencing.

Oh I had a near total loss of taste. I could not taste any juice of any kind period. It was like vaping air. Just nothing. And for over a week.

Weirdly, with me, it didn't seem to affect food as much. But e-liquids? Couldn't taste a thing. So from the advice I got here back then, I pulled out a juice I'd bought that turned out to taste just vile and vaped it. Couldn't taste it so it wasn't awful. Saved the good juices for when I could taste again.

 

[Racehorse]

mk, agree with stuff you said........in general.

However, there were 2 alarms that were in this person's post which is why I say seek medical advice:

1) white tongue which OP "assumed" was from smoking. That led me to believe it has not been medically evaluated
2) loss of taste and smell which OP reports is not and has never been *normal* for them even when they have previously quit smoking in the past.

Ex smokers and smokers need medical evaluation before starting to vape. It scares me that stuff like this would be 'diagnosed' on an internet forum, esp. if somebody has been smoking and has received no medical or dental evaluation.

We simply cannot assume either of these things is vaping related. Smokers and ex smokers are at risk for things that can turn out to be serious problems.......or not. Mouths, lips, tongues, etc. are all things that smokers and ex smokers need to carefully monitor if they EVER smoked.

I think we do a disservice to say otherwise.

 

[vapnstuff]

All my doctors as well as my dentist support my vaping. Did you post that base on experience, or just what you've read that gets posted?

Well, if all of your doctors and dentist endorse vaping then mine are probably wrong; they're still operating under the misconception that any nicotine is bad and that the long-term effects of vaping are still unknown and strongly suggest I quit vaping ... but then, they're old school, which ain't all bad. Vape on.

Biotene main ingredient is PG, so this may not be a product that can help ya.

From what I can see, Biotene does have PG along with 12 other ingredients. It used to have more but they changed the formula recently (I just bought a new bottle and I'm not quite as happy with it); however, this is a moot point as I doubt the op will be vaping it.

 

[mkbilbo]

mk, agree with stuff you said........in general.

However, there were 2 alarms that were in this person's post which is why I say seek medical advice:

1) white tongue which OP "assumed" was from smoking. That led me to believe it has not been medically evaluated
2) loss of taste and smell which OP reports is not and has never been *normal* for them even when they have previously quit smoking in the past.

Ex smokers and smokers need medical evaluation before starting to vape. It scares me that stuff like this would be 'diagnosed' on an internet forum, esp. if somebody has been smoking and has received no medical or dental evaluation.

We simply cannot assume either of these things is vaping related. Smokers and ex smokers are at risk for things that can turn out to be serious problems.......or not. Mouths, lips, tongues, etc. are all things that smokers and ex smokers need to carefully monitor if they EVER smoked.

I think we do a disservice to say otherwise.

There you have an excellent point. An online forum is no substitute for an actual medical professional. Not by a long shot.

And you're dead on right about not assuming it's "just side effects of switching to vaping". In fact, I've noticed (and have at times joked about) people assuming just about anything that happens to them about the same time they start vaping must be caused by the vaping. The OP's issues may have nothing at all to do with vaping. Smoking is, as we all know, seriously damaging to the body. The years of smoking that came before is far more likely to cause health problems. Any number of them. And the emergence of one around the time somebody starts vaping could be simply coincidence.

But, also, the OP seemed discouraged by what could be (I don't know, I'm no doctor and not there) a minor case of "vaper's tongue". Something that's mere nuisance that a lot of us have had and got past. I would hate to see somebody give up on vaping and return to smoking over something transient that isn't any big deal. Smoking is, well, deadly. "Vaper's tongue" won't kill you.

A doctor visit certainly couldn't hurt. Cold reality is that we smokers were doing harm to ourselves. A smoking related health issue could have emerged coincidentally around the time the OP took up vaping. The two could be utterly unrelated. And smoking related health issues can be quite serious.

 

[mkbilbo]

Oh, trivial, minor quibble:

2) loss of taste and smell which OP reports is not and has never been *normal* for them even when they have previously quit smoking in the past.

Is there a "normal"? I have a few serious quit attempts in my history (one lasted almost a year even) and they were all different. A few elements were similar. I have, for example, a bit of a temper. Fortunately has a rather long fuse and doesn't show often. But take my nicotine away? Oh boy. I half joke that at least once, friends who were ever so supportive of my attempt to quit "cold turkey" ended up offering to buy me a carton.

The loss of taste I had with vaping was unique to vaping. And I've done just about all the quit stuff. Cold turkey, the gum, the patch, Zyban. I'm not sure there is a "normal" in quitting cigs. Especially not Zyban. I started having near hallucinations that threatened to get worse. One involved little gray aliens around my bed coming to abduct me. I couldn't see them I just knew absolutely for certain they were there and could feel them staring at me. I'm sitting in bed thinking, "Okay, first thing in the morning, I'm telling the doctor I ain't taking one more of those pills."

 

[mkbilbo]

Well, if all of your doctors and dentist endorse vaping then mine are probably wrong; they're still operating under the misconception that any nicotine is bad and that the long-term effects of vaping are still unknown.

Doncha love that one? The long term effects of vaping are unknown.

Okay. As opposed to the many beneficial long term effects of smoking?

Hmmm?

 

[Gary Mcroy]

Everyone knows vaping can cause spontaneous human combustion. We just dont like to talk about it

 

[sark666]

I thought I'd give an update, I went back to analogue's for a few days, and taste for the most part has returned. It's hard to say it's 100% back, but it was damn noticeable when it was 90% gone.

I think it was using menthol. I loved menthol (felt like I was vaping halls all day) but I think I've read menthol in general, as part of it's cooling effect, can numb tastebuds. It almost felt like my tongue was scolded. I don't think it's the heat from the eroll, as it's quite cool, even though the cone gets hot.

So I excluded menthol and things seem better. I wonder does freshmint or mint flavoured variants have any menthol?

Regarding my white tongue, I've had this years and have assumed it's from smoking, but obviously there are lot of smokers who don't have this so who knows. I had hoped vaping would improve this but as vaping dries the mouth, vaping in the end may not be for me, but I'll see.

Regarding seeing a doctor, I hadn't gone about the recent taste/smell loss but I had complained numerous times about my tongue. Tried that medication for thrush about 3 times, no difference. He's taken a swab from my tongue and found nothing unusual. A dentist recommend a tongue scraper (barely helps, and I gag if trying to use it) and just ensure to brush my teeth before bed. Just general advice and nothing worked.

I think oral health is very important but you'd be surprised if you get a white tongue, geographic tongue, etc, that they can't really do much. I've read forums related to these issues and people trying to get rid of this for years with no success. Sometimes a drastic diet change helps.

I tried that biotene mouthwash, didn't really make a bit of difference. One night I was going to smear vasoline on my tongue but thought I probably shouldn't do that. I noticed the tip of tongue is always a healthy red as the tip is pressed against the roof of my mouth most times. This made me think is there some kind of tongue protector I could sleep with? lol. Actually looked for something like that...

So I'm scraping menthol and although I think it was the main culprit, I chained vaped last night and today, and I do feel a very slight tinglely feeling on my tongue but no where near as bad as with menthol. And now I can't taste the vanilla I was using, although taste with other things (food drink) seem ok. Maybe with the bad state my tongue is in, vaping potentially makes things worse.

Thanks everyone for the responses and if something changes on the taste/smell front I'll update. Or if I see improvement in my tongue by 100% vaping only I'll update as well.

 

[BadAssBumbleBee]

The first few days after I started vaping I thought my taste buds had gone a little wonky. I noticed it most when eating chocolate as it just didn't taste right anymore. I also experienced dry mouth but that's probably because I was vaping much more heavily in order to get the nicotine into my system.

Three weeks without an analog cigarette now and my taste buds have returned to normal, food (including chocolate) taste so much better now and my mouth and throat don't feel as dry as they did during that first week.