Have long-term vapers noticed fewer colds or upper respiratory infections?
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I'm prone to sinus infections....have one now; but they are less frequent. I have had a cold...or allergy issue for 2 months now along with my son and husband, so it isn't helping with that...but this is the first year in 4 years that I have not ended up in the hospital do to breathing issues!!! Whoopee! Still have some cold months to get through here in Ohio, but I am doing so much better health wise. So much better.
I haven't had a cold since I quit smoking and started vaping in Sept '09. The year before that I had back to back colds from August through May. My grandson hasn't had any colds this year, either, but came home yesterday and told me e-cigs are bad for people. I told him they're a lot better than smoking.
I had pretty much resigned myself to chronic post-nasal drip (which was partly hay fever) during the summer months and at least one bad cold in winter, but it's all vanished since I started vaping over a year ago. On the odd occasions that I do have a cigarette these days, I notice the drip coming back ...
I have made a few posts on this subject over time. I started vaping on 11 Sep. 09 and quit smoking that same day. I haven't had a single cold or sniffle since. Absence of analogs helps but not from the first day. PG is a proven disinfectant and as such must provide a very bad environment for germs and viruses to thrive and multiply. The testing done was with a much lower concentration than we use and it proved that PG was effective. There is always the chance that a virus will sneak past and set up shop in the respiratory system. That may be the drawback to vaping, that it destroys beneficial bacteria (if there are any in the respiratory tract) along with the bad bugs. I know that I have been exposed to a multitude of cold and flu viruses and that I am not that good at preventative measures (keep forgetting to take my hand sanitizer) and have been cold and flu free for almost 2 winters.
I just got over the first cold since I started vaping. I do believe Im healthier immune wise, because of the lack of cigarettes, not necessarily the vaping. Typically I'm sick once per year, and it hasn't changed so far...
Interesting though...
Interesting though...
I have not been sick since about 6 months before I started vaping....so I'd say about 16 months ago was my last illness....*knocks on wood* But there are others on this forum that do not share this experience. I would think the sample group would need to be pretty large. I think its an interesting premise, though. Thanks for posting this.
I was in the middle of my yearly bout of bronchitis the day I quit smoking cold turkey and picked up vaping. Once it sets in, it always takes me about two months to get over it completely. It cleared up in about 5 days. I have not had to use my inhaler since I started vaping. I had the usual cold I get right after Christmas, and it didn't settle into my chest and turn into bronchitis like it usually does (if I didn't already have it already, that is.) It cleared up in a couple of days which is not usual for me. It wasn't like this before I started smoking. Even when I was in school, a winter cold meant bronchitis for me.
Just got done with my first big cold/flu in a couple years -- and coincidentally I started vaping about a year and a half ago.
Despite it hitting me like a ton of bricks -- flu'ish, chills, feeling low, head congested, moved to throat, hurt to cough -- things which WOULD have made the old me suffer for at least a month, this time I was incredibly pretty much back to normal in a little more than a week.
The coughing and hacking that used to ensue!! Gah! The predictable bronchitis which rarely resolved without antibiotics eventually... These things disappeared in about a week, which to me is pretty amazing.
This might not constitute a scientifically valid sample, but I believe incidence of colds and flu are reduced, and certainly duration/impact.
Despite it hitting me like a ton of bricks -- flu'ish, chills, feeling low, head congested, moved to throat, hurt to cough -- things which WOULD have made the old me suffer for at least a month, this time I was incredibly pretty much back to normal in a little more than a week.
The coughing and hacking that used to ensue!! Gah! The predictable bronchitis which rarely resolved without antibiotics eventually... These things disappeared in about a week, which to me is pretty amazing.
This might not constitute a scientifically valid sample, but I believe incidence of colds and flu are reduced, and certainly duration/impact.
As a life-long smoker I was Dx'd with COPD a few years before I started vaping and quit smoking. I was quit and vaping for almost a year and my respiratory function was markedly improved (as per my pulmonologist). I didn't get my twice yearly asthmatic bronchitis (that hospitalized me for a week the year before I quit smoking), I didn't need my inhaler, good-bye nebulizer, and I didn't get sick at all.
My daughter had H1N1 and it ran through my house. I was fully exposed and I was the only one who did not contract the flu. I felt and looked very healthy.
Can I attribute this all to vaping? I can't know for sure, but I do know that once I relapsed and went back to smoking, within a month or so I was again wheezing, using my inhaler, had done several Prednisone bursts and tapers due to a cold and then another bout with bronchitis, I looked awful, felt awful and as I posted several times around the boards - in December I ended up hospitalized for a week with viral Pneumonia.
I've been smoke-free for just over one month now and again - haven't used my inhaler, no more inhaled or oral steroids, good-bye nebs, my color is back, I look and feel much healthier.
Yes - these are all the results of not smoking. However - I'm another one who'll get whatever generic respiratory virus or strep I am exposed to but when I was vaping I didn't get sick, at all.
When I told my pulmonologist in the hospital that I didn't need help quitting because I was successful in the past with an "e-cig" he was thrilled, told me he thinks they are great and told me to go home and start using it.
When talking about quitting with one of the Respiratory Therapists I told him the same thing and he was almost jumping up and down. He said he wished everyone who smoked would try "e-cigs". He gave me huge thumbs up and said he's suggested "e-cigs" to smokers. He even briefly mentioned the "germicidal benefits" when talking about how PG is now being "misted" into some Emergency Rooms and Pediatric units.
Wouldn't it be cool if our "second hand vape" actually protected people from getting a cold or the flu? lol
I'm still regaining my energy from being knocked on my ... from the Pneumonia, but I can feel the benefits from being smoke free exponentially as the weeks pass.
Weather or not it's proven as fact - I believe I do get an "anti-respiratory cruddy illness" boost from vaping.
Remie
My daughter had H1N1 and it ran through my house. I was fully exposed and I was the only one who did not contract the flu. I felt and looked very healthy.
Can I attribute this all to vaping? I can't know for sure, but I do know that once I relapsed and went back to smoking, within a month or so I was again wheezing, using my inhaler, had done several Prednisone bursts and tapers due to a cold and then another bout with bronchitis, I looked awful, felt awful and as I posted several times around the boards - in December I ended up hospitalized for a week with viral Pneumonia.
I've been smoke-free for just over one month now and again - haven't used my inhaler, no more inhaled or oral steroids, good-bye nebs, my color is back, I look and feel much healthier.
Yes - these are all the results of not smoking. However - I'm another one who'll get whatever generic respiratory virus or strep I am exposed to but when I was vaping I didn't get sick, at all.
When I told my pulmonologist in the hospital that I didn't need help quitting because I was successful in the past with an "e-cig" he was thrilled, told me he thinks they are great and told me to go home and start using it.
When talking about quitting with one of the Respiratory Therapists I told him the same thing and he was almost jumping up and down. He said he wished everyone who smoked would try "e-cigs". He gave me huge thumbs up and said he's suggested "e-cigs" to smokers. He even briefly mentioned the "germicidal benefits" when talking about how PG is now being "misted" into some Emergency Rooms and Pediatric units.
Wouldn't it be cool if our "second hand vape" actually protected people from getting a cold or the flu? lol
I'm still regaining my energy from being knocked on my ... from the Pneumonia, but I can feel the benefits from being smoke free exponentially as the weeks pass.
Weather or not it's proven as fact - I believe I do get an "anti-respiratory cruddy illness" boost from vaping.
Remie
Maybe your right Remie! I'm going to start blowin more vapor into the kids rooms! lol.
I have been vaping for over a year and only got sick one time. It was a month into vaping and I was hacking up some real nasty stuff, that lasted for bout 4 weeks. Since then I have not been sick. However I have a little cold right now but not real serious and I feel alot better than if I still smoked. I do believe that vaping helps from fighting colds.
Two years ago I was diagnosed with severe COPD. I was having severe respiratory infections about every 4 months. My last bout was severe bronchitis last February. Hubby and I both quit smoking the day our kits arrived in April and neither of us has been sick since then. He went for a physical two months ago and when the doctor listened to his chest, she said, "I can tell you've never smoked." He told her he smoked for over 40 years and she couldn't believe it. I had a spyrometry test last June when I was fitted for a respirator and I have no signs of COPD now. I was well within the normal range for my age. There's just got to be some added benefit to these little jewels to have such significant health improvements and no infections at all for nearly 10 months.
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