Hi all,
I wanted to introduce myself and ask a couple of questions. This is my first post here, although I've been reading here and there on the site for a couple of weeks. I live in Eagan, Minnesota.
I have a story that I haven't read here. I smoked for 40 years, and finally quit completely for a whole year (used Chantix - good stuff - that's another story), after many failed attempts. I missed my best-friend-cigs every single day of those 365 days, and also gained a good amount of weight. My appetite was out of control. Also, since I am planning a 10-day road-trip to visit friends who all smoke, I knew that it was going to be an impossible situation ... that's when I started looking into e-cigs. That, and a doctor visit (for an unrelated reason) that showed a weight gain that blew me away ... and I knew that both nicotine and the process of smoking were a big appetite suppressant for me. My family practice doc said, "We'd much rather see you
fat than smoking." That's an actual quote! Great (sarcastic).
I found this thread by searching Google for "e cigarettes and glycerine and chest hurts". My experience started off with a mini-cig, and
vaping High Menthol and Low Menthol for for first week (my original purchase). Then I got shipments of syringes and Coffee High; Johnson Creek's Mint Chocolate Madness PG; and some various flavorings, empty bottles & droppers, and "Natural Glycerine" from lorannoils.com, which I'd read about on several different Forums and seen on videos.
I went NUTS with mixing concoctions ... writing "recipes" and
vaping like crazy. Yummy, yummy: Creme de Menthe flavor, with Menthol High, and a few drops chocolate, this and that, and I cut it all with some Glycerine, since I'd already discovered that straight "High" strength gave me a sore throat. The next morning, I woke up with a chest that felt like I had a combination of brochitis and pneumonia. Uff-da (as we say in Minnesota)! It cleared up by night-time with plenty of hot coffee and tea throughout the day, and an "expectorant" medication thrown in for good measure.
So the next day (yesterday), I read some more about mixing your own stuff, cut way down on the "dark colored" flavorings and
juice (which some say is bad), mixed in more Glycerine, and didn't vape nearly as much or heavily as the day before. This morning, I woke up worse than the day before. I can still hardly talk - like laryngitis - after being up for 7 hours, drinking 2 cups of hot coffee and 2 of hot tea, and I also have the same chest crap as yesterday.
Now I'm wondering ... not only about the "flavors" that I added to my internet store-bought juice, but also about the "Natural Glycerine", which is very thick stuff. I'm going to do some more online searches today, but am also hoping for any quicker response/info./tips from this forum about if the Glycerine that I purchased is the same as the "health food store" "100% food safe vegetable glycerine" that lorraine57 and others have written about. Lorannoils (where I bought my Glycerine) is a candy making supply company, and was recommended as having quality flavorings. The bottle doesn't specifically say "vegetable glycerine". It says "Natural Glycerine", 'though I know that it's food safe.
I'm going to cut down and go back to plain "low" strength today, but all I have is menthol - that's what I always smoked, and I've read here about the menthol cons too. I'm going to order another low type of juice today, but was ultimately hoping to find a high strength (36 mg) juice with no flavor that I could cut with Glycerine (or something else), and add my own flavor to - to get a menthol flavor that I like, and also for cost reasons. I saw the one from the UK company - Totally Wicked Pillbox 38 (36 mg/no flavor) - and am going to see if there's a supplier that sells it in the US.
And, btw, I've never had any asthma or lung-related health issues, other than a tendency for a head cold to turn into bronchitis when I was a 2-pack per day smoker. I know that some will say that it was stupid to start this new habit when I'd already been off of smokes for a year, but I hope that some others will be understanding, and not lecture. There are other personal
issues involved, and I think that this is a better mode than going back to the original habit. The first week-plus on e-cigs, I felt
fabulous, and my appetite was back to normal, if not less.
Thank you so much to anyone who got through this whole babbling story and background, and for all that I've learned on this forum already from the information that people have taken the time to share.
P.S. to Starlite - about the ingredients in flavors. I don't know about the Nicotine Juice flavor ingredients, but as an example, the "highly concentrated" Creme de Menthe flavor that I bought contains (copied off of the bottle): "Artificial Flavor, Propylene Glycol, Ethyl Alcohol, Water, Blue 1, Yellow 5." It's a very light, see-through, mint green color. It also says, "All flavor ingredients approved for use by the FDA."
Interestingly (to me, anyway), the others add or subtract some of those ingredients:
Chocolate - Artificial Flavor, Water, Propylene Glycol, Ethyl alcohol, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 1.
Mint Chocolate Chip - Artificial Flavors, Propylene Glycol.
Coffee - Art. Flavors, Water, Propylene Glycol, Caramel Color.
Hazelnut Mocha - Artificial Flavors, Propylene Glycol, Water, Alcohol.
Yep, I bought all of those flavors ... some just 1 FL DRAM (3.7 ML /.125 FL OZ) to try them out. Also, interestingly, the Mint Chocolate Chip is a dark brown color, much like the Chocolate, but doesn't list colors or any other ingredients.
Whew ... poof.
