Interesting Medical Benefit to Vaping

[SpookyDriver]

I started vaping to replace cigars as an occasional "stress reliever." I've also suffered from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) for 20+ years. In a typical week, I'd have 3-5 episodes of cramping and the related issues. Once I started vaping, the symptoms stopped completely with no other changes to my diet or lifestyle. I brought it up to my gastroenterologist and he said that in a small percentage of sufferers, nicotine has shown to be an effective drug, but he hadn't personally seen a patient who tried it. He asked me for more info on vaping and I told him about what type of liquids and devices I used. He did some research and told me that if it works, I should keep it up. He also said he found research that nicotine can exacerbate IBS issues in some people, so it's certainly not a cure for all sufferers.


It's been almost 3 months and I've been completely free of IBS issues for the first time since college (I'm 42 now). Not a single episode since the day I started vaping. I go through about 2-3 mils of e-liquid a day, mostly mint flavored in 6mg or 12mg nicotine. Since I never inhaled when I smoked cigars, I'm guessing that I wasn't absorbing much nicotine from that activity compared to vaping.


I wish I'd known about this a long time ago.

 

[erikbal]

Wow that's great. Something I never would've thought of. Glad to hear it's working out for you!

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

 

[Rat2chat2]

OMgosh, gonna have to get googlie with that and look up some more information. That is wonderful for you. Congrats.

 

[LondonGirl]

I have pretty bad IBS (my official diagnosis is "fast guts"), and it flares badly every time I've tried to give up smoking in the past. This time with vaping I am having some issues, but it's very minor compared to my previous attempts. There is a known connection with nicotine and colitis. I don't have colitis, but nicotine may well affect the gut for some people.

Anyway, it's great you're doing so much better!

 

[garnier81]

Nic is also beneficial to ulcerative colitis sufferers. I have this and its the reason I never quit the stinkies for years. Until ecigs came along! So I vape for health reasons

 

[DEAc23]

This is interesting, my younger brother has IBS. I will definitely have to mention this to him, even though I doubt he'd want to start vaping, as he quit smoking cigs cold turkey over a year ago. Still, it's worth at least mentioning it to him, thanks for sharing the info!

 

[Myk]

This isn't the first I've heard of it. I'm amazed the cigars didn't help enough that you did them more frequently. I probably had IBD since I was a kid but about the same time they started testing I started smoking. I wasn't diagnosed until I quit for vaping. I had to increase my nicotine from what I quit with to stop the bleeding.
I did about 2 years pipe smoking exclusively and I didn't notice any problems so pipes and cigars should be good enough (until at the end of those 2 years which I now know was IBD).

 

[ScottP]

I had IBS for a while, I finally discovered that I only had it when I used swallowable nicotine replacement products such as Commit Lozenges and Marlboro Snus. Once I quit those it went away. Nicotine in the blood stream is fine but in the stomach itself is very bad from my experiences.

 

[AndriaD]

I've had that IBS for a number of years myself, and I know about the cramping and nausea very well, but my own worst symptom is unfortunately the one that gets worse when your nicotine intake goes down -- constipation. I started vaping regularly at 6mg, but when I ditched the smokes, I realized I need a little more, so I started to mix my own nic levels to get 8mg. Still not quite enough to make my body stay "regular," so recently I upped it again, to 9mg for daytime use. Seems a bit better, but it's still a lot less than what I was getting from cigarettes, since nicotine in vapor is so poorly absorbed, compared to nicotine in smoke; I can't do more than around 10mg for more than an hour without becoming quite nauseous, and I suspect it's the IBS that causes that kind of reaction from such a relatively low level, since any stimulation of the intestines plays hell with IBS, and nicotine stimulates peristalsis.

Andria

 

[Giraut]

An increasing number of doctors recommend that patients "keep up vaping if it's working" (stopping short of prescribing it to smokers who want to quit, out of caution).

This said, I experience one negative side effect of vaping nicotine juices myself: I have acid reflux, and vaping makes it worse. And if I ever get juice in my mouth and swallow it, it flares up immediately and hurts like a bitch for 10 minutes. Smoking did that to me too - and in fact, my doc reckons that and my love of spicy foods gave me acid reflux in the first place - but not as bad as with vaping.

As long as I'm very very careful not to get any liquid juice in my stomach, I'm okay though.

 

[ScottP]

An increasing number of doctors recommend that patients "keep up vaping if it's working" (stopping short of prescribing it to smokers who want to quit, out of caution).

This said, I experience one negative side effect of vaping nicotine juices myself: I have acid reflux, and vaping makes it worse. And if I ever get juice in my mouth and swallow it, it flares up immediately and hurts like a bitch for 10 minutes. Smoking did that to me too - and in fact, my doc reckons that and my love of spicy foods gave me acid reflux in the first place - but not as bad as with vaping.

As long as I'm very very careful not to get any liquid juice in my stomach, I'm okay though.

Yeah whatever company makes TUMS should be helping to promote eCigs....they are going to make out like bandits.

 

[FireDragon1138]

Nicotine, smoking, or tobacco use in general can have some positive health effects, despite also have some huge negative consequences too.

Once I got beyond the cravings of quitting, after several years I started dealing with IBS-C, panic attacks. Later fibromyalgia reared its head. To top it off, I have Asperger's and seem to just function better with nicotine in my brain. I started smoking again last year and most of these problems improved a great deal, my fibro pain is totally gone which is amazing.

I hope vaping will replicate some of this but I think some of the positive effect may be due to the minor alkaloids in tobacco.

 

[LondonGirl]

Hi Firedragon, I also have Asperger's and fibromyalgia. Certainly makes life interesting!