Let's talk about nicotine!

[SaraBee]

Hey my fellow newbie vapers,

What nicotine levels did you start off at? I used to smoke a PAD, give or take a few, of marb lights. I've been vaping instead of smoking for five days using 12mg e-juice, but I just started to get a nasty non-Tylenol responding headache today. I usually go through about 1 and a quarter cartos (volts) a day. Do y'all think this headache is due to too much nicotine or too little? Should I vape less or more? I certainly feel like I want to vape more, but I don't want to make myself sick! I'm drinking more water than a drowning narwal, so at least I can rule out dehydration!

Aside from the headache, I'm also worried about the juice I just ordered since I got 18mg so my dad and I can share. He's a much heavier smoker. I hope I didn't make a stupid choice! I didn't have a headache when I placed the order, so I didn't consider it being too much.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Howdy,
Sounds to me like your headache is from not getting enuff nic. Usually if you are od'ing on nic, you will feel rapid heart beats and feel sick to your stomach. Headaches from too little nic are like headaches from too little caffeine.(same family).
Try the 18 you ordered and see from there. And relax. I use 12mg and vape all day long. But that is what is right for me.
hope this helps. Also, since its been 5 days without an analog, it might just be detoxing from cigs.

 

[dormouse]

Headache is usually too much nicotine in too short a period. I was a 1.5-2 PAD lights smoker and the first time I over-nicced myself was on a yummy 12mg juice I couldn't put down even though my normal level was 18mg.

If you order some 6mg you could mix equal parts of 6 and 18 to make 12mg.

It can also be dehydration - drink plenty of fluids.

Also you can reduce stress with spares, and charging cable at work and a 2nd cable for at home. For every model I vape I have 2 charging cables at home and 1 at work. And i have a spare battery I charge during the day then late night I put all of the day stuff on the chargers and use the spare till bed and it's waiting when I get up. I use 4 port USB to AC adapters with 5v 2amp (2000mA) output so i can charge 4 assorted batteries on one outlet.

Can also be auto batteries (manuals let you drag softer since your breath is not what turns on the battery - less muscle use). For some with TMJ etc can be the larger end size of the ecig or chewing the hard end.

But headache is usually nicotine. It's a vasoconstrictor. Once you give yourself a headache a few times you will know if it's right after you have been vaping a lot. Trying juice samples is another good way to over-nic yourself. Some other symptoms are rapid or irregular heartbeat, cold fingers, hazy or ill feeling like you are coming down with something.

I started lowering my nic about 2 months into vaping - to 12 then lower to get to where I can vape a lot when I want and rarely get a nic headache. because sometimes I just want to vape a lot. When you get the nic real low there is little throat hit but I make the most of it.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

I don't think going thru one carto and a quarter a day is over-nic -ing. That is what the op said, right?

 

[dormouse]

It depends how the vaping is spaced out. It's not too much total nic over a day that does it, it's too much nic in too short a time period. Did you vape a lot before you got the headache?

I'm a person who never in my whole life got headaches. But whenever vape too much over too short a time, I get a headache.

 

[Balthezar]

Check out this thread, for symptoms when you change to e-cig.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/health-safety-e-smoking/3305-list-symptoms-when-quitting-tobacco-changing-ecigarette.html

Very informative and helped me to understand a few things that were happening to me (coughing, breaking out, etc).

Balth

 

[SaraBee]

Howdy,
Sounds to me like your headache is from not getting enuff nic. Usually if you are od'ing on nic, you will feel rapid heart beats and feel sick to your stomach. Headaches from too little nic are like headaches from too little caffeine.(same family).
Try the 18 you ordered and see from there. And relax. I use 12mg and vape all day long. But that is what is right for me.
hope this helps.

Yeah, I think your advice to relax is probably quite good. Any type of medication tends to scare the crap out of me. You'd think after 15 years of sucking down cancer sticks, I wouldn't be scared of nicotine! My tummy certainly feels fine, so that's a good sign! I take a beta blocker to control a tachycardia I've had since I was a kid, so there's no way my heart can beat fast. It's like the lamest super power ever. LOL

Can also be auto batteries (manuals let you drag softer since your breath is not what turns on the battery - less muscle use). For some with TMJ etc can be the larger end size of the ecig or chewing the hard end.

I started lowering my nic about 2 months into vaping - to 12 then lower to get to where I can vape a lot when I want and rarely get a nic headache. because sometimes I just want to vape a lot. When you get the nic real low there is little throat hit but I make the most of it.

I am using auto batteries, which I love. I try to take short drags like I would when I was smoking. And my master plan is to slowly step down until I'm off nicotine altogether. I'm expecting a package tomorrow of prefilled cartos of the lowest nicotine level tomorrow due to some ordering snafu on my end. So I'll have 18mg juice, and 12mg and 6(?)mg prefilled cartos lying around, so at least I'll be able to experiment and see which one is the magic number.

 

[Murdock Ruml]

I started on 18mg juice now I am vaping 36mg juice. Everyone is different though. It is important for you to find what works for you. 18 is a good place to start. I would suggest getting some higher unflavored juice so you could add it to yourjuices if the 18mg is not enough. But If you are fine with 18mg you could cut it down to yor desired level and add flavor and... wahla. Welcome to DIY.

 

[Snackie]

Your level of nicotine that you need is going to be very individual, all i can tell you is that I have been using 18mg and when I have a strong urge I use 24mg. When I tried just using 24mg and no 18, I did start feeling a little sick in my stomach. All you can do is try higher, lower and pay attention to how your body responds. As a previous poster said - the amount might be right for you but if you vape a lot in a short period of time it may be wrong. So you may need a couple different strengths of juice like I do.

 

[kabonk]

I started with 36mg and 24mg and after I knew I was over smoking dropped to 24mg only and a few months later dropped to 18mg few months after that dropped to 12mg I'm at 6mgs now, too much nic can give you a headache and so can to little nic are you craving cigarettes? if you are then its probably not enough nic if its to much nic set your PV down for about 30 minutes the headache should go away if does then there's your answer

 

[Justice]

You are bound to have headaches etc for the first week or two. I was using 22-24 mg but have been increasing nic to 32 now. I was a 2+ ppd smoker. For the first few weeks I was totally analog free. But fell onto smoking a few a day. As I've been increasing nic I've been getting less and less analogs. I obviously can't say for sure but I doubt your nic is too high as is you may be well to try the 18 mg and see how it goes.

 

[Schwing]

I've found that the nicotine juices have a harsh throat hit, and the zero nicotine juices have some amazing flavor without the pain. Being a former 'analog' smoker of 8 years (who's trying to get in shape!), I enjoy the bold flavors with massive vapor action more so than the throat hit or nicotine content. I've tried kicking the habit with smokeless tobacco, and I realized it's less about the nicotine content than it is the action -- or illusion -- of smoking.

 

[krnxguhj33]

hen I FIRST got an E-cig about three years ago, I went with 36 mg as my starting point. Looking back, that wasn't a great idea. I recently started vaping again and I started vaping at 24 mg. It provides good throat hit, in my opinion. Looking forward to switching to 18 soon.

And Balthezar,

Thanks for the link! That explained a lot about what was going on when I first switched. xD

 

[Retriever]

I am currently using 24mg and it seems to be right for me. Tried 36mg and way too strong. It really is what others have said, very individual. I smoked 2ppd of full strength analogs so I will probably stick with the higher nic for now.

 

[Slim]

On some good advice, I used RY4 as a "baseline" of sorts to decide on a strength. I settled on 18mg. As many people have said, it's a personal preference, but you can baseline your strength based on a relatively mild flavour.

I've found that 12mg on menthol works well for me, and something more decadent like Choc. Brownie 10mg is enough. I can use 24mg SOMEtimes, but that seems to give me a few dull headaches. So I find that it's also a combination of the flavour being used.

 

[mikeproctor]

The wife and I both vape 24 to 36mg all the time. If you have cravings for a real cig I would say you need to go to a higher nic, if not then trying going down in strength.

 

[HeadLikeOrange]

I was also a PAD Marlboro Lights smoker. I started with 18MG juice, which was fine during the day (I take "vape breaks" at work every couple of hours, the same as when I smoked), but too much in the evenings when I basically never put the PV down from about 8:30 until I got to bed around 11 (somebody stop the room, I wanna get off).

I took it down to 12MG which doesn't keep the cravings at bay during the day, but is perfect for the evenings.

Now I'm DIY-ing my own stuff. I take a 30ML of VG at 60MG and mix it with a 90ML of PG at 0MG. I wind up with 120ML of 75% PG at 15MG. After I've added in my flavorings, I'm at about 77% PG and 14 MG. This is my current sweet spot.

 

[hairball]

I was a 4 PAD smoker menthol kings. I started at 36mg and had headaches...not from too much nic, but from lacking it. I was determined to quit and suffered through it until my body detoxed and leveled out. I happily vape 18mg all day long now without any issues.

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

I was a 1 PAD strong tobacco smoker. First 2 weeks vaped 36 mg. I then went down to 30 mg. As of a few days ago I am now on 24 mg. It's all very personal and when I first began vaping I was trying/ vaping too hard. I now know long smooth drags is the way to go...let the vape come to me. I also had some headaches when I first began and had to realize my body was not only going into withdrawal from the Nic but also all the other garbage that is in analogs. It's always a good idea to have some VG, PG and/ or distilled water on hand to customize your juices.
Good luck and as the Vets told me the first 10- 14 days are the worst. As usual their advice was spot on.

 

[MikeInNYC]

I was 1 PAD lights or ultra lights and 12mg was a good nic level for me.

As said though, since it's a new toy we tend to play with it a bit more when we have the time to - and I gave myself a headache soon after getting my first kit and trying all the juices in rapid succession.

The same thing would happen to me if I chain-smoked one too many.