Morning Cough.

[TropicalBob]

Zendruid had an excellent and accurate explanation of why we cough. It's the body's last defensive effort to expel the crud we inhale, whether cigarette smoke or polluted air. If the cilia become paralyzed, the body has no choice but to spasm a cough to get rid of crud in the lungs.

But what in cigarette smoke causes the coughing? And why does smoking seem to calm the cough? I'm sure we all woke up coughing many mornings, reached for a cigarette, and within a minute, the coughing calmed. The cig did the trick, eh?

Not really. As Zendruid wrote, the first inhalation of that morning cigarette paralyzed the cilia, so they could no longer do the job of cleaning the lungs. We couldn't even cough, due to that paralysis. We undid all the good work our cilia had begun overnight in the absence of smoke. Bottom line: No one has done themselves a favor by killing a cough with inhaled tobacco smoke.

So, if tars in smoke cause cancer and other lung disease, what in smoke paralyzes the cilia, leading to myriad health problems? Here's the answer:

Some tar and other fluids eventually do make it up the bronchiole tree. This mucous will hopefully be carried toward the trachea. This relationship is called the mucociliary escalator. Unfortunately, nicotine paralyzes the cilia, making it harder for the lungs to get rid of the tar. The cilia usually come back to life by morning, ridding the lungs of debris with the morning cough. Continued smoking can permanently fry the cilia, thus impeding the clearance of tar.

Nicotine. By vaping, we've gotten rid of thousands of other dangerous substances from the combustion of tobacco, but we still inhale the one constituent that paralyzes our cilia and causes a buildup of whatever crud we've inhaled. For some, the cough returns after initially disappearing. It's happening to me now, after 16 months of e-smoking and not inhaling a single cigarette. I'm coughing again. Healthy lungs don't cough every few minutes.

Those who use e-smoking to step down nicotine levels, and then quit sucking ANYTHING into their lungs, are wisest. Next best would be to reach zero-nicotine vapor and stay there. I find that more realistic for me. I hope I can force myself to accept PG or VG vaporized liquid only, along with zero-nic snus.

If I can satisfy the habit with harmless vapor from an e-cig, maybe it will be easier to defeat the addiction to Demon Nicotine.

 

[Tallgirl1974]

I can only speak for myself, but I smoked for 20 years and had developed the irritable smokers cough, and would get fits of coughing. I have been smoke free since Feb 28th...I had a consistent cough for about three weeks after I quit, and then nothing. Still nothing.
To add, I know I caught a cold two weeks ago, everyone I knew had it, and when I was a smoker a simple cold took me *weeks to get over. I had that cold for four days. Only four days. What the heck was I doing to myself for 20 years?!

 

[wyzardd]

TropicalBob, that makes more sense than a trip to Disneyland magically preventing the cough.

My way is more fun though

 

[TropicalBob]

Tallgirl, good to hear. You're on your E-Honeymoon, being this new to e-smoking. Hope the cough doesn't return in a year. Bravo for quitting cigs.

Disney World! Not DisneyLand. One's in Florida and we need your tourist dollars!

 

[paladinx]

thats interesting, I never heard that nicotine does that. I thought the reason was because the cilia were actually destroyed by the smoke and tar, and that they regrow once you quit smoking. But I guess that fits the morning thing.

 

[wyzardd]

Disney World! Not DisneyLand. One's in Florida and we need your tourist dollars!

1800 miles & 28 hours vs 1000 miles & 15 hours. I've given the oil companies enough money, I didn't want to nearly double the gas costs to get there.

Disney World is better though. Especially with my kids being 10 and 13. Only took one day for the oldest to get bored.

Hijack over

 

[TropicalBob]

You're not wrong, Paladinx. Tars from smoking do kill off cilia over time, in effect burying the tiny hairs. If a body is allowed to rid itself of tars before permanent damage is done, cilia will regrow and resume their functioning. The first few days off cigarettes are often accompanied by deep coughing, with tar flecks visible in phlegm. It's like self-cleaning of an atomizer, only without blinking lights and heat.

But nicotine is the paralyzer here. Ever take a suck on a really strong cigarette, then suddenly gasp for air? What happened was that nicotine paralyzed muscles at the top of your windpipe, shutting down your ability to breathe. Your body reacts quickly with a gasp for air and a cough to get rid of the paralyzing chemical you just took in.

My remaining question to research: Does this paralyzing effect occur only with inhaled nicotine? Or could NRT, snus, snuff, etc. cause the same effect even though the route of entry is different? We know nicotine is not benign. But just how bad is it when not part of tobacco smoke?

 

[mamu]

So do you have any kind of "Vaper's Cough"? Or has the cough gone away completely while you happily continue to vape? Also, how much (or how often, or however you want to put it) do you vape? Just curious!

The smoker's cough is completely gone. I infrequently have a short dry cough that I feel is a side effect of throat irritation from taking some pretty good throat hits. And I pretty much vape like a baby with a pacifier 24/7 and use 3-4 ml liquid per day. Vaping more than 60 days now. I was a 2-3 ppd smoker these last few years and have smoked for about 40 years.

 

[Tallgirl1974]

"My remaining question to research: Does this paralyzing effect occur only with inhaled nicotine? Or could NRT, snus, snuff, etc. cause the same effect even though the route of entry is different? We know nicotine is not benign. But just how bad is it when not part of tobacco smoke?"

and....why does it give us hiccups even in the gum/nrt form?

 

[Tallgirl1974]

Tallgirl, good to hear. You're on your E-Honeymoon, being this new to e-smoking. Hope the cough doesn't return in a year. Bravo for quitting cigs.

Disney World! Not DisneyLand. One's in Florida and we need your tourist dollars!

How long have you had your ecig?
Also, and I mean this with the utmost respect- I have read many posts of yours that seem to be reflective of every negative aspect there is when it comes to these. Am I wrong?
I'm all about honesty- I just tend to want to defend them. Life altering as they are, I think its knee-jerk for me.

 

[mamu]

But nicotine is the paralyzer here.

For pete's sake - who started this myth???

You're saying because nicotine is in tobacco smoke, and because tobacco smoke paralyze the cilia, it must be nicotine that paralyzes the cilia.

There is absolutely no properties in nicotine that can paralyze cilia!!

---------------------------------------------------------------
Tobacco – Tar: Tar is a sticky substance found on tobacco leaves. Tar coats the lungs and air sacs in smokers, preventing them from getting enough oxygen. Tar paralyzes the cilia in a smoker’s windpipe so that dust particles and pollen are not swept out of the air passages. Tar contains more than 40 cancer-causing chemicals.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Tobacco smoke can paralyze the cilia, the microscopic hairlike projections from cells lining the airways of the human respiratory tract. Without these continuously beating cilia, germs and particles of foreign matter can enter the lungs and cause irritation and infection. The lungs and respiratory passageways compensate by producing more mucus, which is expelled in a smoker's characteristic cough. Perennial coughing can weaken the lungs and lead to chronic bronchitis.

Persons who stop smoking sometimes are surprised that their smoker's cough continues for a week or two. This results from the reactivation of cilia, tiny hairs lining the person's airways that have been paralyzed by cigarette smoke. When the cilia resume their normal mucus-clearing function after a person stops smoking, the resulting tickle sensation can trigger a cough.

University of Iowa Health Science Relations
Jennifer G. Robinson, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Epidemiology
-----------------------------------------------------------

Summary: Tar can paralyze cilia. Tar is in tobacco smoke. Therefore, the sticky tar in tobacco smoke paralyze cilia.

 

[TropicalBob]

I want to question them, not defend them. There are just too many unknowns! That's shameful, as I hope even you will admit. It's the very reason the FDA is breathing down our neck. If we knew what we are doing -- really knew from a scientific standpoint -- these would be accepted as the future of smoking. But we don't. We simply "believe" in them and a liquid that could contain virtually anything.

I'm pro-e-cig; I'm anti-ignorance, in any form or expression. I do not wear rose-colored glasses about anything. I look only at reality -- and go from there.

I received by first e-pipe on Jan. 3, 2008. Got an e-cigar a short time later. Got my first e-cig in March 2008. I have used e-devices daily -- I now have about six major brands that I rotate among -- for 16 months. I joined this forum right after Smokey Joe created it.

I do NOT worry about using e-cigs. Like any intelligent person, I just want assurance that my judgment to use them is the correct judgment.

I was a reporter all my life. My job was to ask the questions your mother told you never to ask. And I did.

 

[TropicalBob]

Mamu: I got more than 4,000 hits on Google on just the words "nicotine paralyzes the cilia." The first few:

Some tar and other fluids eventually do make it up the bronchiole tree. This mucous will hopefully be carried toward the trachea. This relationship is called the mucociliary escalator. Unfortunately, nicotine paralyzes the cilia, making it harder for the lungs to get rid of the tar. The cilia usually come back to life by morning, ridding the lungs of debris with the morning cough. Continued smoking can permanently fry the cilia, thus impeding the clearance of tar.
Smoking'S Effects On The Lungs

Inside the human windpipe there are cilia that are planted on the walls thereof. These cilia are always moving up in order to drive away any alien body that exists in the lungs and windpipe. But nicotine paralyzes these cilia, and therefore, these infections and remnants accumulate in the windpipe, because the mechanism of cilia, which should drive them away, is rendered inoperative by nicotine.
Smonking

Nicotine paralyzes the cilia responsible for keeping your respiratory system clean. Many people have a morning cough as these defenses come back "online" after not smoking all night. In the same way, when some people quit, they will cough as their lungs begin to clean themselves out. A sore throat may result from development of new tissue and the clearing of tar and nicotine from old tissue.
Quitting for Your Life

Nicotine paralyzes and eventually kills the cilia in your lungs.
If u only smoke once in a while,can you still damage you lungs and throat and still have a high risk 4 cancer? - Yahoo! Answers

P.S. I surely would like NONE of this to be true. I'd rather it were smoking alone that did the dirty work on cilia. But ...

P.S.S. I got 16,000 hits on "tar paralyzes the cilia." Go figure. You think both might come in play? Nicotine as paralyzer, tar as a brake on movement?

 

[TropicalBob]

You threw me a doctor. This is my counter from the U of Mass. Pulmonology - Respiration

The susceptibility to most respiratory diseases is greatly increased by cigarette smoking and the most striking consequences of smoking are lung cancer and COPD. The ciliary epithelium cells in the bronchioles become damaged, leading to accumulation of mucus. This, in combination with hypertrophy of bronchiolar smooth muscle tissue, eventually causes alveoli to collaps. Nicotine enhances this process in that it paralyzes the cilia. Another effect of nicotine is that it inhibits the alveolar macrophages, so they become less effective in combating the infection. Besides the probably most dangerous "tar" fraction, cigarette smoke contains cyanide and often even radioactivity, derived from the fertilizer which is used to grow the tobacco plant.

 

[Brooksie]

I was diagnosed with chronic bronchitis about 2 yrs ago, I smoked 1+ ppd for 40+ yrs. I've vaped about 1 mo. now, had only 4 analogs, last one 2 wks ago. I used to cough every morning. Like you, all of my neighbors could hear me. I would cough for at least an hour, trying to get up phlem. Coughed so hard I would pull muscles in my back and side. Then I would cough off and on all day long. I hated it.

After I started e-cig, in about 2-3 days, my cough totally disappeared. That was a huge, huge surprise to me. I have the occasional cough during the day now, but it's more like a quick clearing cough, maybe a mental habit? I would imagine your cough should subside very soon, but everyone is different and I guess each one of our bodies react differently as I've seen someone post here before. This is just how it has affected me. Hope it goes away soon for you.

 

[RsL]

Nicotine paralyzes the cilia responsible for keeping your respiratory system clean. Many people have a morning cough as these defenses come back "online" after not smoking all night. In the same way, when some people quit, they will cough as their lungs begin to clean themselves out. A sore throat may result from development of new tissue and the clearing of tar and nicotine from old tissue.
Quitting for Your Life

What I find interesting is that if the smoker's morning cough is a result of the cilia coming back online to clean out the lungs, why don't I cough anymore in the morning since I started vaping? I guess the answer is because there is no more tar being added each day for my lungs to try and clear out. Make sense?

So perhaps the question is, do our lungs start to recover when we stop smoking and begin vaping? If the nicotine we inhale via vaping is still paralyzing our cilia then I'm guessing that our lungs won't improve...but at the same time they won't get worse like they would with continued smoking.

But what do I know? I'm not a Doctor. I don't even play one on TV. Sigh...

 

[Vapinginmyboots]

My 2 cents: vaping is probably, i stress probably better for the lungs than tobacco smoke as there is no more tar added. It would be wise I take it, however, to go as long as possible in the morning without using a PV. I know it would be tough, but those of us who do not smoke cigs were tough enough to get off analogs in the first place. A few extra hours in the morning to maybe noon or something would be good to allow the cilia to remove some tar daily. Even if every other day. That could give a cumulative effect and help us breath even better day to day.

 

[paladinx]

I dont have the answers to this question either, but I feel like my gut instincts are telling me it has more to do with the smoke then the nicotine. I mean if nicotine had a numbing property to it, wouldn't you feel it elsewhere? Like when you use st in your lip? Its sitting there soaking up all the nicotine, shouldnt you feel a little dull there at all if there is any remote property of nicotine being a numbing agent?

I personally think its the tar buildup. You become desensitized to the smoke because it is mucked up. and probably after hours and hours of not smoking you might be starting to clear itself out. similar to how when you are working out you feel fine, as long as you keep moving, but over night the next day your arms and legs are completely sore. Your body starts to heal once everything is at rest. I notice a lot of things are like that with the body. U dont feel all of the effects until later on when you are idle. then the body starts doing things.

 

[TropicalBob]

I confess to being stuck on this, Paladinx. By stuck, I mean I can't say positively it's one or the other, or a combination of both. But keep the fact in mind that the cilia are paralyzed into halting their waving action from the first inhalation of tobacco smoke each morning. They just cease functioning.

How much tar is in that first inhalation? Can't be much. Tar, or course, is a substance that contains the carcinogens, so it's the "nasty" in tobacco. But nicotine is a paralyzing poison and I can only logically conclude it is the first blast of this nerve gas nicotine that stops the cilia.

Over time, that tar buries the cilia as surely as asphalt covers weeds under a road surface. No, cilia can't wave if buried by tar. But I'm thinking short term here. What cause paralysis of the cilia from the first inhalation of the morning?

The "science" doesn't answer it, does it? Reports seem to interchange the words "smoke", "tar" and "nicotine" when referring to cilia consequences.

You can stick with your belief that's it's tar. I'll stick with mine that it's nicotine. Maybe before long, further testing will provide a definitive answer. Right now, we can't say for certain. (And do keep in mind that vaping delivers far less nicotine per puff than a tobacco cigarette, so any effect from our vaping is absent or less pronounced.)

P.S. Drip some 36mg e-liquid on a lip and see how it feels? A lot like Novocaine! Many users have reporting numbing from accidental skin contact with e-liquid. It's a toxin and a poison. Novocaine burns then numbs. Same with e-liquid. Same numbing effect on your sensitive cilia.

 

[RsL]

(And do keep in mind that vaping delivers far less nicotine per puff than a tobacco cigarette, so any effect from our vaping is absent or less pronounced.)

This is something I've always wondered about, but I'll admit I've never taken the time to search the forum to look for an answer. How exactly does nicotine juice compare to an actual cig as to the amount of nicotine you inhale? You said it's much less, but that has to correlate somehow with the strength of the juice you use as well as what kind of analog cig you normally smoke. Plus, I think a lot of us vape much more constantly than we used to smoke.

From my experience if I vape some 36mg juice I DO feel the effects of the nicotine and even 18mg juice seems to have a stimulant effect upon me unlike the Ultra Light analogs I used to smoke. So as time goes on I find myself vaping less mgs of juice because I actually feel like I've been getting more nicotine than I used to when I was a pack and half a day smoker!