So I had another bout of nicotine sickness this evening after chain vaping 3 x 4ml tanks of 3mg juice, at 0.15Ω. Yes, I'm a lightweight. The first time was a few of weeks ago after vaping just a quarter tank of 12mg juice, at 0.3Ω.
On another occasion a couple of weeks ago, I was on a car ride and started feeling nauseous and getting the sweats. It was an easy ride and I'm not given to motion sickness. Crap! I felt into my pocket and found that my atty had leaked and a wet patch of juice on the inside of my pocket was pressed real close to my femoral artery (tactical pants, pockets everywhere). The next 10 minutes were a struggle to not hurl on the dashboard. Made it home, tore off my clothes and showered. Soaped the area down real well and had to crawl into bed and lie down.
This evening's episode prompted me to use my Google-fu and ECF to find out about nicotine sickness and, while there're a bunch of threads about it here, a lot of the info is spread out and not really useful if your lunch is trying to come up and your breakfast is taking the express train out the other end. So I'm gonna post some of what I found out here AND my experience. Hopefully this will help someone else searching for answers. And also some questions that I hope some experts can answer.
First off: vaping at sub-ohm means that I'm getting denser clouds and that means a lot more nic being delivered per draw than if I was just doing regular MTL. I think it's a combination of volume and concentration that's a factor. For instance, doing 3 tanks a day is easy, but 3 tanks in a half hour is pushing it for me.
Secondly: at the first sign of light headedness, nausea or just general discomfort, I should have stopped. But hey, I thought as I refilled the tank, it'll pass; just be a man and suck it up (pun intended)! This, on hindsight, is a BAD IDEA!
So an hour and 3 trips to the porcelain throne later, I'm still feeling like rolling over and vomiting all over the floor. I'm light headed and having cold sweats. Hands are cold and so are my feet; and the weather here is over 30ºC. Then I pick up my phone and start Googling for help. And here's what I find out:
Nicotine is a stimulant (like, duh) and can cause a spike in blood sugar then a severe crash. This is similar to the sensation I get if I hit the gym right after I wake up and skip my breakfast. Found a cure from a pipe smoking forum: EAT SUGAR. Some of the guys there put candy under their tongue, drank soda or just ate chocolate (milk, not dark chocolate). I reached for M&Ms; I felt better after two packets. And I sipped about a cup of water since my queasy stomach couldn't take more at the time.
I don't know what you should do if you're diabetic, but for everyone else, this should help.
The moral of the story: All good things in moderation.
This led me to ponder several other questions:
a) While everyone's tolerance of nicotine may differ, how much nicotine are we really absorbing?
A 4ml tank of 3mg/ml juice contains 12mg of nic in total. But I remember reading somewhere that research with smokers showed that they were only absorbing a small percentage of the nicotine in the smoke since most of the smoke is exhaled. What this percentage is, I can't recall. Can anyone shed some light on this? This should apply to vaping too. And someone on one of the thread had quoted some study that nic absorption is lover in vaping than smoking so this should drop the numbers further.
b) Are there any other "cures" for nicotine sickness? Any other things you've tried that worked? Someone on the pipe smoking forum said caffeine, though I'm not certain since no one else on that thread supported him.
c) Are there any ways to reduce or prevent the effects of nicotine sickness? That same forum had a number of guys advocating smoking high-nic blends only AFTER a meal, as that would be at a time when blood glucose levels were higher to counteract the effects of nicotine sickness.
d) On this forum, there was a post from a guy who was a heavy smoker and vaped at a high nic comfortably. But he switched out to a comparatively similar 24mg juice and felt sick after a few puffs. Does anyone know if formulation OR a combination of ingredients can lead to more efficient absorption of nic, leading to those effects or symptoms?
e) Nicotine absorption through skin contact is very real and make the leaky tank issue a potentially serious one. Since then I carry a pouch with me to put my rig in, just in case. Does anyone have any "cures" for skin contact? I dunno, like with jellyfish stings or something? Pee all over it or what?
I hope this helps someone who's looking for some quick first aid.
Tags:
treatment, first aid, how much nicotine, sugar
On another occasion a couple of weeks ago, I was on a car ride and started feeling nauseous and getting the sweats. It was an easy ride and I'm not given to motion sickness. Crap! I felt into my pocket and found that my atty had leaked and a wet patch of juice on the inside of my pocket was pressed real close to my femoral artery (tactical pants, pockets everywhere). The next 10 minutes were a struggle to not hurl on the dashboard. Made it home, tore off my clothes and showered. Soaped the area down real well and had to crawl into bed and lie down.
This evening's episode prompted me to use my Google-fu and ECF to find out about nicotine sickness and, while there're a bunch of threads about it here, a lot of the info is spread out and not really useful if your lunch is trying to come up and your breakfast is taking the express train out the other end. So I'm gonna post some of what I found out here AND my experience. Hopefully this will help someone else searching for answers. And also some questions that I hope some experts can answer.
First off: vaping at sub-ohm means that I'm getting denser clouds and that means a lot more nic being delivered per draw than if I was just doing regular MTL. I think it's a combination of volume and concentration that's a factor. For instance, doing 3 tanks a day is easy, but 3 tanks in a half hour is pushing it for me.
Secondly: at the first sign of light headedness, nausea or just general discomfort, I should have stopped. But hey, I thought as I refilled the tank, it'll pass; just be a man and suck it up (pun intended)! This, on hindsight, is a BAD IDEA!
So an hour and 3 trips to the porcelain throne later, I'm still feeling like rolling over and vomiting all over the floor. I'm light headed and having cold sweats. Hands are cold and so are my feet; and the weather here is over 30ºC. Then I pick up my phone and start Googling for help. And here's what I find out:
Nicotine is a stimulant (like, duh) and can cause a spike in blood sugar then a severe crash. This is similar to the sensation I get if I hit the gym right after I wake up and skip my breakfast. Found a cure from a pipe smoking forum: EAT SUGAR. Some of the guys there put candy under their tongue, drank soda or just ate chocolate (milk, not dark chocolate). I reached for M&Ms; I felt better after two packets. And I sipped about a cup of water since my queasy stomach couldn't take more at the time.
I don't know what you should do if you're diabetic, but for everyone else, this should help.
The moral of the story: All good things in moderation.
This led me to ponder several other questions:
a) While everyone's tolerance of nicotine may differ, how much nicotine are we really absorbing?
A 4ml tank of 3mg/ml juice contains 12mg of nic in total. But I remember reading somewhere that research with smokers showed that they were only absorbing a small percentage of the nicotine in the smoke since most of the smoke is exhaled. What this percentage is, I can't recall. Can anyone shed some light on this? This should apply to vaping too. And someone on one of the thread had quoted some study that nic absorption is lover in vaping than smoking so this should drop the numbers further.
b) Are there any other "cures" for nicotine sickness? Any other things you've tried that worked? Someone on the pipe smoking forum said caffeine, though I'm not certain since no one else on that thread supported him.
c) Are there any ways to reduce or prevent the effects of nicotine sickness? That same forum had a number of guys advocating smoking high-nic blends only AFTER a meal, as that would be at a time when blood glucose levels were higher to counteract the effects of nicotine sickness.
d) On this forum, there was a post from a guy who was a heavy smoker and vaped at a high nic comfortably. But he switched out to a comparatively similar 24mg juice and felt sick after a few puffs. Does anyone know if formulation OR a combination of ingredients can lead to more efficient absorption of nic, leading to those effects or symptoms?
e) Nicotine absorption through skin contact is very real and make the leaky tank issue a potentially serious one. Since then I carry a pouch with me to put my rig in, just in case. Does anyone have any "cures" for skin contact? I dunno, like with jellyfish stings or something? Pee all over it or what?
I hope this helps someone who's looking for some quick first aid.
Tags:
treatment, first aid, how much nicotine, sugar
