Shortness of breath

[james1758]

Hi all,

Got my vape yesterday, smoked about 20 roll ups a day, old holborn baccy so imo stronger than reds? I'm noticing a shortness of breath sometimes when I vape, usually subsides after a few minutes.

What could be the cause of this?

The vape I'm using is a KangerTech Emow, and the e-liquid is 24mg Fruit E-juice (watermelon flavour). I also bought 18mg pineapple flavour, my plan being to gradually go down in steps each time the e-liquid bottle is empty, until I'm on 0mg nicotine, and then to stop using the vape altogether.

Thanks for any help,
James.

 

[james1758]

Also one thing I cant really decide is how often I should be taking drags of the vape? When I'm at work ill have 2 drags every half hour/ hour depending on how busy I am, but at home I seem to be doing it more, I'm just not sure how often I should be vaping as this is to quite smoking (heavily cut down), not get addicted to vaping...

 

[Katmar]

Hi James, and welcome to the forum.

Vaping is a little different from smoking. You may be taking the vape too deep into your lungs. Try drawing it to your throat, then lungs, if you want. It takes a little practice to get to a point where you are comfortable with it. I hope this helps.

Also, it varies in the amount of time you vape. Some people vape as though it was a cigarette for 5 minutes or so. Others, take a hit or 2 and put it down. While still others, chain vape, so to speak. Go with what feels best.

 

[VNeil]

I can't help you with your shortness of breath. Maybe you just need to get used to vaping. Or you may find you are sensitive to the PG in the juice.

I think you are making a HUGE mistake by setting arbitrary goals on reducing nicotine strength or vaping frequency. You've probably gotten a lot of propaganda in your head about nicotine and vaping, all negative and all lies. You should do some research here on the TRUTH of nicotine and vaping. In short....

1. There is no medical or scientific evidence that nicotine, delivered outside of tobacco, is any more harmful than caffeine, and in fact it has some very well proven and documented health benefits, in terms of easing symptoms of depression, alzheimer's, and other assorted neurological conditions. Niocotine is simply not known to be harmful, despite the propaganda that has tried hard, for decades, to equate smoking, and all it's evils, to nicotine.

2. There is absolutely no documented and proven evidence that vaping is harmful for you. Despite all the propaganda thrown at you.

However, there is much documented evidence that your PAD smoking habit is harmful.

My advice:

Vape whatever nic level, at whatever frequency that YOU need in order to cut the cravings enough to quit the smokes. While you are doing that, you can do your homework on the TRUTH behind vaping and nicotine. In particular, there is no evidence that vaping itself is addictive. All you are doing is using a far safer and likely completely safe alternative delivery of the nicotine that smoking made you dependent on.

I started at 24mg. A year later I am down to 3mg, and much of the day I vape 1mg. I never forced myself to drop my nic level. I did it when my body told me it was time = when it was time to cut down I would get a bit nauseous when I was vaping heavily and I have been a chain vaper the whole time. During all that time I had one objective- never take another puff on a cig. My last puff was July 31, 2014. The only reason I want to get to zero nic is that it is socially unacceptable. The only thing wrong with nic is the politics. If the politics of coffee were as bad I would probably work on my caffeine habit too.

 

[VNeil]

Some good research....

A very important read about the propaganda of nicotine.... please read this before you start setting arbitrary limits that will backfire and result in you lapsing back to the evil smokes...

Nicotine Propaganda

This explains why even 18mg, vaped for a half hour, cannot quite equal a single cig smoked for 5 minutes. It suggests you need a higher nic concentrate than you might think, and why you need to vape more than you smoked, and why the traditional 5-10 minute "smoke breaks" may not cut it.

Nicotine absorption from electronic cigarette use: comparison between first and new-generation devices : Scientific Reports : Nature Publishing Group

The ECF library is a great resource... to start finding your way to the TRUTH...

The ECF Library | E-Cigarette Forum

 

[Larry J]

As mentioned, the shortness of breath could be a sensitivity to the propylene glycol (PG) in the ejuice OR it could be the vegetable glycerin (VG) that is causing it. If I vape too much with a high VG juice I get a "heavy" feeling in my chest/lungs. If possible, experiment with the PG/VG percentages and see what works best for you. And, as has been mentioned, don't be in a big rush to cut down on the nic level. Your body will tell you when you need to cut back. If you find that a lower level is leaving you with a craving, jump back up to the higher level to keep you from going back to the cigs.

 

[The Ocelot]

As mentioned, the shortness of breath could be a sensitivity to the propylene glycol (PG) in the ejuice OR it could be the vegetable glycerin (VG) that is causing it. If I vape too much with a high VG juice I get a "heavy" feeling in my chest/lungs. If possible, experiment with the PG/VG percentages and see what works best for you. And, as has been mentioned, don't be in a big rush to cut down on the nic level. Your body will tell you when you need to cut back. If you find that a lower level is leaving you with a craving, jump back up to the higher level to keep you from going back to the cigs.

I also get a heavy feeling when the VG level is too high. After experimenting, I found 70PG/30VG is best for me, but this area is trial and error for many people.

 

[ginsingjones]

Use your vape like you would a cigarette. Take 5 or 10 puffs as often as you would smoke. This was how I kicked my cig habit. I started using my vape not often enough and compensated by smoking or craving a cig because I wasn't getting enough nic. Avoid the temptation to use your vape constantly when u r not at work. Also it may be hard to reduce you strength too quickly because you might find yourself using your vape more often to compensate. These are just my opinions

 

[VNeil]

Avoid the temptation to use your vape constantly when u r not at work.

Just curious as to your reasoning. I chain vaped my way to a cig free life

 

[Racehorse]

I think you are making a HUGE mistake by setting arbitrary goals on reducing nicotine strength or vaping frequency. You've probably gotten a lot of propaganda in your head about nicotine.

I kinda disagree.

I started vaping with 2 goals.....to stop smoking cigarettes, and to eventually quit vaping as well.

I'm not at all worried about nicotine. Never was. Never thought it was bad for ya.

Just that I prefer the freedom of not having any kind of dependency i.e. habit that ends up costing me money and time. I can pretty much go without vaping most of the day now, and on the days when I am going to be really busy, it is kinda nice not to have to think about loading up vape gear, making sure i have stuff, etc.

So, when I started vaping, I already knew I was gonna ween down to 0 nic.

I am at 3 or 0 now......didn't want to toss some of my ejuice that was 6 so I cut in 1/2.......so won't be long. Granted, I took my darn sweet time with it Saw no reason to suffer or jones.

OP bought 24mg........and some 18mg.......in the event they feel they can lower it. For some people that is a year, for some a month. for some, only a week. Who knows. It is different for everyone.

But I don't think it's bad to set goals. I don't necessarily agreee with the "let your body tell you" as I have a friend who is battling obesity and her body is telling her she needs more food.

 

[VNeil]

I kinda disagree.

I started vaping with 2 goals.....to stop smoking cigarettes, and to eventually quit vaping as well.

I'm not at all worried about nicotine. Never was. Never thought it was bad for ya.

Just that I prefer the freedom of not having any kind of dependency i.e. habit that ends up costing me money and time. I can pretty much go without vaping most of the day now, and on the days when I am going to be really busy, it is kinda nice not to have to think about loading up vape gear, making sure i have stuff, etc.

So, when I started vaping, I already knew I was gonna ween down to 0 nic.

I am at 3 or 0 now......didn't want to toss some of my ejuice that was 6 so I cut in 1/2.......so won't be long. Granted, I took my darn sweet time with it Saw no reason to suffer or jones.

OP bought 24mg........and some 18mg.......in the event they feel they can lower it. For some people that is a year, for some a month. for some, only a week. Who knows. It is different for everyone.

But I don't think it's bad to set goals. I don't necessarily agreee with the "let your body tell you" as I have a friend who is battling obesity and her body is telling her she needs more food.

My thinking is based on the idea that the success rate for new vapers is maybe 30-35% at best, based on the few numbers I've run across. So I think that keeping to a nic reduction goal is counterproductive *IF* the end result is a relapse and Fail.

And I don't think most people know up front if they will succeed or fail their primary objective of quitting smoking. So the way I see it, job #1 is to get well quit of cigs. Job #2, only down the road can be taming the vaping habit and dealing with the nic.

James (the op) is on his first or second day of vaping. I doubt he KNOWS (as you suggest you did) if he will succeed or Fail. I know I was never sure until I was a couple months totally smoke free. And at that point I was about 4 months into vaping since I was dual using for the first 7 weeks.

 

[ginsingjones]

Just curious as to your reasoning. I chain vaped my way to a cig free life

If his goal Is to stop vaping as well than it might not be the best idea to create a chain vaping habit.

 

[VNeil]

If his goal Is to stop vaping as well than it might not be the best idea to create a chain vaping habit.

If the first goal - quitting smoking - were assured, then that would make a lot of sense. But it isn't assured, which is why my philosophy is not worry about vaping. I see a lot of people here relapsing even while they are worried about cutting back vaping.

Through experience I'm a big believer in our subconscious looking desperately for ways to relapse. The Cigarette Demons mind-screwing with us. One way those demons do that is to add guilt about vaping, in an attempt to get us to relapse. I actually believe that. Having gone through so many quit attempts over the years, with only one working for even the full year now I've gone.

 

[ginsingjones]

Like I said in my original post this is my opinion. I did not post here to argue. My father quit smoking after 50 years of pack a day and he did not need to chain vape. Like I said this is my opinion, I never told James to never chain vape. You have your opinion I have mine end of story. I am done with ECF, every time you speak your mind there is someone trying to tell you that your opinion is wrong.

 

[VNeil]

Like I said in my original post this is my opinion. I did not post here to argue. My father quit smoking after 50 years of pack a day and he did not need to chain vape. Like I said this is my opinion, I never told James to never chain vape. You have your opinion I have mine end of story. I am done with ECF, every time you speak your mind there is someone trying to tell you that your opinion is wrong.

I never said you were wrong. I expanded on the reasoning behind my philosophy. So that people reading this can come to informed decisions.

 

[Racehorse]

every time you speak your mind there is someone trying to tell you that your opinion is wrong.

Try to remember that somebody disagreeing with your opinion doesn't make you wrong.

I disagreed with VNeil, and they with me, but neither of us feels that we tried to make the other person wrong...or at least, i sure didn't feel that way. I see that he/she just has a different way of seeing things.

To me, that is the beauty of a forum of ideas......we get to see how others think and why. Sometimes, I start to see that I agree with somebody on some things, as wel continue to talk. Other time, not, but so what?

The OP needs more than one opinion, then, can make their own decision, right?

you were trying to help in your own way, VNeil in theirs, me in mine..........at least, that's what I see. Don't take it personally because everything you say isn't agreed with.......doesn't make you any more right or wrong than anyone else. Would hate to see you stop posting over that......

There is no right or wrong way, we all do it differently BUT if you NEED to be agreed with then a forum isn't a good place to speak --- looking to be agreed with is not going to work

 

[R2sojr]

Just curious as to your reasoning. I chain vaped my way to a cig free life

He probably stated that cuz maybe the chain vaping is causing it. Everyone reacts different.

 

[Ongeslepen]

I have shortness with breath when i vape a certain liquid. It makes me conclude that there is something in that liquid that causes it. Most, if not all other liquids i do not have this sensation...

At the moment i rule out the pg or vg. I might be wrong, but that is my current thought about it.

I'm actually inclined to think that it contains some kind of bad chemical like diketones or something. But again, it's not even an educated guess. Just a simple uneducated guess.

 

[Stet]

I notice I get shortness of breath with high VG, not as much if it's 80VG/20PG and lower

 

[Bunnykiller]

odd how some people have difficulty with 100 VG and others have issues with hi PG... I do 100VG at 36 nic and have no issues at all... so what can we assume from this? PG/VG ratios are personally dependant. PG sends my sinuses into a complete meltdown along with itchy throat and coughing fits that equal my morning ciggie when I was doing 3 PAD.... once I went to 100VG, the coughing fits quit, the weezing quit, and the flavors were awesome... but thats my experience.... yours may be totally different... along with others who will account on the topic.... find your nirvana thru experience and preferance, do not trust the words of those who feel they know better... not even my words find out for your self, experience life as it unfolds upon you each day, each moment.... eventually you will find your vaping nirvana... it took me 2.5 yrs ( I learn quickly )