Side effect of quitting smoking?

[Letooke]

I switched from cigarettes to vape in the middle of December, after 36 years, much of it 2 PAD. I had a NASTY smoker's cough for many years. It went away the first week and I never hacked up anything. Some people do, some don't. Don't worry about it if you don't.

And if you don't cough up all the junk in the lungs left there by the coffin nails, I hope this still means that the nastyness disappears?

 

[FallenRawToast]

As has been said.. WATER!!! HYRDRATE!!!

H2O in your body is the lubricant that allows your poop to move through the bowels. Dont have enough water in your system, and things will slow down.

You really need to up your water intake when you vape, the PG component basically leeches water out of your system.

 

[Rossum]

And if you don't cough up all the junk in the lungs left there by the coffin nails, I hope this still means that the nastyness disappears?

I think so. My lungs feel better than they have in decades.

 

[SmokinRabbit]

I was already suffering a very long-standing borderline case of dehydration, had been fighting leg cramps for years, if not decades. Vaping made the dehydration so bad, it was to the point that it no longer matter how much water I drank, I had severe edema of both ankles, and the bottoms of my feet were so lumpy and tender, I almost could not walk. That was another matter I had to clear up, before I could return to 100% vape only. For me, it took adding coconut water and other high-potassium foods, lots of bananas and canteloupe, a lot MORE water, and decreasing regular table-salt and caffeine quite drastically, to get rid of the "cankles" and the sore feet. so now I still have my coconut water/pineapple juice drinks twice a day, and have remained at about 90% less table-salt (I use my husband's Lite Salt, which is potassium chloride) and 80% less caffeine, and the edema has not returned, although I've been back to vaping-only for 6 wks now. The PG *and* the VG are both hygroscopic, and if the water that they snatch from our mucus membranes is not replaced, there WILL be problems!

Hi Andria,

I actually read your story and post about this very topic... and of course, you know your body. However, I also think you had "the perfect storm" of things happening to you with medical issues, so I truly don't believe it was the PG that was the cause. It may have made an existing problem worse, but for the average person I don't think PG in e-juice is anymore dehydrating than other common hygroscopic or "known to lend themselves to dehydration" food items, like table salt or coffee.

I myself have had some medical issues over the years and seem particularly sensitive to dehydration. I've been hospitalized for it at least three times and even something as simple as a few days of taking Penicillin makes me have to drink more water than usual. However, I'm also notoriously bad at drinking enough fluids... I'm like a camel and can easily go all day with nothing to drink if I don't stay consciously aware of the fact that I have to. My mother is the same way. Most of us just don't drink enough water/fluids and some of us are just more prone to dehydration than others.

I truly don't think PG is anymore a cause than anything else, otherwise you'd have vapers left and right ending up hospitalized. People like you and me may need to be more conscious of the dehydrating qualities of things like salt, soda and even vaping... but most people just won't have to worry about it at all.

 

[AndriaD]

Hi Andria,

I actually read your story and post about this very topic... and of course, you know your body. However, I also think you had "the perfect storm" of things happening to you with medical issues, so I truly don't believe it was the PG that was the cause. It may have made an existing problem worse, but for the average person I don't think PG in e-juice is anymore dehydrating than other common hygroscopic or "known to lend themselves to dehydration" food items, like table salt or coffee.

I myself have had some medical issues over the years and seem particularly sensitive to dehydration. I've been hospitalized for it at least three times and even something as simple as a few days of taking Penicillin makes me have to drink more water than usual. However, I'm also notoriously bad at drinking enough fluids... I'm like a camel and can easily go all day with nothing to drink if I don't stay consciously aware of the fact that I have to. My mother is the same way. Most of us just don't drink enough water/fluids and some of us are just more prone to dehydration than others.

I truly don't think PG is anymore a cause than anything else, otherwise you'd have vapers left and right ending up hospitalized. People like you and me may need to be more conscious of the dehydrating qualities of things like salt, soda and even vaping... but most people just won't have to worry about it at all.

"The perfect storm" is indeed a good description of a lot of what I suffered, but I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that "most won't have to worry at all"... I see a lot of posts around here about this or that symptom, and quite a few of them seem to be associated with dehydration, and I believe that a lot of people are probably the way I was before vaping, borderline-dehydrated, but it's not causing them any particular problems, so they don't worry about it -- when you add vaping into that kind of borderline problem, it goes way past the border into serious-problem territory.

And no, it's not PG specifically... it's both PG and VG, and they're both more hygroscopic than anything else we consume -- nothing else we consume causes us to exhale visible water vapor in a cloud. That visible water vapor is water that up until we inhaled that PG/VG, resided in our bodies, and now is blown out in a visible cloud -- everytime you exhale vapor, a bit more of your body's water goes out into the air instead of staying in your body where it belongs -- nothing else does that to us, so nothing else is nearly as hygroscopic as PG and VG.

But I'm tired of trying to convince others of what has become patently clear to me. Hydrate or don't, I'm not going to argue about it; I'm posting this primarily so that newer users will see it, and perhaps realize that what I'm saying is true, or at least give it some thought and perhaps act on that thought. If a body is not sufficiently hydrated, it will become obvious eventually, in one way or another

Andria

 

[Just Me]

And if you don't cough up all the junk in the lungs left there by the coffin nails, I hope this still means that the nastyness disappears?

Don't know what happens to it. I quit the habit last year after smoking 45 years, ~2PAD for the last 20 or so. I still haven't coughed up anything, either, after 13 months free now. Some do, some don't.

 

[MaraF]

I switched from a pack-a-day to vaping exactly a week ago and YES, I've had the exact same issue. I had heard of it being pretty common for people who quit smoking, but it never occurred to me that it might be anything other than the nicotine itself (which I feel I'm getting about the same levels of). For years I had the same morning routine consisting of black coffee, a cigarette, and a lovely visit to the toilet before work. I too am hoping this is a phase

 

[centurian1]

Don't forget to keep the little room smelling fragrant once you've sorted out your bowel movements.

 

[rdjg22]

It's dehydration, drink more water. Body can't digest and move stuff properly without water and the PG in e-liquid sucks the water out of you.

 

[rdjg22]

Your liver does most of the cleaning of that stuff in your lungs as far as I know, that's why people get kinda sick after quitting even when on a nicotine supplement.

 

[Bunnykiller]

The body does some really weird things to its self.... any "tramatic" occurance to the body can lead to digestive shut down..... and quitting smoking is somewhat tramatic in a sense.... I had broken my leg and things shut down for 5 day, went hiking one time for 11 days at 8000-10000 feet altitude, things shut down then too for 3-4 days.... most of the people I have chatted with who have had major surgerys have mentioned a shut down period also....

 

[Bunnykiller]

I am amazed that the dehydration myth is still going strong.....

think about it.... on average people vape about 3-5ml a day of juice, and if PG "had" the capacity to absorb 100% of its volume of water, that would be 3-5ml of water lost due to vaping on exhale.... approximately the same amount of water that would fill the tank of the atty... and if PG was as aggressive in pulling water from your system when vaping as the myth claims, an open bottle of the stuff would expand to 1000 times its original volume from pulling the moisture from the air..... havent seen it do it yet. And what about all of the food products that have PG in them, why dont those make you dehydrate??

 

[DaveP]

After all that's been said, there's another remedy that works quite well.

 

[DaveP]

I am amazed that the dehydration myth is still going strong.....

think about it.... on average people vape about 3-5ml a day of juice, and if PG "had" the capacity to absorb 100% of its volume of water, that would be 3-5ml of water lost due to vaping on exhale.... approximately the same amount of water that would fill the tank of the atty... and if PG was as aggressive in pulling water from your system when vaping as the myth claims, an open bottle of the stuff would expand to 1000 times its original volume from pulling the moisture from the air..... havent seen it do it yet. And what about all of the food products that have PG in them, why dont those make you dehydrate??

I agree. Vaping dries out your mouth and sinuses. Drinking water restores your upper respiratory system and helps to clear the dryness in the lungs. The rest of the water collects in body tissues and has to leave through the circulatory system and through the kidneys into the bladder and colon. It's the dry mouth syndrome that makes us think our entire body is dehydrated.

The telltale is obtained from looking into the bowl, "If it's yellow, drink more water. If it's clear, you are sufficiently hydrated."

 

[erieboyz]

I searched this topic because I'm a relatively new vaper and am having issues with this as well. It's awesome to see such a supportive cast with a wealth of knowledge. Thank you folks for taking the time to educate others as well as myself.

 

[sofarsogood]

Oatmeal, the greatest breakfast food since the invention of agriculture.