Something to think about, sort of (don't read too much into this)

[TNT]

I've been vaping since January, and smoke-free for 7 weeks.

A week or go, I started feeling really bad and this week, I went to the doctor. It turned out I was having an "urgent hypertensive crisis," which meant that my blood pressure and pulse were way higher than both normal and my baseline. In other words, understand that I've had occasional high blood pressure and high pulse for over a year now, so this didn't come out of nowhere. But my numbers were unusually serious.

So... I had to mention e-cigs and my history with them.

The doctor said, "I'm familiar enough with e-cigs to say that we don't know much about what the effects are. However, from what little I know, I think your problem might even be worse if you were smoking tobacco."

That's pretty tepid... but interesting nonetheless.

So, "Should I quit the e-cig?"

"Would you start tobacco again if you did?"

"Most likely."

"Stick with the e-cig."

 

[ElProximo]

Yep. Interesting report and I think Doctors have to say something along those lines. They can't say "You should keep Vaping" or "Its good to Vape".
They have a sort of ethical and legal thing here and have to choose words carefully. I'd translate that to say "YES - this is way better than smoking".

Never heard of hyper-something and sorry to hear about it. Hopefully you will get past it and maybe with the new improved lungs you might find yourself improving over time.

Thanks for posting this - yes, interesting stuff!

 

[MissVapor]

What mg are you vaping? Try lowering the mg.

 

[RDZinny]

I agree with MissVapor. When I first started vaping, I found that I had to lower my nic level. Every couple of months, I have managed to lower the level by 1mg--until finally I got down to 0 nic. I don't know what kind of juice you vape but you also might want to try pg/vg mix. PG based juices made me feel really bad too.

 

[TNT]

As for my mg, I don't notice a lot of difference between numbers. Since I was a very heavy smoker of Pall Mall Red 100s for 30 years, I started at 36mg PG. Tried 24, didn't notice a difference. Tried 18, didn't notice a difference. Now, for the last month, it's been 12mg VG.

For ElProximo, my understanding of an "urgent hypertensive crisis" is blood pressure suddenly going up above 180 or so. I have a history of borderlline high blood pressure... enough that I have to get checked frequently but not enough that I need to to take medication. Then suddenly it spiked, with a pulse rate of 109.

Now, I'm not one who thinks that if a) and b) are true, then they must be related. That is, I don't think that since I've never had a blood pressure crisis before, it has to follow that it was caused by starting e-cigs. (I see this in my line of work all the time... "I bought your internet service last month and this morning my computer won't turn on. I refuse to believe there's not a connection.") Still, obviously I felt it was something I had to mention to the doctor, just so she had all the facts.

That's one of the main reasons I posted this. I've read articles posted about people who've developed new disorders, connected that to the fact that they started e-cigs at some fairly recent point, and instantly assume e-cigs have to be the cause. I'm not saying e-cigs are incapable of causing a medical problem -- we still don't know that -- I just wanted to add a story indicating that there's not necessarily a connection.

 

[cookiebun]

How much salt are you ingesting?
I went through the same thing last year while I was still smoking. Started paying attention to the salt content of what I was eating.
Gave up high sodium food and lost 15 lbs in the process. Went to the Dr, smoked 5 analogs on the way there. BP was was 110 over 75 when I got there.

 

[classwife]

That is actually a nice acknowledgement from your doctor....sorry you are having blood pressure trouble....