Vaping... High Triglycerides and Cholesterol levels.

[guht]

So I completely stopped smoking a year and a half ago. At the time of quitting I was about a 2 pack a week Marlboro Red smoker. I started vaping the little tootle puffer pens, but progressed pretty quickly to mods. I am now pretty hard core, own several regulated and unregulated mods, build advanced coils, and make my own juice, which is typically high grade 80VG/20PG with 1.5mg of Nic.

I go through about 120ml of juice every 10 days.

I don't really have a family history of heart disease, etc.
My Grandfather had diabetes relatively late in life, and died of some form of cancer in his 70s.
My Grandmother died of some form of cancer in her mid 80s.
My parents are both in late 60s and healthy.
I personally eat fairly health conscious (white meat, fish, vegetables, fruit - probably more red meat than I should, but I am not loading up on empty carbs, drinking tons of soda, etc. I do have a sweet tooth, but I dont indulge it 24/7)
My exercise the last 6 months has been limited, because I recently injured my knee, and subsequently had knee surgery.
I am currently about 15-20lbs heavier than normal weight for me, mainly due to limited exercise from surgery.
I drink 1 16oz low-carb (no sugar) monster in the morning.
I do not drink any alcohol or do any other drugs.

I have been doing an annual exam for last 7-8 years, and the above has all remained relatively consistent. I try to eat well, and go through peaks and valleys of eating well and exercise. Bottom line is I try to be fairly health conscious!!!

My labs in the past have showed elevated triglyceride levels, but always below 200!!!

I just took labs the other day, and I fasted for the requisite 8-10hrs before... No liquids or food other than water, but I DID vape pretty heavily that morning.

My triglycerides came back as 516!!!!!! Extremely elevated, and now obviously my doctor wants to talk to me, and I am concerned when I tell him all the information I gave here, he is going to say STOP THE vaping!!! I have a ton of money invested in vaping, because I enjoy it, and because it has become a hobby for me! I am willing to stop vaping if it means I am not going to STROKE out, but I dont want to stop if it is NOT the cause of the high Triglycerides!

I havent been able to find anything scientific about the above, but I have found lots of other posters wondering the same thing.

IS VAPING CAUSING OR CONTRIBUTING TO HIGH TRIGLYCERIDE LEVELS!?!

 

[KingOhms]

Vapor does not enter your stomach. If it were somehow ingested, I doubt there are many ingredients in it that contain unsaturated fats or any calories period. My guess would be the change in exercise would be responsible, but I am no doctor.

 

[Dom]

i noticed when i vape sometimes, well alot of the time on my kanger subtank i get a hot mist in my mouth. Lately ive been takin hits through my tee shirt. If you are supposed to fast, and an unnoticeable fine mist goes into your mouth, that might be the culprit. Vape through a paper towel to see if your getting ejuice in your mouth. Or retake the test and dont vape before hand. Best of luck.

 

[Completely Average]

My wife is a diabetic. Since she quit smoking and switched to vaping her triglyceride and cholesterol levels have dropped. When she was first diagnosed she was prescribed lisinopril and metformin to control her blood pressure, triglyceride, and cholesterol levels. She's been vaping a year and a half and her doctor recently took her off both medications because she's now maintaining a normal blood pressure and her triglyceride and cholesterol levels are significantly lower and well maintained.

Your higher levels are probably the result of the lack of exercise and weight gain, not the vaping. In fact your Monster drink is probably contributing more to your elevated triglycerides than vaping. Caffeine is really bad for cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood sugar levels.

 

[nyiddle]

i noticed when i vape sometimes, well alot of the time on my kanger subtank i get a hot mist in my mouth. Lately ive been takin hits through my tee shirt. If you are supposed to fast, and an unnoticeable fine mist goes into your mouth, that might be the culprit. Vape through a paper towel to see if your getting ejuice in your mouth. Or retake the test and dont vape before hand. Best of luck.

Sounds like you're experiencing.. Vapor.

Vapor is a hot, fine (damn u fine, gurl) mist. If you blow through a paper towel you'll see wetness because the e-juice is turning back from a vapor into a liquid as it reaches room temp (condensation). This doesn't mean you're getting e-liquid in your mouth, it just means you're.. Well.. Vaping! You'll usually feel if your atomizer is spitting e-liquid back in your mouth, as it's usually hot, and tastes slightly bitter -- if you've ever tried a drop of e-liquid orally (I don't recommend it with juice with nicotine in it) you'll notice the e-juice doesn't taste, when ingested, quite like how it tastes when vaped.

As for OP, it's probably the Monster raising your triglycerides. As @Completely Average said, caffeine is pretty bad for triglyceride/blood sugar/cholesterol. My dad has to steer clear of it for these reasons. I don't see any scientific reason why vaping would contribute to higher triglyceride levels. Even your doctor would probably admit that your vaping likely has no correlation with your triglyceride levels. I'd suggest continuing vaping and trying to eat healthier/avoid the Monster in the morning/throw a little exercise in your routine and see if the levels are lower. If they don't get lower, THEN cut the vaping for a while, see if they lower. If it turns out that there's some relation (and I'm pretty doubtful), then there really should be some scientific studies done to see why this is.

 

[Caro123]

oh dang sometimes being an old biddy is fretful - always be honest with your doc - a doc is not God! a good one will work with you

because life is like that I would ask for a repeat test

 

[kaahn]

This is just my opinion as I am not a doctor. Even the most health conscious people have their health issues. Some even have serious complications and wonder why this happened to me...I thought I was doing everything right. On the flip side, myself included, some are not quite the specimen of health and have virtually no health problems and live long and healthy lives. I wouldn't necessarily attribute your current lab results to vaping. We are all born to die at some point and nothing we do is going to change that outcome. So in my personal opinion Vape on and keep doing what you are doing. Enjoy life to the fullest. Experience everything. It is what life is all about what limited time we have of it. God Bless!

 

[herb]

My triglycerides came back as 516!!!!!!

Holy crap , that is not good , not good at all.

Something seems very wrong here especially if you routinely eat healthy and your #'s went from fine to piss poor that fast. I have known a lot of people that expired ( take it easy , not saying your going to expire but can't say you won't either) , from excessive cholesterol levels .

Definitely get out and walk and make it a daily routine for sure , that will always lower your #'s for the better and you will lose weight as well.

I go through about 120ml of juice every 10 days.

I can't say if your vaping has anything to do with it but i think it would be unwise to completely rule it out , in reality nobody knows with certainty the effects of vaping over the long term , that time will come but it's a long way off.

Hope you figure it out my friend.

 

[Ou2mame]

Quitting smoking has a bad effect on your insulin production and basically puts you into the range of diabetic. The reasoning behind it is that the smoking artificially raised your metabolism so you reduced production of insulin. When you quit smoking it's quite a shock to your system. That's why people gain weight when they quit. It should level off on its own. I don't see how vapor can affect your cholesterol though.

 

[roxynoodle]

I have hereditary high cholesterol and mine hasn't changed at all since I stopped smoking and switched to vaping. That is quite an increase for you though! Maybe they need to rerun that lab work. Mistakes do get made. One time I got lab results that were completely different from my usual ones. They reran them and those came back as expected so I've always thought the lab sent my doctor someone else's results that one time.

 

[Hitcat44]

Not a Doctor nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night but willing to bet the Farm that Vaping (in whole or part thereof) in not the Issue or Root Cause in any way.
None the less, hopes that you/they get that under control quickly with no returns.
All the best.

 

[granolaboy]

I have a diabetic friend that will experience elevated blood sugar levels when having artificial sweeteners, or things that taste sweet, but actually have no sugar in them.

Medically speaking, there is no way their body should be responding with insulin when there is no sugar hitting the bloodstream. But, it seems if the brain perceives it as sweet, it definitely has the ability to tell your body to react as though it actually was sugar, when it isn't.

I don't think this is terribly common, but what do I know...

 

[Alien Traveler]

Vapor does not enter your stomach. If it were somehow ingested, I doubt there are many ingredients in it that contain unsaturated fats or any calories period. My guess would be the change in exercise would be responsible, but I am no doctor.

Juice is digested by lungs.

 

[jseah]

My wife is a diabetic. Since she quit smoking and switched to vaping her triglyceride and cholesterol levels have dropped. When she was first diagnosed she was prescribed lisinopril and metformin to control her blood pressure, triglyceride, and cholesterol levels. She's been vaping a year and a half and her doctor recently took her off both medications because she's now maintaining a normal blood pressure and her triglyceride and cholesterol levels are significantly lower and well maintained.

Your higher levels are probably the result of the lack of exercise and weight gain, not the vaping. In fact your Monster drink is probably contributing more to your elevated triglycerides than vaping. Caffeine is really bad for cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood sugar levels.

I'm really looking forward to my next annual physical scheduled for this October. I drink a lot of cola, eat a lot of red meat. A year and a half ago, my doctor said that my cholesterol was just a bit too high (it measured at 210). At first he suggested taking flax seed oil but that didn't help to lower it so he ended up prescribing me Lipitor. I take one 10 mg tablet daily. I never changed my diet at all and continued to smoke and after taking it for three months, my cholesterol dropped 40 points to 170. Since I've stopped smoking as of the beginning of this year, I wonder what my cholesterol will look like. Maybe I might be able to drop the Lipitor altogether, although my doctor thinks that I genetically just produce more cholesterol.

 

[Alien Traveler]

From my experience: level of triglycerides and cholesterol depends not on what I eat, but how much I eat and how much I exercise. If I gain weight these level will be up. So, could it be that your weight gain is responsible?

As for vaping, then VG (glycerin) is what from triglycerides are made in a body. It is high-calorie food, but has low glycemic index. But I think (and I am not a doctor) that your glycerin consumption by vaping is too low (8 ml a day max) to be of real concern in your case (may be it is of some concern for lung health, but it is completely different story).

 

[RandyF]

Retake the blood test. I have elevated cholesterol and get tested every 6 months, usually clocking in somewhere around 150ish. One time I went in and it had skyrocketed to the same levels you stated. Freaked me out at first, but I went in the next day and they redrew the blood. Followed up a couple days later and it was back to the usual. It really never stopped being usual, they just screwed up the results. Retake it and see if it is still high.

Edit: Also, my numbers didn't fluctuate from when I smoked to when I started vaping, if anything they were just a bit lower. I have been doing the 6 month tests for about the last 5/6 years, been vaping for the past 2 1/2 years.

 

[KingOhms]

So the triglycerides could be absorbed from oxygen saturated blood? Should have though of that.