Visit to cardiologist

Fantastic!

You know what would be cool, if a bunch of doctors got together and compared notes from their patients who switched to ecigs. I bet we'd see some interesting information.

 

Well done, malkuth! And congrats to your cardiologist for being receptive to the benefits of ecigs.

 

Glad to hear it, I will be visiting my cardiologist in a couple of weeks after a 2x bypass. He told me while I was in CICU that he didn't care if I had nicotine but just not to get it from smoking cigarettes. We will see what he says about me vaping. Not sure if I should tell him I went 6 weeks without analogs and then started up again for a couple of weeks before I went Ecig's .

 

That is wonderful news , it's so nice to hear good new like yours, thanks for posting!

 

congratualtions. I would like to know your cardiologists opinion on the use of nickel, chromium(kanthal wire) as a heat device for producing vapor to inhale into your lungs.

 

A cardiologist won't have any opinion on this because it is outside their speciality in several ways unless they specialise in ecig research (like Dr Farsalinos). I think it unlikely that a pulmonologist would know either, unless they have a particular interest in ecigs; Dr Polosa is one such. You can search his work and see his commentary on this issue.

The basic issue is that the quantities of any contaminants inhaled would be so microscopically small that any implications are unlikely. It might be something like 1ng (one nanogramme) per week or similar. Nickel allergy is a popular topic just now but even so it is hard to see how consumption of amounts probably too small to measure can have any significance, unless you follow the homeopathic line of thinking.

If you require hard data on this then there are a couple of studies, plus Dr Polosa's or Farsalinos' commentary on them. Be careful when examining any study with Talbot among the authors (like one of these studies), they have an agenda and the conclusions may not be realistic (you also need to read Polosa / Farsalinos for a rational judgement).

 

YOU just made me feel better. So basicially the amount of bi product i (could be) or (am) inhaling off a small coil is miniscule compared to what would cause me long term harm. probably get more from everyday breathing

 

My opinion is that concerns of this particular type (metallic particles or silica particles) are over-stated. However you need to take into account:

- This area is completely outside my personal field of experience, so in effect I am arguing from a position of ignorance. (In reality there are very few people indeed whose opinion on this subject is worth anything - probably limited to pulmonary consultants specialising in industrial health issues.)

- There might just possibly be someone somewhere who could be affected by inhalation of unmeasurably small quantities of contaminants of this type.

- All you have to do, if this is an issue that worries you, is fit a filter to your device - it couldn't be much simpler. For example you can drill out the bottom end of a driptip to about 5 or 6mm and insert a small section of RYO cigarette filter, and replace it occasionally. Or, have a driptip made specifically for insertion of a replaceable filter like this.


Basically I am a pragmatist: any risk from vaping is going to be about 1,000th of that from smoking (or lower); risks can be further reduced by a little thought (such as buying the highest quality refill liquids, not the cheapest; using a filter; etc.); and if you have any reason to think you are not an average person in terms of health risks (e.g. family history of a specific illness type or other predisposition) then you could perhaps consider what additional measures you could take to minimise risk.

There are specific health issues with vaping but they are on a minute scale compared to smoking. The two principal ones I can see at this time are:

1. Vaping by a person with lungs severely compromised by smoking. People with emphysema or stage 3 or 4 COPD need to look at their options very closely indeed (emphysema patients commonly develop pneumonia as their resistance is far lower, and vaping may just possibly exacerbate this in some patients).

2. We don't know what the long-term effects of inhaling large quantities of PG, flavourings or possible contaminants are. To say otherwise is a little unrealistic. What we can reasonably estimate is that the risk is far lower than smoking - but there is a risk (unless/until such time as the epidemiology says otherwise - i.e. in about another 20 years). There are ways to reduce the risk from each one of those three components (a drastic example is to only vape unflavoured refills; or perhaps more sensibly, reduce the flavourings to a minimum, of a known issue-free type).

Inhaling materials other than air has a risk, meaning that some will suffer morbidity of some kind as a result. If 30 million smokers switch to vaping, some will die (in addition to those who eventually die as a result of smoking-induced morbidity). The gamble is that it will be a lot less than if everyone smoked; and it's a good bet. It cannot be harmless, is all. There are always going to be ways to reduce risk, in any activity, if that seems important to you.

 

It is interesting to compare the lowest-possible risk options to the highest risk (if there is any, which is not agreed, although it seems logical that risk exists). For example, what would be the highest possible theoretical risk profile? For the sake of amusement you could maybe guess at:

- A gastight metal tubemod with stacked batteries and no electronics
- Using a sub-ohm atty pulling 10 amps plus
- Using the cheapest wick and coil materials
- Using rough fibreglass or silica wicks
- Using no filter
- Inhaling deeply
- Inhaling at all (since you can use an ecig in cigar mode if you want to)
- Vast quantities of vapour produced, with liquid rapidly nebulised in higher volume than with other arrangements
- Consuming more than 10ml of liquid per day
- Use of ultra-high strength nicotine refills
- Use of mainly PG refills
- Use of super high flavouring mixes
- Use of flavourings with known issues, such as buttery flavours, or big throat hit types like chilli or cinnamon
- Buying the cheapest possible e-liquid when it is obvious that there can be no such thing as a good-quality cheap refill (testing is expensive, so by definition it is untested)

It's a fun game - but that's all it is. Smoking is at least 100 times more dangerous. However I believe that by doing the opposite to the above, you can probably reduce your risk to about 10,000 times less than smoking.

 

I saw my cardio guy this past week after I had a cath done a few months ago. I told him I quit smoking and I am vaping. He was glad I quit smoking but had no opinion whatsoever on vaping. I'm kind of surprised how many medical professionals have no idea about vaping besides Steven Dorff. He didn't know you can buy juices in various nic ratings. You'd think since every one of them beats you over the head with the quit smoking routine they'd at least know this kind of product exists and has a pretty high success rate for getting people off cigs.

Anyhow, I told him I quit cigs, but was not doing very well on changing my diet. He said the smoking issue was actually more important in my case.

 

CONGRATS and continued good health!!

 

Great thread. I'm thrilled to see others having similar experiences to my own.

I smoked for well over 40 years and at times, quite heavily (2 to 3 packs a day). I'd been down to less than a pack a day for a few years before surprise bypass surgery. My surgeon and cardiologist both told me that they were fine with vaping as an alternative. On follow-up visits to both, they were very supportive and my surgeon even had some research done and was quite enthusiastic about supporting me. He said he'd like to "recommend" vaping for his patients but was not comfortable with the liability.

His research showed that ecigs were nearly 8 times more likely to prove successful over any other method of quitting AND with many fewer side affects.

 

Good to hear.

I just had my annual last week. My dr was also quite happy I am vaping now exclusively. BP is down, lungs sound great and hope to get off my bp med soon.