Worsening tinnitus - possible PG connection - using VG with Nautilus BVC

[Duchovnik]

I noticed my tinnitus is much sharper and louder since I picked up vaping again. I make 50/50, anything with more than 50% PG makes me sick. So it seems obvious PG is the culprit. I have about a gallon of VG so no big deal - expect for my hardware. I've made high VG juice in the past but every atty had trouble with them. Right now I'm using a Nautilus BVC and using a SmokTech clearo when the Nautilus is drying out after a cleaning.

So my unflavored nic juice is 50/50, means that whatever I mix will have some PG in it until I buy 100% VG juice. I hear the Nautilus can handle VG well but I'm wondering how well? Any ideas. thoughts?

 

[dc99]

I thin my VG about 10%with distilled water. You wont notice the difference except that it wicks better. I tolerate pg in flavorings but It kills me if its above about 20%, which is about the max flavoring anyway.

 

[drunkenbatman]

Heya!

One of the signs of mild nicotine poisoning itself is a ringing in the ears, and people can overinduldge (I've done it) -- and people often don't drink as much water as they need to. However, there's been some research here and there about PG & inner ear stuff:

Ototoxicity of propylene glycol in experimental animals. - PubMed - NCBI
or
Ototoxicity from Ear Drops

My impression is these were basically done with drops into the ear, and a lot will depend on whether the person has a perforation in their ear drum and other things. Normally it hits the outer membrane and second "false" out membrane and no issues -- but if it's affecting yours, cutting down the PG seems wise.

While vapor isn't actual drops of straight PG being into your ear, you are however pumping it through your sinus cavities depending on how you vape and your setup, and could get drainage into it.

I'd also add that there are a ton of unknowns with current setups -- most of the research and knowledge out there isn't taking into account people sucking on 0.5 ohm coils at 50 watts and blasting it through their lungs and sinus cavities.

 

[r77r7r]

There have been a few threads on this over the last few years with no real conclusions... yet.

 

[Duchovnik]

Thanks guys. I guess we'll have to experiment some more and see what happens. I've been vaping a juice I made earlier this evening, diluted only with VG, so it's pretty thick. The Nautilus hasn't given me dry hits yet but I'll keep taking it slow. I'll see about getting distilled water tomorrow, thanks for that.

And it's true the nicotine itself could do it when it crosses over into the toxic levels, but I know that's not the case with me since I nic % is pretty low and the origins of my tinnitus precede vaping anything, I just noticed it gets worse with the vape (but not w/ smoking a pack a day). I had also wondered if dropping analogs so quickly for a low nic juice might have something to do with it. Dunno.

Well see what happens tomorrow when I wake up. If I barely notice the tinnitus then problem solved.

 

[Duchovnik]

My tinnitus has calmed down to what's been "normal" for me for the past year. The juice I made was roughly 80/20 @ 12 mg/ml (my usual nic strength), been using it the past 3 days. I am definitely doing better, especially after dosing myself with GABA, taurine, glycine, tryptophan, magnesium/potassium/calcium, nicotinic acid and other B vitamins this morning.

Since propylene glycol is ototoxic it wouldn't necessarily need to make contact with the inner ear or even sinuses to cause or exacerbate tinnitus. Plenty is absorbed through the body through mouth and lung tissue, and tinnitus from ototoxicity is mostly about nerve damage, inflammation, or overstimulation. I've had some experience with antibiotics and common NSAIDS making me crazy with the ear ringing because many antibiotics and NSAIDS are ototoxic. At the last minute I remembered something in my research about tinnitus earlier last year and double-checked: tinnitus is a known side effect of inhaler use (various ones that use a good amount PG as a solvent for drug delivery to the lungs). Same goes for eye drop solutions containing PG. Eye drops--not a typo.

I hope my statements about ototoxicity and nerve injury don't scare anyone; when caused by a drug, it is frequently reversible by ceasing consumption of the drug. And some people are simply more susceptible in part due to a tendency toward overstimulation, like me, for a variety of reasons, including low GABA and/or serotonin.

People that are getting tinnitus from vaping for whatever reason should take immediate action to find the cause and stop it; the longer you have it, even if it's mild and tolerable for you, the likelier it will mean permanent damage to the auditory nerve. Ear ringing isn't just about an annoying sound, it's also about hearing loss at certain frequencies, something that is strongly associated with tinnitus and ototoxic drugs. And the worst part of it is that there isn't much pharmaceutical interest in finding ways to "cure" tinnitus, so that means less motivation to research tinnitus itself, its various types and causes, and less motivation to research treatments. So if you have tinnitus lingering and have no obvious causes like being near an explosion, your doctors will likely throw up their hands and say "I don't know, I can't help" and you're SOL.

 

[Frenchfry1942]

I have started noticing tinnitus since the start. I was going more to PG for the flavor. I am moving closer to VG (70/30ish) and hoping that will show a difference. Also, I have diabetes that may be influencing things.

 

[Mekupc]

I have tinitus too, and its from vaping because I didnt have it before. when switched to 80 VG juices it got it better and 70 % ofother strange side effects went away.

Now I use drippers and I have just a little bit of tinnitus.

I concluded that when vaping with tank(mounth to lung inhale), vapor is longer in contact with mounth tissue an so have more time to absorb chemicals that causes that sideffects. I read that almost all of the nicotine and other stuff is absorbed trough mounth tissue ant not from lung tissue.

If you have strange side effects use dripper, at least 80 VG juice and try only lung inhales. I know some people who got rid of these sideeffects like that.

Happy vaping