I wasn't completely convinced about the safety of e-cigs in the first place, but now I'm pretty sure it's having negative effects on my health.
I'm not in the best physical shape, but health wise I've been pretty resistant to sickness for most of my life. Other than the common cold, or an occasional strep throat (from smoking) in recent years I never get sick. I've rarely seen the doctor, and have never had to take off work due to sickness.
I switched to vaping on June 7th of last year, so it's been about a year. I was able to stay off the stinkies, but to do it I would have to vape at a very high rate. I also found myself more addicted to vaping than I ever was with cigarettes. I mean before I was smoking one every couple of hours, but I didn't smoke at home, so I was only smoking about half a pack a day and closer to a full pack on the weekends. When I switched to e-cigs I was pretty much vaping all day, every day.
Anyways, when I first switched I had the common side effects. I felt like I was getting more acne, and got a canker sore on the inside of my mouth where the vapor used to enter. That went away after a week or two. I posted about it on here originally, and people would just say "oh, it's just your body ridding itself of toxins from smoking."
About 4 months into it, I got my first eye stye. I avoided going to the doctor, and it eventually caused my eye to almost swell shut. It went away after about a week after I was put on antibiotics and drops. A month later, through contamination, I got another stye. Same process and it was gone.
Around that time I also noticed that when I had weekends of heavy vaping out of boredom, I would develop bumps, almost like cold sores on and around my lip area.
So I posted again, and people said oh, you need to clean your drip tips better. So I started doing that pretty much every day. I will admit I think it's gotten a little better, but I do still get acne and occasional bumps around the mouth area.
I actually went to a consultation to get Laser eye surgery done so I wouldn't have to touch my eye as much with contact lenses, but the person refused to do it because of a pimple/cold sore I had from heavy vaping the weekend before. She said I'd have to go on meds for a month, so I said screw it.
About 3 months ago, my cheek started swelling up under my lip and close to my jaw. It started off feeling like a regular pimple, but eventually that side of my face started turning numb. I went to the doctor again, and told me my cheek was infected and put me on antibiotics yet again. After about another week it looked like a regular pimple on my face.
Fast forward to last week and I notice I've got what looks like a pimple on my gums, a little bit under my teeth. It was yellow just like a pimple on your face, but on my lower gum line. I've gargled with mouth wash and gave it time, but it hasn't gone away. At this point, I was pretty tired of going to the urgent care doctor, and just wanted to wait it out, but I can't because......
I developed another stye on my eye last night. That's the 3rd time since November. Going to be my 4th doctor visit since November after not going to one for almost 15 years. The stye isn't huge yet, but I know what one feels like by now and it's definitely swelling up again.
I googled "vaping weakens immune systems" and it looks like studies have actually shown that vaping does actually weaken it. I never had these types of issues when I was a smoker. Articles say that e-cig vapor weakens the body against bacteria, which I feel is causing all these infections all of a sudden.
So yes, I do like breathing better, smelling better, and the vaping is keeping my heart rate elevated, so people constantly have been telling me I'm losing weight even though I don't really exercise that much, but I've come to a vaping crossroads here.
Let this be yet another reason for those vapers that somehow feel entitled to vape inside public places that some of these chemicals are toxic and have side effects. If even 1 person in the world can be affected by second hand vapor, it should be banned from doing inside despite the inconvenience to people.
I'm headed to the doctor yet again today to get some more antibiotics. Don't try to tell me this is a PG/VG allergy again, because allergies don't cause repeated infections to different parts of the body.
Maybe I can keep vaping, but I'm going to have to turn into like a germaphobe or something. I already started trying to wash my hands even more regularly than before. I bought disinfectant wipes for my isticks, remote controls, and keyboard/mouse that I clean from time to time. Dunno if I can do much else.
Thanks for reading. Just wanted to share my experience, and maybe put a stop to these people that are absolutely convinced that vaping is completely safe somehow. I know most of the community isn't ignorant enough to make such statements without long term studies to back it, but I've read some of the threads about people openly vaping in supermarkets, disregarding the health of others, and feeling that they are somehow entitled to do it, that just annoy the crap outta me.
Maybe I'm an isolated case, but there are people like me out there.
I posted this in 2016 in this thread: Starting to smell smoke after years of vaping?
Some of the replies freaked me out and the phantom smoke smell went away eventually though I don't know exactly how. I received some questions from other people so I thought I should follow up on what happened in my situation.
About three years ago I ended up going to the doctor because I couldn't sleep and was referred to a sleep specialist and found out I had sleep apnea. I had a week on their sleep monitor and was told I stopped breathing hundreds (or thousands? can't remember, but a lot!) of times a night and could suffocate and die at any time. Then they wanted me to buy a cpap machine and be hooked up to this thing for the rest of my life, like a pod in The Matrix, and pay for all these supplies regularly. After a week on the cpap machine I was almost suffocated by the machine multiple times and I woke up gasping for air, either because I knocked the mask loose in my sleep or because they said they had to adjust settings over the internet.
I knew the cpap wasn't going to work for me so I took it all back and never went back to the doctor (I was "only" out the $1000 or so for all the testing and what not). From reading about sleep apnea and my own logic, it made sense if I was overweight that my nasal passages and throat could be enlarged also and could be causing my breathing problems. I totally changed my diet and never ate fast food or processed food again and had to cut back to 1500-1700 calories a day to lose about 2-6 lbs of weight a week. I lost almost half of my body weight over the course of 1.5 years and my sleep apnea went away. Over that period I also switched up my vaping hardware and juice so I don't know when the phantom smoke smell disappeared, but it did, and luckily I didn't have brain cancer or anything else some people suggested.
I know weight isn't the only thing that causes sleep apnea, but in my case it did. Now I actually get REM sleep and when I get to bed on time, I'm fully rested. From what the doctors told me, before all this I was being woken constantly trying to breath. I was tired 24 hours a day no matter how much "sleep" I got and would fall asleep just sitting down for a few minutes anywhere. Sometimes I had to pull off the road for a 10 minute nap or risk falling asleep while driving. Driving long distances was misery. Now when I think back I can only describe those years as a walking dream. That's what it felt like being deprived of sleep for years.
It's hard to believe that obstructed breathing wouldn't have contributed to the sense of smell, but it was either that or just switching up my vaping. I believe the weight had something to do with it.
So I heard that the ban in New York will take effect even after the small delay. I'm wondering how I will be able to cope soon. Vaping for me does great things as it keeps me off cigarettes. But one major thing it also does for me is that it lowers my stress level and it relaxes me. Being that I have vaping I have no need to try other things that can be complicated. Someone once told me that my vape is like my pacifier because I always have it in my mouth and I turn to it whenever I am stressed and have anxiety. Truthfully it's terrible that I will be forced to use my pods because Juul couldn't keep their products out of corner stores and leave them for vape shops. When these kids have health issues they blame it on vaping when their parents ask them how it happened and they wanted a high out of school. Even though there is something called deep breathing and vaping isn't done that way I know it cools me off. Many times I was stressed and sweating because, I started to vape and it had it that I was finally able to feel the temperature of the air outside. People need to understand that going with this ban is All Or Nothing thinking, things one is told in therapy to avoid. Now that "it affected a minority" people take it away completely from those who are benefiting from it. Those who are banning - please use common sense - vaping is a lot safer than cigarettes and people are constantly dying from smoke. Vaping was the best thing that has possibly happened in a really long time. Tobbaco plants had a misconception that it was supposed to be smoked until technology introduced a safe method. If it was vaped from the beginning of time people would have lived much longer lives and more people would be born. Those who are cracking down please take this into account.
This is not just a vaping story, but I think vaping is a part of it, so would like to share it.
When I was 57, I was obese and pathetically out of shape. I was about 240 lbs. (height: 5'7") and in a size 40 pants. I was smoking about 3 packs a day at that time.
I had to have my heart and lungs checked for a surgery because if diverticulitis.
The testing revealed that I had COPD, and had the lung capacity of a person with 1 lung. It also revealed that I had had a heart attack at some point.
I survived the surgery, but they informed me that if I did not quit smoking, start exercising, and lose weight, that I would not be around much longer.
After I recovered enough from the surgery I started walking. I could barely walk a single mile at a slow pace before feeling like I was going to die and had to lie down to recover. I kept doing it no matter how bad it felt, and I did it 2, 3, sometimes 4 times per day.
Eventually I could walk 2 miles at a faster pace, then 3 miles, then 5. It started actually feeling good. I got a fitness tracker that monitored my heart rate and pace, and started power walking at least once a day.
I vaped years before but fell off the wagon, so I decided to start vaping again. It took about 6 months to gradually smoke less and vape more until I was just vaping.
Eventually I could not keep my heart rate up enough from just power walking so I started running. I could only run for about 30 seconds at a slow pace at first, but I followed the same process as I did for walking, and worked my way up to being able to run 5 miles non stop.
the beginning of this year I completed a 12 week half marathon training program, and my final run for the program, I ran 13.57 miles.
I just turned 62 this month, have lost about 60 lbs., went from a size 40 to a size 32 pants, and have not smoked a cigarette in going on 3 years now.
My last stress test they told me that my heart had actually healed itself from the heart attack, and that it was strong and healthy now. I also had one of those tests where you blow into the plastic tube to see how strong your lungs are, and when I blew into it, the person said... "wow... you got some healthy lungs".
Also, my resting heart rate went from the high 80's to the mid 50's over the last 5 years. This means my heart is getting stronger because it can pump more blood per beat, and does not have to beat as many times per minute to pump the same amount of blood.
Like I said... this is not just a vaping story, but I think vaping has helped along the way.
I know I'm not a popular user on here like Baditude and all them, been I figured I'd post my story since I've been away.
I've been vaping for the past 9 months, and within the past month, I have unfortunately started to smoke cigarettes again.
In the past I have had problems with depression and anxiety (it started about 3 years ago) and I was on Lexapro and xanax for over a year. Everything was great and I was able to go places and socialize. I stopped taking it a almost 2 years ago thinking I was fine enough to stop. I was, until about 3 weeks ago, all this anxiety started rushing back out of nowhere. It didn't help that I got some sort of flu that was going around but have since recovered from that. At this point, I am afraid to leave my house. I have been having a hell of a time going to work, which was never an issue a month ago. I have had to take time off for the flu and for my anxiety and depression. I broke down at work in front of my boss (not something I'm proud of) and told him I have had these problems in the past and that I need to get back on my Lexapro. So at the beginning of this week, I went to my doctor, which I had a VERY hard time doing as I wanted to pass out and throw up the entire time. She got me back on my meds, but with any kind of anti-depressant it takes a while for it to build up in your system.
I have already taken 4 days off of work, and I'm still afraid to leave my house to do any basic task like going grocery shopping or even just driving (I start to have a panic attack anytime I get stopped at a stop light in traffic.) I'm afraid of losing my job, but I think I can do the FMLA stuff but I'm having doubts on whether what I'm experiencing would allow me to do that. I'll have to read up on what I can do, but I'm just so afraid of losing my job, which would devastate my girlfriend and I know I would get looked down upon by everyone I know. I've been so stressed about it that my body feels my vapes are inadequate and I unfortunately picked up a pack of cigarettes and started smoking again. I'm just so scared right now and I feel like I'm in a rut that I can't get out of.
I know it's not the end of the world, but my mind is telling me that it is, and it's worrying me so bad
I know this is useless for most of you and if the mods want to delete it please do but I am so frustrated with the media and the politicians and I have no outlet for this, so here we are.
I actually have never smoked or vaped (aside from a trial puff here and there), but my wife and mother both have smoked and do vape. I'm on here because I'm the research and order guy.
They switched from smoking to vaping in 2007 almost at the same time, so it's been 12 years for them.
My mom was a smoker for 50ish years, and as a waitress, she was at about 2 packs a day. She's always had fairly good health because she worked on it, but as she got older you could hear the "smoker's cough" develop and just see the symptoms of aging and the early signs of lung issues. One of her sisters has COPD and another died of lung cancer. She swapped to e-cigs and never had a relapse to cigarettes. Within a year the cough was gone. She is 75 and most people think she is in her 50s. She is active and in great health with only mild diabetes (controlled with diet and I think the minimum dose of a pill, no insulin). She has had chest x-rays and a few other exams and they doubt her when she tells them she is an ex-smoker.
My wife has a similar story. Lighter smoker for a shorter time, but same results. Better health, lungs fully healed from smoking. No side effects from vaping.
Oh and my wife's father was a huge smoker and used e-cigs to completely quit smoking/vaping altogether when the pills/patches/gum wouldn't work at all.
Now, they both utilize products from vapor4life.com that resemble cigarettes and use the "light or ultralight" (I wanna say 1.8% or 1.1%... something like that) equivalent nicotine level. They don't have the giant boxes the "kids" use that produce a room full of vape smoke to be edgy and cool. They vape pretty much the same times they'd take a smoke break though I think less often really... I think they take fewer puffs maybe a little more often? I dunno, it's hard to remember since they haven't smoked in 12 years. My wife will hold hers casually hidden in her hand and get a couple puffs during movies and slowly let the vapor escape and NOBODY knows. Not even me sitting next to her.
Their health is so much better. My mom uses a plain nicotine flavor that tastes like her Winston lights did and my wife has a Menthol that tastes close to her Salem Slim Light 100s. Neither were fond of the fun flavors. I got some 0 nicotine grape the first year and puffed on it once in a while and it was neat (not really inhaling, more like a cigar or a pipe) and that was that.
I am so pissed off at the Trumps and the media for their generalized reporting and the banning of products. I'm pissed at the people/kids who use vaping like its a toy and fun hipster trend and got it banned from airplanes and restaurants. I look at my mom who most likely would have died of lung cancer or be on oxygen by now if not for vaping and I just want to punch these people in the face. How can single digit deaths, which I understand was using sketchy products anyway, trigger fear and a ban when the cigarette companies kill MILLIONS and cause cancer (to smokers and people who are adjacent to smokers via 2nd hand smoke) just have to put a warning label on their product?
Anyway, I'm rambling. I don't know where this goes. Maybe it'll spark discussion. Maybe it'll be deleted and I'll be told I'm an idiot. Maybe someone who isn't sure if vaping will help them quit smoking will see three success stories and take a step in the right direction. I dunno...
Fight the good fight people.
I am enjoying vaping soooooooooooooooo much..
I know most of people here are veterans and won't be Soo excited ofc anymore
But man....my first attempt on vaping was in 2014 and for many reasons didn't go well and I was back to cigs...ew
Anyways... now it's being 4.5 months vaping
I started with a drop in coils atomizer and now I use rebuildable also and make my my own e juice ofc and blah blah.blah....
Vaping is soooooo good.....never going back to cigs eeeeeever....actually cigs seem sooo bad now and I hat a hit to remind me what a nasty thing I was smoking all those years....ew
The benefits of vaping are more that u think and u only realise when u start it...
Besides health benefits...that ok some may say vaping is now sooo risk free but I don't care even if was same bad as cigs...even tho I am sure it's not
My sense of taste and smell is much better now....
I can adjust my nicontine levels and lower it and now I have less cravings...(I was crazy smoker)
My hands or facial hair don't smell and they don't get a yellow colour from cig smoke that I had to pull off my skin to remove ...(I was always with a cig on my hand)
Clothes don't smell and I don't feel bad to hug my niece now
My car don't smell cigs....my kitchen don't smell cigs...(I used to smoke to kitchen)
My mouth hygiene and gums is better now confirmed by dentist also...already only 4.5months vaping!!!
I sleep better and wake up better no cough or hard breathing...
In my case I used to skip brushing my teeth sometimes cause in my opinion it would ruin my smoking experience but with vaping I tend to want to brush my teeth after every meal if I can cause I enjoy vaping taste more
I still drink coffee but water is a great match with vaping for me cause it reset the flavour in mouth so I drink less coffees and beverages...
with cigs I was always drinking loooot of coffee or some kind of beverage usually unhealthy cause it used to match with horrible taste of burned paper and tobacco lol
If I needed my nicotine I used to roll a cig and then I was smoking it all ofc...even tho I wanted just a few puffs...with vaping I can take my puff aaaanytime I want as much as I want...
The cost is less even tho some may spend a looooooooooot money hhahaha but if u are a casual vaper is cheaper ....but even if was the same or more still worth it....
P.s I know I don't say anything people here don't already know but just happy excited about vaping and sharing it
I quit smoking and started vaping 6 days ago. Well the problem is I'm getting mouth sores (inside my mouth). Is it from quiting smoking or from vaping? Is there anything I can do to make them go away faster
I was thinking the whole situation in many countries that vaping is straight up banned or illegal....and also countries like USA that is not that extreme but still many regulations going on and anyways we all know the big tobacco companies and what they try to do.
I am sure tho that vaping won't be stoped...u can't stop vaping and all the big tobacco do is to try buy some more time for them cause they know that cigarettes are in their end..
I don't know how long this will last but I am sure vaping will make cigarette smoking obselete and it will go very big...
Europe claims they have a plan to end tobacco use until 2032 or something like that for example....maybe that happens and it would be good cause it's for everyone's good.... but u can't just fight vaping and let smoking still exist...
Vaping will be back and for good....the people slowly start accept it and learn it cause honestly imagine how many smokers are out there and how many vapers...while vaping is much more enjoyable objectively...
We the people didn't support vaping enough...
ok maybe we the vapers did but I mean the majority out there don't......people are scared and they don't like to change their habits easy....even if it's for their own good.
I know politics are corrupted and all that....but some of us live in democracies maybe not perfect but still....if all people wanted to stop smoking and switch into vaping to make their life better then they couldn't stop us...
Worst case they would do it to get votes like they usually do with everything they do... not that they care for us...
So yeah vaping will go very big the next year's..
Today was follow up #2 to my cardiologist. A bit over a year ago my heart got all outta whack from years of bad habits.
Dude blamed it on smoking. So my next logical step was to start vaping.
A follow visit later I showed him my Aspire Rover X30 (w/D22 tank) and he high fived me. Next visit everything was good to go. So he put me on a bi-yearly schedule. This was visit #2.
He came in the room all happy at what an ekg, and other tests showed good signs. He asked if I still smoke and I said yes but while pulling out my vape pod and showed him. "I smoke a lot less now" I said.
He said "keep on vaping and some day you'll stop smoking". Agreed. He said come back in a year and if I'm not smoking anymore he'll pay for the visit. (about $500 total with tests).
Ironically on the way into the facility I had to put out a fire from a cigarette in a landscaped area where the mulch was smoldering.
Anybody else have a doctor who approves of vaping?
This past week marks 5 years since I smoked a cigarette. It honestly doesn't seem that long, it seems like yesterday I was huddled out in the cold at work with the smokers. I had been a smoker for 28 years.
Unlike many I see posting here, I cannot say vaping helped me quit. I quit cold turkey, and never tried an ecig until about a year after I quit smoking. At that point I was still doing well as a non-smoker, I didn't physically crave smoking, but I missed the 28 year habit of lighting up, having something to fiddle with, and just the relaxing feeling of the inhale/exhale. I had been eating a lot more to make up for the void, and having been underweight all my life I started packing on pounds (too many!). I sorely needed a non-food substitute for the comfort I was missing, but wasn't about to go back to smoking.
I tried a junky convenience store ecig after that first year, and thought "if this was what they were like than forget it". I continued on not smoking, but still missing the habit. About two years after that I began seeing the new advanced products coming out, and did a lot of research. I bought my first starter kit in 2013, and slowly advanced up to bigger and better gear.
People ask why would start vaping after I had already kicked the cigarette habit, and I say, "Why not?". Other than nicotine I'm not getting any of the negative things I got with cigarettes. And in my opinion, there's really nothing wrong with a little nicotine. Nicotine is not what was killing me, it was the smoke that was delivering the nicotine that was killing me.
So I'm 5 years smoke free, I no longer hack in the mornings, my chest never hurts and my clothes, car and hair don't stink anymore.
I have no intentions on giving up vaping, as it has no negative impact on my life, and i enjoy it, so why stop?
I have since gotten my son, my step-son, and his wife to all trade vaping for smoking, so bonus points for saving all their lives too!