Electronic cigarettes are undoubtedly much less harmful to health than conventional cigarettes. And when discussing the side effects of vaping, it is important to distinguish between the signs of smoking cessation and the effects of vaping. Let’s discover the small harms that electronic cigarettes can cause while quitting smoking.
Too much e-liquid consumption
Consuming a lot of e-liquid at the start of vaping is quite normal. It takes a little time to find the right dosage without suffering from the lack of nicotine. If you start emptying a bottle in one day and grilling a resistance per week, a problem arises: you vape more e-liquid than you smoke tobacco. To reduce your consumption of liquid for electronic cigarettes, it is then enough to increase the dose of nicotine, so that you have a sufficient nicotine intake to alleviate your needs and your addiction, and finally quit smoking.
A painful hit
The hit is the tingling sensation you feel in your throat each time you inhale e-liquid. If it is very important to help with smoking cessation and transcribe the sensations of classic cigarettes, it can also be too powerful and cause sore throats and irritation. In this case, it is advisable to reduce the nicotine level, but also to increase the value of the resistance (for a tighter airflow), or to choose e-liquids containing nicotine salts, less irritating.
The vaper’s cough
The cough caused after inhaling e-liquid is very different from the cough of a smoker vaping to quit smoking. How do distinguish them? The first appears immediately after an aspiration, while the other is present in the morning and all day. The cough felt by vapers comes from different sources:
- A change of material;
- The first steps in the world of vaping (beginner who wants to quit smoking, or even non-smoker);
- Too much steam;
- Too high a nicotine level;
- A draw that is too airy (value of the resistance to be reviewed);
- An airflow that is too open.
Dry effect
E-cigarette liquids contain propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. If the latter substance does not cause any side effects, propylene glycol (PG) sometimes causes mild dehydration. Do you have a dry mouth? Remember to drink plenty of water, and choose an e-liquid with a lower PG rate.
You should also know that it is possible, but rare, to develop an allergy or intolerance to propylene glycol. In this case, to quit smoking, there are 100% VG e-liquids, with a base that contains only vegetable glycerin.
Too much nicotine
Do you have nausea, headache, dizziness, palpitations, or even abdominal pain? All of these symptoms could be signs of a nicotine overdose. In France, this is practically impossible, since the maximum authorized nicotine dosage is 20 mg/ml, while the lethal dose is between 500 mg and 1 gram.
If this happens to you, it is probably because of the combination of different nicotine substitutes (patch, chewing gum, cigarette, vaporizer, nicotine chewing gum, etc.). Rest assured, the effects of nicotine are harmless and eliminated by the body in 2 hours on average.
A partial loss of taste
Diminished taste, or partial ageusia, is a possible side effect of e-cigarettes. It usually comes from repeated consumption of the same aroma, which tires the taste receptors. Rest assured, this effect is very temporary, and it is often enough to put the taste buds to rest, or to vape, a mint-flavoured e-liquid or in a neutral base, before trying new aromas.
If the list of undesirable effects of electronic cigarettes seems long, they are almost always mild, and are always less serious than the harmful effects and risks of smoking on the body (cancer, cardiovascular disease or respiratory…). For a vape in all serenity, you just have to find the material and the e-liquid that suit you.