Breaking the Dehydration Myth

[bsidb]

3 or 4 good puffs and my mouth is dry so I drink water, I may not be "dehydrated" but im dry and need water so I drink, if I never did drink will I eventually become dehydrated? I don't know, I like water, it does dry you out , vaping, and drinking more water isnt so awful, if i were new to vaping , with all the things envolved in such im likely to be overwhelmed and not notice my dry mouth and throat and a warning of dehydration may be overkill but will serve its purpose, "put your sweater on you'll catch your death"

 

[Jebbn]

I tested it in February/March (cold days) and in my case a lot of vaping affected color ... but some people vape a lot more than others and body reacts different...the same as some people sweat a lot and some appear never sweating... amount of nicotine also matters... as your overall health...

I do not think vaping alone cause dangerous level of dehydration but cumulative causes (drinking a lot of of coffee/tea/soda/alcohol with chain vaping can you get there if you do not increase water consumption...

Your or my experience do not necessarily validate if something is outright BS or myth... I can drink two cups of coffee at 8 PM and I will have no problem falling asleep at 11PM but my wife will not fall asleep whole night... the same is true about blood pressure... caffeine affects my blood pressure much less than my wife's.

Definitely, I agree.
The dehydration aspect has to be tested over a period of time and when all conditions are equal.
No ones got time for that.
I think the whole vaping/dehydration mantra thing is over the top.
Smoking tobacco has a similar effect on saliva as vaping.

 

[stols001]

Maybe it's incorrect, I can't really say. I drink a LOT of fluids anyway so I'm not even sure if, or how much I increased them after I started vaping.

I will say there are other good reasons for more water when starting vaping, the primary one being detox from all the other chemicals in tobacco. I mean it's sort of universally acknowledged that good hydration through detox will sort of speed the process along and that's a good a reason as any to increase water intake when first starting out, as is dry mouth I mean no need to go nuts on it or anything BUT well, there are plenty of good reasons to stay hydrated period, and whether or not the "dries you out" is a myth or not, I'm not entirely certain. I do agree that no one is told to "drink more fluids" when they start smoking cigarettes (unless it's beer or something) but, I do see some reasonable rationale for upping one's fluid intake if necessary or useful and whatever.

I do see folks saying a lot "especially when you are starting out" and perhaps detox would be one reason to do that. Etc.

But, I don't really know enough about it to heartily concur or demur so well, do what seems to suit your body and health and etc., I guess.

Anna

 

[Alter]

My bite at the why am I so parched apple...
I began vaping over 5 years ago, didn't know any better so bought juice blindly from internet vendors. I soon realized how thirsty, not just thirsty but a unquenchable thirst I had. Drinking gallons of water all day then up all night pizzing. I just thought that how it was a vicious circle of constant thirst was a vaping by-product. 2 years went through coddling a water bottle like a tit.
Began DIY, stopped using commercial juice, began blending my own without sweetener so within the first couple weeks I consumed considerably less then less water along with the being totally parched went away. VG is plenty sweet enough for my juices. It didn't take long to get back into consuming normal amounts of water...that was 3 years ago.
My theory....
The excessive sweetness and/or sweeteners of commercial juice coats, dries or masks whatever in your mouth fooling the brain into thinking your thirsty when your really not so the unquenchable thirst begins. Same aspect as drinking a coke...yes its refreshing but 10 minutes later your more thirsty than you were before drinking the coke, the sweet again is fooling the brain.
My mixes are 5-7% flavorings, 60/40 base and 7nic.

 

[Jebbn]

My bite at the why am I so parched apple...
I began vaping over 5 years ago, didn't know any better so bought juice blindly from internet vendors. I soon realized how thirsty, not just thirsty but a unquenchable thirst I had. Drinking gallons of water all day then up all night pizzing. I just thought that how it was a vicious circle of constant thirst was a vaping by-product. 2 years went through coddling a water bottle like a tit.
Began DIY, stopped using commercial juice, began blending my own without sweetener so within the first couple weeks I consumed considerably less then less water along with the being totally parched went away. VG is plenty sweet enough for my juices. It didn't take long to get back into consuming normal amounts of water...that was 3 years ago.
My theory....
The excessive sweetness and/or sweeteners of commercial juice coats, dries or masks whatever in your mouth fooling the brain into thinking your thirsty when your really not so the unquenchable thirst begins. Same aspect as drinking a coke...yes its refreshing but 10 minutes later your more thirsty than you were before drinking the coke, the sweet again is fooling the brain.
My mixes are 5-7% flavorings, 60/40 base and 7nic.

Interesting!!!
I vape unflavoured VG, nic in VG base and 7-15% distilled water. My mouth is never really dry like it was from smoking tobacco or the flavoured store bought juices I started vaping with.

 

[sonicbomb]

The good news - another myth dispelled
The bad news - we are all mouth-breathers.

 

[Dropmyload]

As an ex smoker and having been vaping for 10 months and these are my experiences.

Store bought juice esp 70/30 vg/pg just doesnt work for me. Gives me dry nose and my skin flares up. I have mild psoriasis and it gets worse.The darker the juice, the worse it is for me. Not sure what makes juice dark though.

I found a juice maker who does 80/20 and no sweetener and wow, that really really helps. Nose isnt so dry, skin is fine. His juice is very light in colour and tastes great and no side issues.

I want to DIY but not sure where to get vg here in Kenya. I'd like to do away with pg altogether, wonder if that is possible?

I also end up drinking too much water and having restless nights!

 

[Letitia]

As an ex smoker and having been vaping for 10 months and these are my experiences.

Store bought juice esp 70/30 vg/pg just doesnt work for me. Gives me dry nose and my skin flares up. I have mild psoriasis and it gets worse.The darker the juice, the worse it is for me. Not sure what makes juice dark though.

I found a juice maker who does 80/20 and no sweetener and wow, that really really helps. Nose isnt so dry, skin is fine. His juice is very light in colour and tastes great and no side issues.

I want to DIY but not sure where to get vg here in Kenya. I'd like to do away with pg altogether, wonder if that is possible?

I also end up drinking too much water and having restless nights!

VG is available at pharmacies, amazon, some feed stores. It's available, you may just have to dig a little deeper to find it locally.

 

[sonicbomb]

I want to DIY but not sure where to get vg here in Kenya. I'd like to do away with pg altogether, wonder if that is possible

Once you DIY you will never look back, there are lots of resources here on ECF on how to get started.
I have heard of people ditching PG and using a small amount to distilled water to decrease the viscosity of the VG. If you are DIYing you can then also increase the flavoring percentage to mitigate the reduction in flavor that the PG would normally account for.

 

[Dropmyload]

VG is available at pharmacies, amazon, some feed stores. It's available, you may just have to dig a little deeper to find it locally.

Let me aska round...so its just simple vegetable glycol?

 

[Letitia]

Let me aska round...so its just simple vegetable glycol?

Yes but look for what is your countries equivalent of USP grade.

 

[Rossum]

I'd like to do away with pg altogether, wonder if that is possible?

Sure. You can use a bit of distilled water instead of PG. If you truly want to eliminate all PG, the most difficult part will be finding PG-free flavor concentrates.

Let me aska round...so its just simple vegetable glycol?

Outside vaping circles, VG's correct name is Glycerol, but is commonly referred to simply as Glycerin. You do want the highest purity available.

 

[CMD-Ky]

I use VG and water to reduce viscosity. I read on here once that water is four times as effective as PG in reducing viscosity. I try to shoot for the equivalent of 60VG and 40PG. In my 100 ml mix, I use 90ml VG and 10ml DI water. I had to leave out PG, we did not get along, it becomes very irritating to my mouth.

 

[stols001]

DW water made me happier with my mixes (I am PG sensitive) but depending on how PG sensitive you are, you may have to get VG based flavors. I can tolerate up to about 10% PG so that's what my flavor base is usually at.

You can also (if you can tolerate a bit) get flavorings that are on the stronger side, so you can use less of them.

I have to be honest, DW actually improved my flavoring experience, not just my overall vaping experience (and I was surprised) but I did find that when I started using PEG400 it was a markedly different effect, and it wasn't just how strong or not strong the flavors were, my mostly VG mixes kind of tasted muddier, like, less crisp and clean which is what really made a huge difference. So I'm not entirely sure if it's as simple as increase your flavoring although that is what many max VG folks do (although in the majority of cases, you may also be increasing your PG overall ratio, since most flavors are PG based. I think there are different levels of sensitivity though, so maybe you can play around with it some.

Good luck finding PEG400 though, I mean, maybe it's possible I ordered my first bottle from Amazon, so if you have Amazon you might be able to scare some up. I'd also say do your research first (I did mine and didn't find anything alarming) but I would still say, do your own research for your own comfort and etc.

Anna

 

[MacTechVpr]

considering that we exhale water vapor on a normal basis without vaping, the 66% would be a viable quantity in a total combination ( vaping and normal respiration). Im considering just the adsorbtion of water from vaping alone which constitutes about 40% additional extraction. If you were to measure the water vapor without vaping, it comes to something in the area of 26% per volume of air.
And if you were to condense the water vapor from a non vaping exhale its about .0026 grams of water per breath. In a vaping condition, you would see about .0040 grams of water per breath exhaled. Therefore, 1000 breaths would come to about 2.6 ml of water non vaping and 4.0 grams for vaping. But also consider this... when vaping, one isnt inhaling on every breath so the loss of water is not that intense.
Altho, relative humidity does play an important role in this number, the drier the air, the more evaporation occurs in the lungs and the percentage jumps upwards by about 15% additional. With this in mind, a vaper can loose about 5 ml of fluid in a dry air condition after hitting the vape 1000 times, which comes to about 5 grams or volume wise 5 ml.
5 ml is almost the same as a full teaspoon....

Again, not to differ Bk but to reaffirm…the 66% constitutes the water vapor proportion of vaporized liquid. Not a measure of exhaled vapor.

Don't know enough about the mechanics of VG as a humectant in the lungs to comment further. But I'd think you need mechanical force, e.g. heat, to again aerosolize water from a surface. It's water that's the carrier in our vape, not the minor parts of vg/pg which travel like passengers on a ballon ride. It cools as it's drawn into the lungs with a great part adhering to the air channels along the way before reaching them…by some estimates I've read as much as 90% (you folks hung up on nic levels, you didn't hear that). So how we might get more out than we got in is beyond me.

Perhaps I'm not understanding your point but I do get that we normally exhale a percentage of water vapor. And it very well could be close to 2/3's of vol on exhale when we vape given your percentage. From observation I'd say it's water vapor condensation that's quickly captured by airways. This to me reasonably explains why we exhale no vapor (the visible vg/pg constituents) the longer we hold it in.

Good luck.

 

[Myk]

Note that PG/VG is used in lotions to moisturize, as in it pulls liquid from the air. It is not supposed to pull moisture from your body.
That's always been a conflict that has bugged me about the dehydrating eliquid.

 

[Coyote628]

I never experienced any dehydration from vaping. As far as I'm concerned, it's an urban legend, but I understand people's reaction to things tends to be different, so I've never disputed people who claim the effect exists.

I have gotten a seriously dry mouth at night while sleeping on occasion that im sure vaping caused. I just get up and have some sips of water and got back to sleep. Im talking dry like my tongue felt like a dried up toad in my mouth.

 

[Letitia]

If your sinuses are dried out you'll likely be breathing through your mouth. This happened to me until I started drinking more water. Never did like exhaling vapor through my nose which would have relieved the dryness somewhat.

 

[Coyote628]

If your sinuses are dried out you'll likely be breathing through your mouth. This happened to me until I started drinking more water. Never did like exhaling vapor through my nose which would have relieved the dryness somewhat.

I cant exhale vapor through my nose, its like turnin on a faucet.

 

[DPLongo22]

...one can be totally hydrated and still have a dry mouth.

I knew that.

Learned it back in the 70's.