Vaping and Urine Odor

[FeistyAlice]

Wanted to throw this out to see what people have to say. I just received an email from a new to vaping friend, quoted below. It concerns smell of urine.

I've been vaping over two years and I forget changes I noticed. It is well known that many things we consume can affect urine odor. Occasionally certain parts of day, I will notice a smell that reminds me of smell I used to notice after several hours of heaving smoking and then sleeping for several hours without emptying bladder.

I have to keep extremely hydrated because of two medical conditions so it is extremely rare that I'm not consuming enough liquids to have to empty my bladder every couple of hours, when I can. One condition is congenital urine reflux back into kidneys. This can be a very serious condition and result in loss of kidney(s) if not managed properly (or in some cases surgical repair) so I drink many times more liquid throughout a day and night than even people who think they are keeping well hydrated. Concentrated urine, flowing back into kidneys, is "murder" on kidneys. It's not supposed to work that way.

Friend's email............. well damn............ for some reason I'm not able to copy and paste the excerpt from the email and I'm totally out of time.... so basically he said his urine smells like "musky stank from an hormonal mountain lion." He doesn't think he's dehydrated and he's still smoking some so he doesn't think his smell/taste senses have recovered enough, and only been vaping for three weeks. He did a little research on some forums and found three main answers... 1) dehydration, 2) PG (and perhaps VG), and 3) better sense of smell.

Comments please.

Thanks, Feisty Alice

 

[Rhapsodies Fire]

It's been so long for me, I don't recall either. But I also transitioned to vaping over a 6 month period as opposed to those of you who just made the switch from one to the other. So I can only agree with the answers he got...it could be any of those. Not to mention, there is the question of diet. Some foods and drinks that are consumed can cause changes to urine odor. Medications too...for instance if he's taking something like mucinex for congestion...that makes one's urine smell awful. If it's really alarming and the color and clarity has changed in his urine, perhaps a trip to the doctor might be in order.

 

[TennDave]

I have smelled strong odorous Pee
From my daily intake of coffee
But from vaping, I will not lie
Never smelled, it- I would die!

I would think changing the PG to more VG could impact him....PG seems to be good for leaching out organic substances but not so much VG...that and as Rhaps said, watching his diet. As my silly poem above mentions, from coffee yes, but never noticed any change from vaping...

 

[juicejunky]

I remember noticing the distinctive PG pee smell when I first started vaping. It's still there and two years later with a few regular check up blood/urine tests under my belt, it hasn't affected my health. Color is good, I stay hydrated, so I'm not worried. I pick up all kinds of urine odors now from what I have eaten like fish for example, so part of it must be a heightened sense of smell.

 

[Gioajack]

It's never a good idea to vape asparagus flavored juice.


Jack

 

[redeyedancer]

asparagus will make your urine stink every time e juice not that I no of unless your drinking it to

 

[cags]

oprah once ran to the dr in a panic because her urine was red
she had eaten beets the night before lol

 

[CATastrophe]

What about interaction with medications? That might have bearing. If your friend is taking meds and now vaping, it could affect the odor.

 

[FeistyAlice]

What about interaction with medications? That might have bearing. If your friend is taking meds and now vaping, it could affect the odor.

Meds and vitamins/supplements for sure affect urine odor. He hasn't been taking any meds that I'm a ware of. First week vaping he caught a cold and may have taken something over the counter but knowing him I really doubt he took anything for that even. He does drink a lot of coffee but he's been doing that for years. And he might not be hydrating as much as he needs to.

He told me the percent of VG/PG he's using but I forget exactly. I do know it is mostly VG with only a little PG.

He's not alarmed but curious about it.

Feisty Alice

{edit} I'm occasionally, around persons who always have a liquid of some kind going within easy reach, just as I and refill several times during day and night. They wouldn't think of taking off in the car, even for short run to "corner" store, without refilling their water bottle. On the other end of scale I know some people who seem to never consume liquids after their morning coffee, a very few ounces for lunch and dinner, and a few more (tiny bit) while reading in bed or watching TV before retiring. It's alarming to me.

 

[CATastrophe]

Meds and vitamins/supplements for sure affect urine odor. He hasn't been taking any meds that I'm a ware of. First week vaping he caught a cold and may have taken something over the counter but knowing him I really doubt he took anything for that even. He does drink a lot of coffee but he's been doing that for years. And he might not be hydrating as much as he needs to.

He told me the percent of VG/PG he's using but I forget exactly. I do know it is mostly VG with only a little PG.

He's not alarmed but curious about it.

Feisty Alice

Maybe he's taking an asparagus supplement!

 

[FeistyAlice]

Maybe he's taking an asparagus supplement!

He lives at the Spider Monkey Habitat/Preserve with his Mom/Step Dad. His Mom considers apple cider vinegar to be one of the all round cures for lots of things. He commented to me that when he got a GI upset, as a kid, while the other kids got relatively good tasting Pepto Bismal he had to drink apple cider vinegar. And treatment for sore throat is/was gargling apple cider vinegar.

I normally don't have much odor to my urine no mater what I consume because it is usually so dilute. And it's most often almost colorless. I don't perspire a lot, compared to most people, so I don't lose a lot of bodily fluids that way. I do notice a slight smell similar to analog smoking urine smell, on occasion. Maybe some of the smell is the nicotine part of e-juice. I used to vape 24mg, 6-9 ml a day but I'm now down to 18mg, 3-4 ml a day. Wondering if people who vape very low nic might have less "vape odor" to their urine?

On occasion, in mornings, when I've vaped heavily before going to sleep, without going to bathroom and/or washing hands before sleeping, my hands can have a faint smell almost like cig smoker smell, when I get up in morning. It's been quite a while since I had real cig smell on my hands but from what I can recall the vaping smell has a slight resemblance.

DH commented, the other night, when I was preparing the garlic for his roasted tomatoes, that I should put on gloves or my hands would smell like garlic. Welllllllllllll I like the faint garlic smell on my hands. And I wash my hands so much it doesn't last long. DH wears exam gloves the whole time he's doing any food prep and for so many other things, too. We run through a lot of exam gloves.

Feisty Alice

 

[FeistyAlice]

My friend's Mom has been very into making all kinds of elixirs, tinctures, extracts from plants for the almost 40 years I've know her. She even plants insect repelling plants all over the area they occupy in jungle to reduce the need for any chemicals for environment and for repellants on dog, cats, people. (The spider monkeys are very adversely sensitive to DEET products worn by people so they have a very strict rule about people having any DEET products on when they are near the monkeys.) They do okay with Neem and Picaridin, my mainstay repellent I use year round.

(Around my place when I'm working, for long period of time where there are heavy infestations of ciggars I have to use DEET products or suffer the consequences of hundreds of ciggar bites. Ciggars love me so much I can walk a few steps out to front yard, staying on sidewalk and I will get some ciggar bites certain times of year. They don't like DH. Picaridin works for short exposure but sometimes I just have to use DEET.

Feitsy Alice

Who Wants To Try The Non-DEET Mosquito Repellant? : TreeHugger