Wow... my blood pressure since starting vaping

[eda123]

Hmmm..

Ive always had "decent" BP-- lets say 130/80 type of range, at its highest. Last check was about 2 months ago, and it was in this range.

Then I started vaping. And recently, chain vaping, no stinkies anymore. But vaping 12-16mg nic juice about 6ml a day or so, maybe a bit more.

Today, for the first time ever- it was up around 150/100. Never been that high, ever.

Not sure what to make of this. It could be coincidence, but i tend to think im overdoing it on the nic intake!!

Anyone else have similar experience, and see the BP come back down when backing off on the nic?

 

[Iffy]

Have ya changed your diet recently? Additional stress?

My vaping experience has been quite da opposite. Systolic and diastolic BP dropped 15 points each. O2 absorption level went from 92 to 98.

BTW, I'm 66 years young.

 

[NPTreeBanger]

Definitely makes mine go up -- I don't have a monitor but mine is also 130/80 normally at dr's visits. And I have those frequently from an unrelated physical condition.
Have to control the nicotine intake and treat the vaping more like a ciggy ... take when needed. Probably could decrease the mg of whatever juice you are using too. Also higher wattage and voltage settings will give you more nicotine per hit, try decreasing those maybe just enough to keep it satisfying. Just my suggestions ...

 

[cassandraschild]

My blood pressure went down to 120/68. But everyone's body reacts to quitting smoking differently, and you are still in the initial 3 month phase so your body may do wacky things. If you BP is that high I would recommend buying an automatic blood pressure cuff and testing your BP at home before and after vaping. This way you will know better what's up. Are you consuming more water/liquids since you started vaping?

 

[riseabovethestorm]

I went from stinkies (18mg of nic) to MBV juice (24mg being my preferred strength). When I had my physical for my fight last weekend, the physician doing the test said that I had the most nominal blood pressure of the night. Hah.

 

[bigrf85]

if im not mistaken i think nic has a direct effect on the bp aspect no doctor by a long shot but i think i read that somewhere

 

[CommaHolly]

nic is probably your culprit,,,,,,

get or make some 0mg nic for chain vaping It'll come down,,,,,,

If you've gained weight since quitting smoking, that could also be the culprit.

 

[DetraMental]

Nicotine does cause an acute increase in Blood pressure and heart rate which does come down unless, as posted, there's chain vaping involved.

 

[BillyWJ]

My blood pressure went down to 120/68. But everyone's body reacts to quitting smoking differently, and you are still in the initial 3 month phase so your body may do wacky things. If you BP is that high I would recommend buying an automatic blood pressure cuff and testing your BP at home before and after vaping. This way you will know better what's up. Are you consuming more water/liquids since you started vaping?

Dehydration could be a big culprit. I have pretty decent BP, forget the numbers, but my doc was happy the last time I had it taken. (With the obligatory "it will get better if you stop smoking", heh...). Also, new vapors still have all that gunk in their lungs, so it will take a while for your ability to breath better, which should improve things, too.

I'm at around 6 weeks, and I noticed today my breathing is noticeably better, especially going up stairs. VERY happy!

 

[WileECoyote]

Mine was down the other day at the doc's but I did not vape that morning until I was done. I have a monitor and have taken my pressure before and after. I noticed it jump but settled 30 minutes after my last vape. Blood pressure is a funny thing as well. Did you know if your bladder is full your blood pressure goes up? I learned that doing alot of research on the subject. Blood pressure fluctuates so much that you have to take it for two weeks 4 times a day and then see what your norm or average is. Not a doctor but this is what the internet and my doctor says.

 

[cassandraschild]

Hydration as well as dehydration can be a culprit oddly enough. When we have patients in the hospital who have low blood pressure readings we encourage them to drink more fluids to help raise their BP. Ive also noticed that patients who drink more than their recommended amount of liquids in a day (but I'm talking about people who chug liquids all day), their BP's will also rise. Though I do advocate more hydration to less. Nicotine does raise your blood pressure and heart rate. It is a vasoconstrictor (it makes your blood vessels narrow themselves) which in turn does raise your BP.

If I remember right the recommended amount of fluids for a person who does not exercise is: (using emperical not metric) Your Body weight divided by 2 = how many ounces of liquids you should be intaking each day (though as in all things this does vary person to person). Most meals provide about 20% of that daily requirement.

 

[Rickajho]

Could be anything. Even your seating position - leaning forward and placing pressure on the back of your thighs - can increase a blood pressure reading. Blood pressure is a dynamic thing. One reading doesn't mean much. What will be relevant is your overall pattern of BP readings and that comes with time.

 

[vaperature]

6 ml sounds like a lot to me. Probably lower your nic level if you're going to vape that much. I don't check my blood pressure but I can seay since I started vaping I am a much, much calmer person. I can't stress how much calmer I've been. Perhaps I had low blood pressure which caused me to be irritable and if vaping raises it, perhaps that's a good thing for me. I don't know. I stay away from doctors unless I'm sick.

 

[Sane Asylum]

It could be the nicotine since you're vaping around 6ml a day but despite what all the antz are professing about quitting decreasing blood pressure, there are studies out there that show that smokers quitting have had increases in blood pressure like these two and there are probably more.

Changes in blood pressure and body weight follo... [J Intern Med. 2004] - PubMed - NCBI

Effects of Smoking Cessation on Changes in Blood Pressure and Incidence of Hypertension

Go figure. It could be temporary but it's probably best to cut down on the nicotine and at that pressure, you might want to take it more often to see if it was just a temporary spike.

Good luck.

 

[Grad]

I mentioned it somewhere else, but I have regular bp monitoring by my doctor, and mine has been dropping pretty steadily since I started vaping again. I also take it regularly at home, and I've noticed the same trend (106/63 earlier this evening). But I had been sitting at the table vaping while I was talking to someone (probably vaping more than normal because I wasn't paying attention), and when I took it, it was 134/??. I watch the chain vaping a little more now.

 

[patkin]

My BP was 120/70 most of my life until I started smoking 2PAD. Then it went to 145/90 +or- a bit on both and it was time for meds. I didn't know until I started vaping that smoking was the cause. I thought it just came with old age. All the medical people told me to quit smoking but never told me because of blood pressure. A couple of months after starting to vape and decreasing smokes to 5 or 6 a day it went back to my usual 120/70. I've been vaping a bit over a year now and it hovers between 115/65 and 120/70 (complete 10 rest at home before taking is 105/65 though) and I've vaped 24mg without much increase unless I get so much nic my heart pounds. Personally, I think its the lack of oxygen in the blood and increased heart rate trying to get what there is to tissues that cause high BP smoking. I know smoking too much causes decreased oxygen because right before I started vaping I was taken to the ER and hospitalized with oxygen saturation of 60 and they said I was very close to heart attack time. That scared me enough to start vaping. They don't let you leave the hospital until your saturation is over 90.

Are your lungs or bronchial(s) congested? Do you have a cold? Does your heart pound? If so you could be short on oxygen. I've had one spell of congestion since vaping and that was due to too high a VG content. Bronchial(s) start returning to normal size after smoking cessation or cutting way down from heavy smoking. Smoking stretched them to accommodate all the gunk and mucous. For me that was for over 55 years so going back to normal size was quite a deal. Vapor from VG was too thick and heavy for my new lungs... between the new size and all the cilia waking up... well, something had to give so bye bye VG. The usual disclaimer: I'm not a doc. If your BP stays high enough to concern you, you should see one.

 

[eda123]

Well, update on my OP;

I stopped vaping about 5pm. I went to the drug store later in the evening (7pm), and it was still high. I then continued to NOT vape, and went back at 8am this AM and rechecked it.

124/81!!

So there does seem to be some correlation, but it is hard to say with certainty. Im gonna buy a home blood pressure monitor and see how it does when i dont treat this damn PV like its my oxygen supply and cut back a little bit.

 

[burtonsnowww]

6ml of 12-16mg nicotine does seem like pretty much to me also. if you want to vape that much i would suggest vaping only 6mg of nicotine. im sure you would see a great improvement.

 

[YKruss]

One of the biggest sources of stress on the heart from smoking analogs is the carbon monoxide it adds to your blood.
CO binds to hemoglobin and reduces the blood oxygen carrying capacity, and your heart has to work harder and harder.
Unfortunately, because CO binds to hemoglobin irreversibly, you have to wait 2-5 years for your body to make all new blood.
That's not really a blood pressure issue, but it's another heart stress issue that is gradually improving for us all as we quit/reduce analogs.

It's also worth considering that blood pressure is one of those indicators that is really sensitive to a lot of things: it can be raised by dietary salt, stress, sleep deprivation, weight gain (even minor gain!), other medications you are taking (including common ones like the birth control pill), reduced athletic activity, caffeine intake, hormonal changes, other underlying conditions......and surely more that I don't know.

Nicotine =/= huge cardiovascular risks. It is nicotine in combination with SMOKE (and especially the resulting carbon monoxide) that causes all the harm. Here are a few resources on this topic.

And from Harm Reduction Journal : HRJ | Full text | Tobacco harm reduction: an alternative cessation strategy for inveterate smokers

"Over the past 15 years, eight epidemiologic studies have examined the risk of cardiovascular diseases among ST users. Six of the studies found that ST users had no increased risk for heart attacks or strokes [47,90,97-100] . The other two reported modestly positive associations, with ST users having RRs of 1.2 and 1.4 [92,101] , which are lower than those of smokers. In 2003, Asplund completed a comprehensive review of the cardiovascular effects of ST use [102] . He concluded that, in distinct contrast to smokers, ST users do not exhibit any significant differences from nonusers of tobacco with regard to the following measures of cardiovascular health: heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac output and maximal working capacity, levels of hemoglobin and hematocrit, leukocytes, antioxidant vitamins, fibrinogen, components of the fibrinolytic system, C-reactive protein and thromboxane A2 production. In addition, ST users did not show important smoking-associated vascular changes, including increased thickness of blood vessels and atherosclerotic plaque development. In summary, most of the medical and epidemiologic evidence documents that ST users do not have elevated risks for cardiovascular diseases."

 

[patkin]

Well, update on my OP;

I stopped vaping about 5pm. I went to the drug store later in the evening (7pm), and it was still high. I then continued to NOT vape, and went back at 8am this AM and rechecked it.

124/81!!

So there does seem to be some correlation, but it is hard to say with certainty. Im gonna buy a home blood pressure monitor and see how it does when i dont treat this damn PV like its my oxygen supply and cut back a little bit.

Good idea getting a monitor. I'm sure you'll read a version of this in the instruction. BP is supposed to be "resting" and that means seated with feet flat on the floor, no body pressure points like holding anything on your lap, cuff even with heart, and QUIET. It just is not possible to get an accurate reading in a store with just the noise alone. You will learn with a home cuff that even a dog barking can mess up the "resting" reading. This is why, in my above post, I gave what my reading is in the docs office compared to home. Even the docs don't use those reading when making decisions like meds. They send you home with a monitor for a couple of weeks to get resting readings. Best of luck to you and, again, you should see a doc. Don't just assume any BP problem is from vaping as I seriously doubt it is other than a very temporal (like an hour) change.