coughing

[chris 71]

hi im new hear, im 41 first time i smoked i was 13 so been smoking for a long time, not continuiously but pretty much.
recently i have been wondering about damage i might have caused my lungs. not that im really having any ill health, i consider my self in pretty good shape. anyways i have been reading and learning about vaporizers. everything i have read has raved about how great they are, studies have been done and showed them to be better then smoking. so i went and got myself a mflb, i really enjoy it. the taste is so much better then smoking. and really does make your herb go further. the only thing i dont understand is why it seems to make me cough so much more then smoking.
i have tried different things to offset this i made my own little system to attach it to a bong with aquraium air line hose, works pretty good. and does subside the coughing a bit. but seems to lesson the effects. i also taped a little bit of very thin cotton t-shirt material over the mouth end of the stem. with this i could see the resin material build up and exam it with my fingers. it is different then the resin from smoking more like a thick honey sort of substance. and smelled much better then the smoke resin which normally smells like shit. i also lengthened the stem with a hose attachment in case it was a heat issue. but still it seems to make me cough and irritate my throat much worse then smoking. so anyways this has lead me hear where maybe i can gain any insight into too this
thanks chris

 

[HuskerMath]

From my limited experience, 9 times out of 10, coughing is caused by some slight combustion in the vape. I have no idea why, but if I combust in a vape, I cough 10x more than if I had just smoked the herb, even if there was just a little smoke. That being said, you could try vaping at a lower temp. Other than that, I have no idea. I'm sure some others on here will have further insight.

 

[Stu]

Here is my response to a similar post recently...

five0five said:

Have a question. Please help......How come i cough every hit no matter if i hit slow or fast. What am i doing wrong? When i first got my MFLB I could take monster rips with NO coughing. Now i can't even take little rip without coughing. I am using the same technique now that i used when i first got it..Am i doing something wrong or are my lungs feeling e effects of those monster rips?​

You might want to take a break from the LB for a while. When I first got mine I used it for a couple of months straight and for whatever reason the caughing that it caused sent me to the chiropractor. After a few weeks I was able to hit it on occasion with less irritation. I think it's just too much of a good thing. Unfortunately that good thing makes me cough more than other vapes (I have chronic bronchitis) so I have to rely on my other weapons for daily use.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

also, converting to vaporizing will clear out the lungs from the effects of smoking -- takes several weeks.

 

[HuskerMath]

also, converting to vaporizing will clear out the lungs from the effects of smoking -- takes several weeks.

Well... okay, I'm not a doctor by any means, but this simply is not true. What is in your lungs from smoking will stay there - vaping won't clear it out any more than breathing will. People may begin to feel better after vaping because of the less abuse when compared to smoke, but you certainly aren't "cleaning house."

 

[Stu]

Hippie said that the act of converting (to vaporizing i.e. quitting smoking) will clear the lungs.... not the vapor itself.

 

[Ratm22]

I also just got a MLFB and compared to the others I have tried, it is much harder to control the temp. Thus leading to rough hits and hard coughs from other junk you don't really want. Its definitely effective, but not precise. I might be retiring this one early as I am very picky.

 

[AGBeer]

Personally I attribute the coughing more to the 'throat hit' that vaping has compared to smoking. Of course it tends to get more irritating the closer to combustion you achieve, but...

Keep some refreshment nearby and/or use water filtration. These two will greatly improve your experiences im sure.

 

[VapeVoice]

Just to touch on the lung issue. I am a paramedic, my fiance is a nurse practitioner. When you smoke you cause the little "hairs" in your lungs to stop working. Which is why you get all that hacking after smoking for a long time, its the only way you have to clear out the mucus and gunk cuz those "hairs" arent working. When you stop smoking and start vaping those "hairs" come back to life and start moving all that shit out of your lungs. So yes, your lungs do indeed start to heal and get healthier when you stop smoking and start vaping. Sorry for the laymen's terms but its just easier for people to understand it that way.

 

[weedemon]

it`s a few things.

1. vapor is more pure than smoke, and you know when you get a really good hit off hash or something stronger how you choke on the purity? it could be partly this,

2. the mflb give off warm or even hot vapor. our throats do not like this and it is irritating. (add a whip or even filter through water to fix this.

3. vapor is dry and that also is irritating. I usually have a glass of water on hand when im vapin.

4. there could be combustion happening depending on your technique. I hardly ever combust when im vaping anymore, but when I do it makes me cough for sure!

hope these help

 

[Abysmal Vapor]

There is nothing wrong with coughing unless you are not browsing on FC at the same time.. It gets you monitor very dirty ...

 

[Ratm22]

O yeah Purity Coughs all the way but... I get more purity off higher end vapes and don't cough as much. Or rather its different and I cause my self to cough by holding in the vapor too long. Technique aside I don't want to cough on lots of chem when all I want is the thc. Easier to hold in as well. Which is hard to achieve with manual or analog systems.

 

[hazy]

I think the type of vape has something to do with it. I've been experimenting with different stems on my PD and even that makes a difference. Having said that, I think the most important thing is to take in lots of air while hitting the vape. I really take my time with it and since doing this I almost never feel any irritation.

 

[chris 71]

thanks for all the imput. im still not to sure what to make of it. but it seems im not the only one that has experienced this.
im sure my technique is good i use the pulse method and take in air from outside the box as well as the draw from the box. which should be good enough if it was a heat issue. when compared to the heat that comes through the air passing over the ambers from combustion. i would think the smoke would be hotter? i skimmed over some of the study reports that i stumbled over links too somewhere whiling surfing the web. but am a little confused was actully weed used for the tests or was it some sort of synthetic source of thc. also i remember reading something about some floral fragrance substance in the vapor or something.
i guess what im getting at is when i first found out about vaporizers i thought awesome. i will never have to give up my enjoyment with consuming. and its all most like smoking which is the only way im really interested in ingesting it. dont think i would enjoy eating.
but now after vaping for almost three months im starting to wonder.
is there more to inhalation of vapors that could be just as bad as smoking. could this be one of those things that after a few years, decades whatever. we look back and say hmm.. turns out that it wasent that much better after all.
im wanting to be sold on the health benifits of vaping over smoking. but i listen to my body too, and for some reason my body seems to be saying woah that vapor is harder on the old lungs then the smoke. anyways im no expert. and im not trying to argue for smoking or anything like that i do belive that it is prob better [vaping]. just why the heck is it harsher on me then smoking. just some thoughts running through my head.

 

[djonkoman]

IME, the negative effects you may feel from vapor are more shortterm. like when I'm having a cold and already have a bit of a sore throat, if I vape I will get a sore/dry throat, wich already starts a day before any other symptoms, and stays a day longer too(but I'm also only sick for 1-2 days usually, only clogged nose can last longer)
but it's still bare-able, and it's worth the decrease in headache etc, altough I can barely get high when I'm sick(I used to think I couldn't get high at all untill a friend challenged me to prove the opposite by taking a lot of bonghits wich eventually did get me high, but took a lot more as usual)
but if I combust under the same circumstances, it won't hurt as bad at first, the smoke basically numbs my throat. but after half an hour to an hour, my throat will feel very bad, much worse as vaping could ever make it, and so bad I now never combust while sick anymore, while I do keep vaping(but smaller amounts, just enough to keep away the headache etc)

I also noticed something like you describe between combustion mixed with tobacco vs pure weedcombustion. to me as non-tobaccosmoker and before vaping mostly smoker of pure weed, pure weed combustion feels much smoother to me than mixed with tobacco. tobacco makes me cough easily, pure weed not.
the same aplies t another friend who never smoked tobacco and only ocassionally combusts pure weed trough his pipe
but other friends that are tobaccosmokers and mostly smoke mixed joints say that mixed joints are much smoother to them than pure weed, and pure weed makes a lot of them cough easily

 

[Hippie Dickie]

@chris71 - two new thoughts this morning: (1) the mflb is mostly a conduction vape, rather than using hot air convection to release the thc. maybe that changes the vapor content to include contaminents from inside the leaf due to a fine grind. (2) does the source of your herb make a noticable difference. some growers might use harsh chems.

 

[djonkoman]

yes I hadn't thought of the kind of weed, I once had some weed that was so harsh that vaping it trough the VG was harsher as combustion, even when only getting very little visible vapor. eventually I didn't vape anything from that baggie for a long time, and one day I found it again and ended up mixing it with some of my own harvest to get the harshness down

on the other hand, once I was smoking with a friend, and he had some afghan(weed, not hash), wich was supersmooth, combusted it felt almost as smooth as vapor

 

[Ratm22]

Herb quality is a huge factor when choosing different vapes. Packing a MFLB with some doo-doo brown is a no no. However when comparing vapes I always use the same strand in each to eliminate variables.
You can usually tell when bud has been flushed clean of fertilizer or fast harvested as well. Way harsher hits when the plants not clean.

 

[Troi]

Guys I just want to add some incite about coughing, and this is through my own personal knowledge readup, discussions with respitory therapists, and doctors. Coughing when vaping can be caused by several factors.

(1) dependant on how much of a combuster one was once prior to vaping their may already be damage to the cillia in the lungs, hence even vapor will irritate these damaged little guys and cause you to cough.

(2) When inhaling vapor since its much cleaner, better tasting, and smoother then smoke, one my inhale more then their lungs can hold leading to a coughing mechanism that prevents your lungs from exploding

(3) THC, especially in vapor form, while it does many amazing things to our bodies, its also a known expectorant, meaning it stimulates healthy cilli (the little hairs mentioned about) in the lungs to expel, hence it may cause one to cough even though there lungs are as healthy as it gets, and that they have only taken a small hit. If the thc concentration his high, coughing sometimes can just be inevitable.


Depending on your personal experience, you need to evaluate where your lungs are at at this point, you need ask yourself the question how long have you been inhaling from combustion, switching to vaporizing will for sure be the beginning of a healthier lifestyle but, if you have years built up of smoking you will actually notice a few months of discomfort and hacking once you stop smoking. This is because your lungs will begin to clean themselves,they will collect gunk that has built up and will try to break ti down or have you spit it up in sputum. Usually this process is worst when someone wakes up in the morning.

I'm someone that worked closley with my doctors when switching from smoking to vaporizing, and they reccomend early on that I should mix in some "mucinex" to my mix. Mucinex is an expectorant of its own, but its helps to loosen mucus which aids int he effectiveness of expelling things from the lungs. The only downside of mucinex is that its not exactly friendly to the stomach so for most users they should just drink plenty of water to help dilute the concetration of it in the stomach while its being absorbed. For some people it can cause constipation or even dhiarea, but these are temporary side effects and if your intending to do a mucinex cleansing treatment then these side effects actually subside.

A few other notes of one attempts to tame my mucinex advise, there are several versions of it out there now. My suggestion would be the plain old expectorant Mucinex,not Mucinex DM EM or Whatever else they have come up with, the other version of mucinex just add in chemicles that aid in headaches, and sinus pressure and nasal congestion,and in my opinion really dry you out, especially if your using the mucinext to help yourself clean your lungs out while continuing to vape, one can get parched on one of the more advanced mucinexes especially DM (which includes ephedrine)

The bottom line is when using the mucenex to help expedite your lungs removal of the tar built up by smoking is dont do it daily, take it 2-3 times a week, and when you start to exepel don't hold back, cough as much up as your lungs are pushing up because that is the goal. While this may sound unpleasant or nerve wracking, its actually the best thing you can do for your lungs. Throughout the entire process its important to drink water because as the mucinex thins your mucus it uses hydration in your system to do this, meaning you need to replenish this hydration.

 

[Bouldorado]

im wanting to be sold on the health benifits of vaping over smoking. but i listen to my body too, and for some reason my body seems to be saying woah that vapor is harder on the old lungs then the smoke. anyways im no expert. and im not trying to argue for smoking or anything like that i do belive that it is prob better [vaping]. just why the heck is it harsher on me then smoking. just some thoughts running through my head.

do you still cough up phlegm in the morning? Back when I was a heavier smoker, I would cough up phlegm just about every morning. In the last 6 months, with the increased use of vapes (prob ~90% of the time), I've noticed that the phlegm cough-up has pretty much ceased. Additionally, though I never been a big cougher, I've found that my overall coughing (vaping and smoking) has lessened. This fact alone, tells me vapes are absolutely healthier than bongs/joints/etc

 

[weedemon]

do you still cough up phlegm in the morning? Back when I was a heavier smoker, I would cough up phlegm just about every morning. In the last 6 months, with the increased use of vapes (prob ~90% of the time), I've noticed that the phlegm cough-up has pretty much ceased.

totally +1 to this!

 

[SD_haze]

totally +1 to this!

Same here, daily smoker==> coughing up big phlegm when i woke every morning

After a month or two of only vaping it almost completely subsided, and now after nearly a year of completely switching to vaporizing, its 100% gone (while still vaping daily)

 

[J.R.R.Tokin']

I hadn't thought about it, but your right, I don't cough phlegm any more either.

I do have slight issues with irritation when vaping - probably due to 20 years of combusting - but find that water and smaller hits control it pretty well.

 

[djonkoman]

coughing up plegm sounds pretty serious, luckily it never came that far for me...

 

[chris 71]

coughing up phlegm is a good thing. if you stop coughing it up its bad.
i just read up on the cillia. i was under the impression that after smoking for a while you pretty much kill them off. from what i read though this does happen but sounds like it takes a lot. and if you do damage them to that point your in real troble because they dont do there job any more and stop moving and clearing irritants and particals and crap out of your lungs. by moving phlegm to the upper parts of your pipes enabling you to hack the stuff out. if you stop being able to hack stuff out in the phelgm then serious problems can start chronic obstructed pulminary disease. copd, emphysema, cancer all that bad stuff. so coughing out stuff in phlegm is good. i read that even after as little as 3 days after quitting smoking your cillia start to work much better i guess so long as you havent damaged them beyond repair. i never was a big tobacco smoker although i have smoke cigs. but i dont think i smoked enough to permently kill them. they say pot smoke isint as bad as tobacco smoke.
for my sake i hope thats right. but im not tottaly convinced on that either. anyway to make a longer story shorter.
i just wanted to get to the bottom of the fact that i was experiencing more discomfort through vapor then smoke and that alarmed me. as to wanting to make sure that i infact was doing something better for my health but switching from smoking to vaping. i noticed i was seeing other people wondering simalar questions about simalar experiences so in conclusion maybe i cough less from the smoke because it is actually paralyizing my cillia which in turn stops the coughing untill they wake up again [sort of]. maybe when vaping the cillia are not paralyzed and the irritant from the inhaled vapor makes them do there job and hack that stuff out. in that case its all good i think. but what if its not just that is there any proof that the tars and thc in they vapor dont paralyze the cilla too? and or damage them.
and if this was a problem with inhaling dry air more then anything else. what will long term inhaling dry air on a regular bases do. mybe dry and srival out your cillia or avileio. i guess these questions would be best asked to a doctor. are ther any pot head docs hear lol? anyway i also emailed mflb. and they sent me a very good reply. and im very impressed with them getting back to me in a promt and professional manner. i tried to copy and paste it here but it didnt work any way they suggested to try not using to draw straw at all turns out the smaller diameter of the straw causes a bit of a jet stream of dry or hot vapor in the back of the throat they suggest trying it with out the draw straw so as to eliminate this jet stream so i will try this and see what happens.