Vaping and Stomach Problems: Does Vaping Make You Bloated?

Whether you’ve used a pharmacy nicotine vaping product (NVP) or otherwise (a vape bought from a grocery or even the tobacconist), you may have found it useful to quitting cigarettes for good.

However, vaping is a different experience than smoking or using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). In fact, you may feel some side effects your first time using it as a part of a smoking cessation programme.

Some reports include stomach issues, bloating and nausea. In fact, some users report having diarrhoea during their first few days under the treatment.

Common symptoms include stomach issues, nausea, and bloating. Some even report severe diarrhoea when they started using vapes.

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In this post, let’s look at the negative effects you might experience making the switch from smoking to vaping, and how vaping can impact the body in various ways.

Can Vaping Cause Gas and Bloating?

The primary cause of gas and bloating (even before vaping) is dehydration.

When you’re dehydrated, meaning you didn’t drink enough water, your body feels gassier and bloated rather than satiated and relaxed.

This condition worsens if you start using vapes as vapour takes up moisture inside your body. Fortunately, upping your water intake should solve this problem quickly.

Make sure you’re also using your vapes in relatively humid areas and not dry rooms. Without moisture, vapour from vapes will feel dry and cause some greatly noticeable discomfort when you use your device. 

Aside from dehydration, another cause of feeling bloated and sick when you use vaping products not from pharmacies is diarrhoea, which can lead to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). 

Can Vaping Cause Diarrhoea?

Nicotine, as a stimulant, can cause reactions in your body. For instance, too much nicotine causes diarrhoea in both vape users and cigarette smokers.

Experts have noted the correlation between high nicotine consumption by regular smokers and the dysbiosis (or imbalance) of ‘friendly’ gut bacteria that reduce the possibility of inflammator bowel disease (IBD).

Any type of NVP, whether from pharmacies or illegal products outside pharmacies, can cause severe diarrhoea if the vape is misued. 

In addition, illegal NVPs sold outside pharmacies, with their uncharacterised chemicals, may cause diarrhoea due to poor manufacturing practices and the absence of any concern for customer safety.

Again, when using NVPs from pharmacies to stop smoking, always keep on hydrating, as it is an important factor in preventing diarrhoea and keeping your stomach and gut in good shape at all times.

Can Vaping Cause Stomach Pain?

Stop-smoking GPs are fully knowledgeable in the possible side effects of high nicotine dosages. They may lower your nicotine dosage to help you throughout your smoking cessation programme.

They will likely recommend you get your prescription vapes from pharmacies instead of outside sources. As mentioned, these are illegal vaping products that can cause severe health problems, such as undeclared irritants used in the manufacturing process.

Recently, journalists have uncovered that many of these NVPs sold outside of pharmacies contain nickel and lead along with other unidentified chemicals that can be dangerous to your stomach and overall health, so avoid them at all costs and only use vapes you can buy through a prescription.

Lastly, any GP will surely ask you to have a full medical checkup before prescribing any NVP to you. While prescriptions aren’t needed for lower-level nicotine products (20mg nicotine or below), GPs may still require it to write a prescription if you ever need to use higher-level NVPs.

Can Vaping Cause Severe Stomach Problems?

It’s a well-known fact that smoking causes stomach problems, but does vaping introduce similar effects to your digestive tract?

To date, there are minimal to no reports of vape products causing stomach problems to former smokers looking to quit. However, a study has shown that nicotine vaping products (NVPs) from sources outside pharmacies can cause inflammation in your gut.

The bottom line is, vaping can potentially cause various stomach problems, unless you’re using NVPs from a pharmacy and are under a GP’s smoking cessation programme, which allows your health professional to monitor your progress and adjust your nicotine dosage accordingly.

Of course, GPs won’t discount the fact that you are allergic to various chemicals from high-quality NVPs, regardless of their purity. When you feel anything out of order in your gastrointestinal system, do not hesitate to ask them for help.

Why Do I Feel Sick After Vaping?

While vaping is safer than smoking, it still contains nicotine, which is relatively harmless in low dosages for smoking cessation but can cause uncomfortable (yet non-lethal) side effects in the body if consumed in large, unmonitored doses.

When consumed at very high volumes outside your GP’s prescription, nicotine can cause your blood pressure to rise, along with your heart rate.

It may also make you dizzy, anxious, or nauseous. Regular smokers can experience the same symptoms with continued tobacco consumption.

If you buy vapes outside a pharmacy, there’s a strong chance that you’re inhaling a product with uncharacterised chemicals potentially dangerous for your body.

It’s worthwhile to remember that there’s a world of difference in the manufacturing quality of both products.

Using NVPs alongside a GP’s prescription and guidance also ensures that all your side effects are monitored, and you have definite ways to relieve yourself of any discomfort throughout hte quitting process. 

How to Stop Stomach Pain from Vaping: Is There a Cure?

Indeed, vaping is the best cure for smoking, but only if it’s under a smoking cessation programme.

Accessing pharmacy vapes for smoking cessation and quitting smoking altogether ensures you won’t feel bloated using vaping for quitting smoking and keeping yourself safe from any side effects and harm with the help of a GP.

Here’s how you can go about it.

Go Through First-Line Solutions First

Some motivated smokers can handle cold turkey just fine and see success within a few tries, but oftentimes, smokers have strong withdrawals that can draw them back to lighting a stick.

That’s where NRT products come in. These are readily available and stocked at your local pharmacy.

NRT products are the most trusted quitting option available for motivated smokers. They might not imitate cigarettes, but they contain a small dose of nicotine that may be enough to alleviate your withdrawals. These come in the form of patches and gums for easy and convenient nicotine delivery.

While NRTs can be effective, they don’t work for everyone. If these haven’t done the trick for you, you may now be eligible for a nicotine prescription to use NVPs

Chat to a GP

As mentioned, NRT products have worked for many successful ex-smokers. But, you might have ingrained behaviours and triggers that only something that mimics a cigarette can successfully address, such as the hand-to-mouth motion, and needing something to use while having a drink with friends. 

That is where NVPs become very handy in helping you fight the urge to consume tobacco.

You need a nicotine prescription before you can purchase NVPs, so you’ll need to consult with a GP to help you on your smoking cessation journey. 

And, if your GP deems it necessary, they can write you a nicotine prescription for NVPs. 

You can chat to your usual GP more about this.

Visit Your Local Pharmacy

Once you have your nicotine prescription, you can pop down to your local pharmacy. Over 2,200 pharmacies across Australia hold these products in-store, but any pharmacy can order these in for you if they don’t currently stock them.

Both your pharmacist and GP can advise you on how best to use the product, such as the initial setup, and the number of puffs to take when you feel withdrawals.

Summary

Vaping is a great tool to help motivated smokers to stop smoking. 

However, if you’ve bought your NVP outside of pharmacies, it may explain why you’re feeling bloated or gassy. Again, buying vapes outside a pharmacy exposes you to unidentified chemicals and large nicotine dosages that aren’t suited to your smoking cessation programme.

Furthermore, you won’t have a GP and pharmacist guiding you through the proper way to use pharmacy-sold NVPs to quit cigarettes.

Your GP and pharmacist have received training that enables them to help you use NVPs to stop smoking for good and not as a substitute for cigarettes.

Therefore, the best way to use vaping for trying to quit smoking with minimal issues is to go through a quit-smoking programme designed by a health professional.

That’s where we come in.

Smokefree Clinic gives you access to many medically reviewed and trustworthy resources that can inform and aid you in your path to wellness, so have a look around! 

If you’re ready to get started, Smokefree can connect you to Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good.

Link Reference:

• https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/nutrition/how-to-beat-the-bloat#:~:text=Your%20body%20needs%20water%20%E2%80%93%20a,eight%2Dounce%20glasses%20a%20day.
• https://keynutrients.com/blogs/learn/does-vaping-cause-dehydration-the-science-and-solutions#:~:text=Some%20common%20indicators%20of%20vaping,that%20it%20needs%20more%20fluids.
• https://ibsguthealthclinic.co.uk/does-vaping-smoking-cause-ibs/
• https://www.beaconschool.co.uk/2023/05/25/vapes-found-with-double-amount-of-lead-and-nickel/#:~:text=In%202023%20vapes%20have%20been,in%20multiple%20e%2Dcigarettes%20brands.
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7841355/