Bigger Clouds, Sub Ohm Coils… More Dehydration!

A Vaping Rx for moderate to heavy Vapers

It’s been a great year for cloud chasing. New tanks in the sub ohm territory delivering more and more vapor, like the Kanger Subtank, the Aspire Atlantis, and the Joyetech Delta 2. This is a good thing, right? Of course it is…with one important caveat; Beware Dehydration.

We all know by now that vaping zaps the water out of your body in ways smoking never could. Vapers know that in order to stay hydrated, and staying hydrated is a must… we must consume more water, or more liquids every day.

My First Article on Dehydration is here.

Vaping in 2012

Shortly after I began vaping I noticed I was thirsty more than usual. At first it was a minor nuisance, then I began to suspect I might be a diabetic (Type 2), and it wasn’t until I was told by someone who has been vaping a lot longer than I had that vaping was the culprit and that I needed to consume more water than usual. Well, I did, and my hydration problems disappeared. A big Thank You goes out to Roger for cluing me in early…

For almost 3 years I never even bothered to think about hydration because I had permanently upped my water intake by two 16oz bottles of Poland Springs each day. The minute I woke up in the morning I would grab a bottle (stashed a case in my bathroom for just such occasions), and drink it down in a matter of half a minute or so. I call this my “half minute drinkdown”. Then it was downstairs for coffee and the usual start of my day. The other “additional” bottle of water was always in the late afternoon. I had given up a can of Diet Dr. Pepper and replaced it with another 16oz bottle of Poland Springs… The rest of the day and night I carried on as I usually did, drinking whatever I wanted, when I wanted, without regard to hydration or anything else, that means mostly Dr. Pepper and sometimes a bottle of water…

Vaping in 2014

Fast-forward to August 2014 and all of a sudden my symptoms of dehydration came back. Alarmed, I made an appointment with my doctor and had myself checked for Type 2 diabetes, it runs in the family so I thought it was just a matter of time. Luckily I have so far escaped this dreaded disease, but I was still thirsty more than usual. And you know… my doctor is well aware of my vaping habits and she never said a word about the effects of vaping and the need for more fluids.

It wasn’t until Tom, Jason, Keira, and myself were having one of our eliquid review discussions that the topic came up. Tom made an offhand remark that since spending a lot more time with these newer tanks he has had to almost double his water intake. From the way he said it I’m sure he thought we all knew the same thing, but we hadn’t even thought about it. The three of us just looked at each other, and I could imagine all of us slapping our foreheads in pointing out the obvious.

After we regained our focus and started paying attention again, Tom went on to tell us all the story of how he came to realize that the vast clouds of vapor that were now the norm had dried out his skin, how he thought he had developed an allergy because he was always scratching his arms and legs, and how easily he became hoarse when speaking to the group.

Not really catching on to what was going on Tom just so happened to start carrying around a bottle of water with him when he knew he was going to talk to people. Not as a way to hydrate himself, but only as a symptom reliever for this hoarse throat. After a couple of weeks he realized that when he did this all of his symptoms abated, albeit for a little while. Then one night, he says, he jumped up from a dead sleep with what was a revelation about this constant thirst… vapor, again!

Tom went on to tell us that he believed he was the last to know about it, so he never mentioned it to us for fear that we would all give him a hard time for “finally catching on”… truth was, he caught on before we did.

Tom Prescription For Cloud Chasing Hydration

We asked Tom how much of an increase in fluid intake he made, and how long it took to see a difference, and all kinds of other questions related to this new dehydration panic, and he set about giving us what he said was his “prescription for cloud chasers”, not that any of us were really cloud chasers.

  1. Recognize the facts – Vapor zaps the moisture out of your body. The more you vape, the more fluids you lose. Know this.
  2. Examine how often you are vaping lower-ohm, higher wattage devices.
  3. Keep track of the increased amount of eliquid you are vaping. This was instantly familiar to us because these new tanks are hungry for ejuice. I can vape a tank full of juice in my Atlantis in less than 2 hours. That’s 4ML at least, several times a day. My “juice use” is almost 12ML a day, 7 days a week, more than double what it was a year ago. (but only half the nicotine)
  4. Increase your “water” intake by twice as much as you did in 2012. Twice as much! For me that meant going from 2 extra bottles a day to 4.

In the normal course of the day I consumed a total of 4 16oz bottles of water and several Dr. Peppers, and 3 or 4 cups of coffee. Now I’m supposed to drink 6 bottles of water and the soda and coffee. Do-able, but not a lot of fun.

  1. If the extra 2 bottles of water doesn’t have an almost immediate affect on our hydration we were to cut back on soda and use water instead. We had to find the balance, and quickly.

After about a month I found my balance. I didn’t want to write about it until I knew I could keep up with it. I mean, come on, adding water to your fluid intake is a lot like a diet, you swear you’re going to do forever and after a few weeks you begin to slip, and then drop it completely. Same with hydrating yourself…

Julia’s Hydration Schedule

For the amount of “new vaping” (vaping with lo-ohm, high wattage) that I was now doing I use the following schedule, every day.

Wake up: Drink a 16oz bottle of water… takes half a minute.

Enjoy my cup of coffee… my ONE cup of coffee.

Work: When I begin working, at home (Boston) in my studio or in Florida at the office, I drink another bottle of water in the “half a minute” style… then I go about my day as usual. Dr. Pepper always in my vicinity and always being sipped, about 4 or 5 cans during the day.

Home: When I get home it’s another bottle of water while going through my snail mail or returning personal calls. Half a minute…

Dinner with Keira: Water instead of Dr. Pepper. Always. Sometimes with lemon, sometimes not… always with ice.

The Evening: If we are staying in and reading or watching TV, it’s a bottle of water on my table, not Dr. Pepper. If we go out to eat, or to a movie, it’s Dr. Pepper, with a water chaser

Bedtime: This is going to be…. ah, delicate…but important, so I won’t leave it out. If Keira and I are, ah, being the married couple we are, it’s two bottles of water before going to sleep. One half a minute bottle, the other a slowly consumed bottle.

If bedtime consists of watching a South Park or Family Guy, (our tradition) it’s a bottle of water, half a minute style, and Dr. Pepper casually.

Weekends: Weekends with Keira is either filled with Studio work or taking adventures in and around Boston “Cruzin’ for Snapz”. In the studio I will always have water on hand, and Dr. Pepper. When I drink water during the weekend it is always the half a minute method, the rest of the time its sipping cans of Dr. Pepper. If we are out cruzin’ for snapz then it is always Dr. Pepper until lunch and dinner, and then it is always water by the glass, consumed slowly, and with ice.

Once I set this schedule up Keira noticed a big difference in the feel of my skin, less dry, more supple, better color. Seeing this Keira jumped on board and began the same regiment, except she prefers Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Keira is a handful of years younger than I am, so I never really noticed dry skin or a change in color (she tans all year round), but she tells me she feels a lot better, and for the both of us we are never feeling dehydrated after vaping, even after a 72-hour marathon review vape.

Hydration Is Vital To Your Health

As safe as vaping is, and it is safer than walking around Boston breathing in taxi and bus fumes, the one thing you can count on is dehydration if you do not alter your fluid intake.

If you notice your skin is dryer than usual, if you notice your voice getting hoarse quickly, or if you seem to be getting frequent headaches you are clearly dehydrated. It’s easy to fix, and once you get used to increasing your fluid intake it becomes second nature, you do it without thinking about it.

For the Ladies: Dry skin from dehydration can leave permanent damage. Your skin will age faster, it will become brittle, itchy, and flaky. Don’t let this happen to you. Drink up!

Julia Hartley-Barnes